Overcoming Perfectionism. RESURRECT Your Artistic Spark.

I grew up in a home that loved nature. It brought us food for nourishment, remedies for healing, and beauty for admiration. In my time of admiration, not once did I stop to count whether the numbers of thorns or petals on one flower matched the others. I accepted all the differences as part of the complexity that adds to the beauty and visual appeal for the eye. 

We are part of nature and YET we distance ourselves from that notion. We are born and we die just as any other living organism and YET somehow we are held in a different regard. 

Perfectionism. Nature with no outlier, no texture, no variety. Sameness brings the illusion of comfort and safety and the reality of stagnation. Perfectionism is the antithesis of nature. If something is perfect, there is no where to grow from, nothing to learn, nothing to change, no new experiences. Even as I write this, the societal programming in my brain is telling me to stop and revise and edit and repeat. However, the deeper part of my soul desperately keeps my fingers on the keys craving to pour out any and every feeling and observation I have bottled inside me.   

As children, we naturally gravitate toward curiosity, experimentation, and creation. Every new experience an awe inspiring experience. We are not expected to know, so we are free to be and experience and learn. The question is how do we keep this freedom mindset when, as adults, the expectation and standards are to the moon? We can start with :

• Environment Audits
• Content Consumption
• Reframe the idea of embarrassment, doubt, and failure
• Normalize curiosity and exploration in conversations 
• Exposure Therapy 
• Accept your differences 

Now lets break it down:

1. You are going to do an audit of your environment. This includes your : Home, Work, and Relationships.

Questions to ask about your home :     

• Is my space encouraging my creative pursuits? Why or why not?
• Do I have the right objects/tools to create?
• Is my furniture set up in a way that creates ease and space for a consistent creative routine?
• What is my biggest pain point in my house?
• What habits/patterns are creating that pain point to happen? 
• How can I minimize those habits/patterns at least 5% these next 90 days?  How will the new habits that are going to help minimize the old ones be supported/incentivized by you? Think of at least 3 support methods/incentives.

Questions to ask about your work : 

• What is the culture of your workplace? What do they prioritize? Does it align with your thought, values, and priorities? Why or why not?
• What was your why for starting this job / career path? Do you still feel the same or have you outgrown your why? Explain why or why not.
• Do you feel yourself working after your dedicated work hours? If yes, why do you feel the need to continue that habit? What is the worst thing that can happen if you didn't work after hours? If that worse case scenario happened, how would you solve it? Come up with 2-3 solutions.
•  Could you add some habits to nourish your creativity in between your commute to and from work? For example, a podcast or audiobook to get you in the right headspace for creating once you get home or to be able to brainstorm mentally once you get to work.

Questions to ask about your relationships :

• Do your peers and loved ones have a flourishing creative life? Why or why not?  
• How do your loved ones describe you? Do you feel the description is accurate? Why or why not? 
• Do your loved ones see you as a creative person? Why or why not? 
• How do your loved ones talk about their creative pursuits? How does that make you feel? 
• How do your loved ones react when learning about your accomplishments? 

 

      2. Content Consumption: You are what you consume. Social media, books, movies, and music are all influences that shape your internal world biases. Lets try to flip the script. The only way to learn a language is to surround yourself with the culture of that language. Similarly, we are going to be submerging ourselves with the culture of creativity and artistry. Here are some action steps to take: 

• Read or listen to one audiobook every 4-6 weeks. This piece of work should be surrounding the topics of either the creative pursuit you are aiming for, bold and confident expression, how to balance the two worlds of creativity and productivity, how to build the creativity muscle, how to avoid burnout or all the above. 
• Follow social media pages that you aspire to emulate and inspire new works or ideas, creatives that you resonate with their work/lifestyle. This is a balancing act: Accounts that spark inspiration and motivation but do not stoke comparison or insecurity. Any sources causing these creativity killers should be extracted with a QUICKNESS. 
• Start the process of watching movies that lit you up inside as a child and dissect why that is. Think back on your favorite movie list and find the patterns/similarities of each one to learn about what your brain gravitates towards. 
• Music that evokes a visceral emotional response whether negative or positive that can help add fuel to your art is great way to get deeper in touch with your feelings and internal world to add complexity, color, and texture to your works of art. Get to know yourself and what affects your inner self and why? Deeper knowing of who you are will grant you deeper knowing of what you want to create in this world.

      3. Reframe your mindset: 

• Embarrassment: The idea that as an adult we should always be the expert and not the learner creates a stagnant thought of "I should have done this or known this" which invites the brain to ruminate. The ideology that was put on you by the majority who is also tied down by this form of thinking. This chain is like the metaphor of the crabs in the bucket. Each one dragging down the other never getting to the top which fulfils the prophecy of never changing, growing, learning their lessons, and being able to escape the bucket. With these tactics, we will form an escape plan that involves not only ourselves but how we can affect change around others and bring them along with us if possible. 
• Doubt and Failure hand in hand: The only way to resolve doubt is by certainty. The only way to be certain is by coming to terms with the possibility that the outcome could be failure. They go hand in hand each one giving us a spoonful of nasty medicine that no one wants to drink although every consistent spoonful heals from the inside out. In these moments, we must guide our internal voice as a parent would a child with compassion and patience mixed with firm assertiveness.
  

       4. Normalize Exploration and Curiosity : 

• Ask yourself what new thing have you done today and this week? What did you learn from it? 
• Ask your loved ones what new thing they have done this week? What did they learn from it? 
• Ask them what new thing are they looking forward to doing in this season and why? 
• Plan a new thing to do with your loved once a month or every other month to start. 
• Plan a day where you will teach your loved ones something you know excel at and a day where they will teach you something they excel at.

       5. Exposure Therapy : Only way to dismantle the pedestal you have placed on your desires is by exposing your anxiety and fear to the literal activity. We must prove to the survival oriented brain that this activity and the feelings it creates is safe to experience. It wont feel comfortable the first or maybe even fifth time. The task may never get easier but it will get easier to trust your own capabilities in being able to handle a new situations.  

• Take a class or workshop
• Go to an open mic
• Host a creative day/night at your place with your loved ones (highly recommend for beginners)
• Film your journey online to find community and track progress 
• Any other activity that is running through your mind that you have been avoiding starting 

      6. Accept Your Differences : 

• Your beliefs towards success, what it means to be fulfilled, and happiness do not have to match your family or friends 
• The way you go about going after your calling and the pacing you take does not have to match your family or friends 
• What you perceive as art and creativity does not have to match your family and friends 
• What you perceive as productivity does not have to match your family and friends 

In conclusion, you should feel open enough to go through these to-dos and questions in your life and be ready to be met with uncomfortable feelings and resistance from your brain.

You are parenting your brain and inner self by showing them these new steps are okay and better yet will get them to a better place to flourish. Doing what you set out to do and facing things you avoided will always give a boost of satisfaction and relief after the task. Follow that feeling and repeat. 

Do not count your petals or thorns. Do not ruminate on your downfalls. Focus in making yourself bloom and the flowers will come with time, persistence, consistency, self belief, and discipline. 

If you want to delve deeper into doing inner work for self discovery and transformation, check out our IMPOWERMENT section of the store where you can find life planners, cheat sheet trackers, journals, and E-books for elevating your life one baby step at a time.  

I believe in you and I will continue to do so until you believe too.

IM. POWER. MENT. CHOOSE NOW.