Exercises 6 to 10: 5 more ways to end overwhelm & find your joy again as a creative
So this is the 2nd in 4 part podcast series – with 5 more standalone exercises each that are practical, doable, bite-able. So start here! No need to go back to last weeks ;)
If you have hope in your heart you will have more grit, more persistence, more ability to overcome the challenges of making your work.
That hope, that taking a step each day forward is vital at every stage. From the incubation period of ‘ I have this idea’ to research, to the technical decisions such as ‘what is my medium for this, film, novel, song, gallery exhibition’ and so what do I need to learn, produce, budget for, market, finish, oh and how do I sell my finished product?!!!
So this is a 4 part podcast series – with 5 exercises each that are practical, doable, bite-able.
Try one at a time, for a week at least – ideally minimum 21 days and if you can try for 100 days each then the new habit will get into your DNA.
6) Create a Cheerleading Group:
Get a group of like-minded people, I think a group of 2 or 3 max, ideally in different work fields than you are. Agree to meet once a week, either virtually or in person, and each or all three of you have 5 minutes to say what you achieved in the last week, 5 minutes what you are going to achieve in the next week which you will report back on, and I will allow 5 minutes to say what you are struggling with, for their feedback and input.
It is for both or all three of you to both cheer and be cheered, to be that baton flying, puffball shaking cheerleader yelling ‘G O, Y O U!” If you want to dress up as cheerleaders for your weekly cheer then go for it. I suggest you commit for a 4 week initial period max and then you can both agree to keep on going if it works for both of you.
Tips:
Don’t interrupt and listen fully to the person being ‘cheered’
Consider texting in the week when you manage to win and achieve goals
Dress up like a cheerleader
7) Get learning about a particular artist, creative wonder or legend
It can be an actor, a filmmaker, a sculptor, a writer. It can be modern day or even go back to the Greeks. Spend one week on them and see what they have written, their work, how they feel about their work, with say a minimum 30 minutes each day learning. If they are a musician or group, listen to all their albums from the first to their last, read their very first and their last novel or film, look at how their art has changed.
Also look and see what you can find about them in terms of how they tackled life as an artist and also living as a human, the struggles they had.
Tips:
Watch/read/listen to their very first and last works.
Explore what is considered their ‘best’ work and their ‘worst”
See how their work has changed over their career
Read where you can on how they dealt with the struggles of their life, personal and career.
Did they have kids or not, married or not, how did they balance home life and creativity?
How did they fund their careers, did it change, did they have sponsors, a second job?
When your back is against the wall you will be inspired by them, their stories will imprint on you
Learn about very different fields will teach you on different approaches: –
Science – Isaac Newton did more to move our understanding of the world than anyone, he also was a hermit
Mathematician - Paul Erdős – he would turn up at other mathematicians houses and demand to do maths. The Erdos number is a very famous maths equivalent of the Kevin Bacon – 6 degrees of separation.. the smaller your number the more likely you are to have won a Nobel prize for Maths!
Nina Simone – her political and personal struggles whilst making incredible music
Clara Schuman - more famous than her husband when they married as a concert pianist, she struggled with many kids, Schumann’s mental health issues and she kept creating and playing whilst keeping the house and finances together.
Rudolf Nureyev – even in a world where they expect excellence, the other ballet stars were amazed by his work ethic. Plus of course his defection from Russia so he could dance his dreams.
8) Exercise:
Yes I know you don’t want to hear this but daily heart rate raising exercise is vital. Most people’s normal level of activity from the gym, swimming, even walking to work have been hugely disrupted with lockdown, including mine.
There is a great book called Spark by Dr John Ratey, if you google it there is even a video with some of the takeaways.
Basically daily exercise helps :
your brain grow,
helps willpower,
helps your mood,
Students who exercised before a language lesson retained an extra 25% of vocabulary!
Starting is the hardest thing so I suggest you get a friend and agree to text each other when you have done your days training. There are so many home workouts you can follow that finances are not an opt-out.
Just do it.
Daily.
Ideally in the morning before work.
