Monday Post ~ April 11, 2011
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”
~Anne Lamott
What creative work would you like to accomplish this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic task or a milestone to reach for. Share your goal(s) as a comment to this post, and let us know how things went with your creative plans for last week, if you posted to last week’s Monday Post.
Suggestion: When you’re deciding on your creative intentions, it’s a good idea to think about WHEN you’re going to write those 2,000 words or paint that canvas. Try to schedule the time slots in your calendar (if you keep one), understanding that flexibility may be required. If things don’t happen when you wanted them to, that’s OK. Give yourself a gentle push with one hand, but pat yourself kindly on the shoulder with the other if you don’t reach your goal for a given week. Sometimes it’s easier, sometimes it’s harder. Ride whatever you’ve got.
It’s also useful to have a sense of your minimum requirements (come hell or high water I’m going to write 100 words) while keeping a lookout for sudden opportunities to do more. You know, the day that the baby takes a monster nap or your partner takes the kids out to run errands and you find yourself with an unexpected “extra” half hour. Grab that time for yourself. You can catch up on the dishes and the laundry later. If you keep something creative in the back of your mind for those sudden opportunities, you’ll be more likely to use them to your advantage — rather than squandering your precious bonus moments on Facebook or vacuuming out the sofa cushions.
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 
last week was a writing bust due to kids on spring break. i found it very freeing to just ‘let the writing go’ i accomplished much more around the house and got out wit the kids.
this week’s goal and plan: i asked grandma to take toots with her to the Y (they have a kidwatch area that is preschool-like) in the mornings toots is not in preschool and pick her up on preschool days. she agreed to it! today i will clean my desk, prepost a couple of blogs and revisit the manuscript for the first time in too long. tomorrow, writing group! we always writing for 3 hours, lunch and talk progress – 2 tues/month. the rest of the week, i plan to take manuscript and laptop to the local library in the mornings and work until the boys start arriving from school. Goal is to be finished with this draft by Friday, Print, read it through for typos, etc and SEND IT OUT by the end of next week. I am only 30 days behind my new year’s resolution if i stick to the above plan, which is enormous progress for me.
good luck on your goals, everyone else!
please pardon sentence structures above, i’m in my first cuppa joe.
Nice work, Cathy! Creating that extra time on the off mornings will be huge. You are totally on track to meet your “send it out” goal.
My goals for lat week: The things on my list are largely in support of my creativity, not pure creativity per se. Begin to return my Life Assessment responses (I’d like to get to at least five of them), knock off a writing assignment for CCA, write my CCA profile, begin drafting newsletter. Continue reading Jennifer Lee’s Right Brain Business Plan (and complete a few more of the exercises). And the regular slew: homework, coaching, Project Life, journaling, reading. Spring fever, take me away!
Outcome: Did a ton of writing and finished my Right-Brain Business Plan vision board collage and value cards, which were SO much fun, and highly creative (I am LOVING that book.) I did my CCA homework and coaching, finished my CCA profile. My second class started, so now that I am in two classes at once I am even shorter on time for my to-do list. Didn’t get to my Project Life weekly update, and more importantly, did not get to a single Life Assessment response — I really, really want to make time for those this week — they are calling to me. Also working with designer on logo for new biz. Newsletter deadline is looming. We have a birthday at our house on Friday and lots of appointments this week, so I will need to be ultra organized and distraction-free in order to plow through my mini mountain.
need to proposal done and out by WED.
SOnya.. that sounds fab.. you writing a book? You get a book deal? How exciting.. something I’ve always wanted to do ! I’ll be busy this week working on my new website, soon to be unveiled in the next month or two! Lots to do!
Last week’s goals:
-plan my son’s 4th birthday party
-create the second image in my Music photo card series
-play my guitar
-call my voice teacher to ask about resuming lessons
-read my camera manual section on metering
-finish one of the articles I have in progress
It was a super productive week, and I got everything done except calling my voice teacher. For this week:
-play guitar
-create 3rd image in Music series
-continue working through 12 Secrets for Highly Creative Women
-start organizing image files on computer
-write and submit one article
-get ready for Fairy photo shoot this weekend