Creative Growth: Why Your Creative Growth Is As Unstoppable As A Mighty Oak Tree’s

It can seem frustrating at times to get any measure of how you’re progressing as an artist and as a person – or if you’re progressing at all.

Yes, a large part of why any of us create is for the enjoyment of it. But a vital element to keeping your inspiration high and your motivation as fresh as a the first day of Spring is to feel that you’re an evolving artist too.

None of us want to become like a factory production line churning out the same stories, the same pictures, the same sculptures time and time again, stuck in a loop of groundhog days with our creativity steadily diminishing a little more with each one.

The trouble is though, even as you evolve, because you’re so close to yourself you don’t have much objectivity about how much you’re creating and how you’re developing with each and every creative project you work on.

So you start to believe you’re not evolving at all, become despondent and give up.

Although it’s easy to fall into this way of thinking, really it’s like sitting in front of an oak tree, staring at it for a couple of hours, then claiming that because you haven’t seen its trunk expand, it must be dead.

If you looked inside at a cross section of the oak’s trunk though, you’d see many rings, eachmarking a significant stage of its growth, each a landmark of its life etched into its very core.

Because the change and the growth is steady and incremental, it’s impossible to see this by looking at the oak from the outside for just a couple of hours.

It’s the same with your creativity. If you don’t track the landmarks in your creative life – like the history of the oak tree’s growth can be tracked through the rings in its core – you’ll feel like you’re never getting anywhere.

So how CAN you be more aware, and realise that you do evolve step by step with everything you create?

One of the most effective ways is to keep a “Creative Landmarks” chart. This is simply a list of steps you make and things you achieve in creating, with the date beside.

Don’t make the common mistake of thinking you can only put major landmarks on your chart, like “finished my novel” or “had first gallery exhibition”. These are fantastic landmarks but if you only note these major ones, you miss all the hundreds of tiny important steps you make in between.

It’s important to meet yourself where you’re at. If you haven’t touched a paintbrush in 2 years, then buying a new one is an important landmark for you. Write it down.

If you’ve always written songs with guitar, and are have now brought a sampler to try to expand your sounds, it’s a great landmark. Write it down.

If you’ve been thinking for months about starting a blog on your passion for plants, and now have taken the leap, got it up online and written your first post, that’s fantastic, write it down.

Then, each month or so, look back over your Creative Landmarks and you’ll be amazed at how much you create and evolve in a short space of time. Look back in 3, 6 and 12 months and you’ll have unequivocal proof that your creativity is alive and thriving, and as impressive and mighty as the oak tree.

Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin is the author of “Create Create!”, a FREE twice monthly ezine for people who want simple and powerful articles, tips and exercises to help them unleash their creative talents. Sign up right now and get your FREE “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook, at http://www.CoachCreative.com