Disadvantages;
-Make sure you start safely, be aware of your own capabilities, be wise.
- It will make you glow, people will flirt, you will feel fierce
Make it a Non-negotiable
9) Give yourself the gift of hope, joy and respecting your dream by creating a routine.
As an artist we often have large portions of time, and not strict routines. If we have a day job then that is the routine we work to. I find having large swathes of ‘creative time’ is a great excuse to procrastinate. So determine to be ‘at your desk’ at a set time eg 9am every day Monday to Friday for a month.
At your desk might mean practising your guitar, or learning a new technique.
Steven Pressfield in his brilliant book ‘The War of Art’ argues very successfully that we have to be like a martial artist, getting up and working on our craft every day. I say 9am but I often am up far earlier than that if I am not touring.
If you have a day job that pays the bills try getting up an hour earlier than you need so you can work on your ‘creative work’ and use that morning energy on what is most important to do, creating your work.
It is too easy to let money bringing activities overtake the importance of creation to the exclusion of all, get a healthy workable balance.
Read Twyla Tharp’s ‘This Creative Habit’
Use your morning energy well on your creative.
10) Create your own alter ego.
I have been touring as a cabaret artist for nearly 20 years now and seen the incredible shows and characters that many artists across the world create.
Apparently the term for me is a ‘bio queen’ as I have created characters The Singing Psychic, Queen Of The F*cking World plus others I created are extensions of me but definitely are not me.
Drag queens of course talk of their drag personas in the third person and I have always done that. The Singing Psychic is ‘she ‘ to me. Now you don’t have to take it as far as I have, touring the world and creating shows as these characters but if you did …
Create an alter ego what would that look like? From a bio queen to a drag queen or even a drag king.
Write down how they would look, how they sound, their dress, their situation, how they would respond.
What situation would you put them in?
What are their home lives and sexual relations like?
What are they particularly fierce at?
What is their point of view?
What do they really want?
Now you can take this all the way to an Instagram feed, or a novel or just have it in a notebook.
I suggest you spend a month thinking and writing about them, maybe ten minutes a day. It is fun and it will free you up.
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I am creating a toolkit with all 20 exercises in with further questions to really move you forward and giving it as a gift to everyone for the next two months – til November 18th 2020- to help you move your creative projects forward and get you loving your creativity again. If you would like a copy of this then either email me with the subject TOOLKIT to
[email protected]
Or go to www.loveyourcreativity.com and pop your email into the pop up and you will get the toolkit and checklist questions. I am getting this set up currently so any issues just email me
Aims of this podcast
I sometimes only seem to create when I have to create, under pressure or deadlines and then I moan about the rush. Ridiculous when I think about the fact I have chosen this creative life, or it has chosen me and I must follow my muse – often grumpily it seems! Or I do nothing and then feel guilty as I watch friends get with their own projects. Hence this podcast is about what techniques we can all use to get the work done and out there, no matter where you work full time as an actor, a choreographer or have a yearning to paint more over the weekends. I have been a creator of shows for nearly 20 years now, I have made every mistake going, met incredible people along the way and now am a world touring working creative still working at my craft.
About me, Marysia Trembecka
I am at heart a storyteller and this has translated from the initial creation of work to being a performer, including film and theatre acting, writing and performing international touring comedy shows to MCing.
Highlights include sell-out Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe shows, singing at the Royal Festival Hall in 23 different languages, as well as doing TEDx talks and corporate gigs, such as the Brit Awards Afterparty at the 02 as my ‘The Singing Psychic’ bio queen character.
My ‘THE SINGING PSYCHIC’ who ‘reads the songs in your heart’ also has a GAME SHOW version, and was a finalist in Best Show, Funny Women in 2016, I have also produced five webseries as the character including my 23 episode SONGS OF BREXIT webseries I made for the June 2016 EU Referendum, on the pros and cons of the EU
I also was awarded Arts Council funding for research on a solo show on how we are all judged by our sexuality, From this I then created another character ‘Queen Of The F*cking World’ which has also toured internationally
My film acting credits are on IMDB.