In today’s segment of Top of Mind, I examine how intrusive outside influences and opinions are while exercising your creative process. When you are left alone to indulge in your creative process—a process that makes you happy or fulfilled—it feels like you’re performing a beautiful dance. Every idea and action flows into the next with grace and harmony; every step brings you closer to a finished product. Mentally, it is a magical space to be in. It is so beautiful, in fact, that it feels like the world outside of your focus stops turning. However, when you break your focus by getting caught up in what someone said, what you can or can’t do, or what someone else thinks your show should be, it completely interrupts the dance. The way I describe it - focusing on anything else other than your process is like placing spikes one by one on your dance floor. With the added obstacles, it is impossible to lose yourself in the dance; you’re always focused on watching where your feet step instead of losing yourself in the motions. To let something else interrupt YOUR dance is a huge disservice to yourself and strips away the magical feeling out of the equation. Make sure your dance floor is an empty space where you are free to focus and create; keep the spikes off of it.