Creative Every Day

Doodle-bug

January 3rd, 2008

I love to doodle. The margins of most paper I get a hold of seems to always get covered in some little drawing, pattern, scribble or list.

Last night, I had the pleasure of listening in on a free coaching call with Jill Badonsky, author of The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard). I get Jill's newsletter (which I totally love for its creative ideas and sense of humor) and that's how I found out about this somewhat last minute call involving guided visualization and writing around starting your New Year with creative magic. I signed up for it on a whim not really knowing what to expect and I'm so glad I did! Jill has a very soothing voice and a lot to share. She was open and humble, funny and sweet and I enjoyed her method of visualization. I took some notes while listening in and I particularly enjoyed her way of looking at what had worked in the last year, how to continue that and how to appreciate and acknowledge where the good was already occurring. She also had a cool method of looking at making changes which she called the "5% rule." When looking to change something she suggests that instead of demanding a 100% turn around we can ask ourselves to make a 5% change. So, for example, if we don't like that we're not getting enough exercise in our life, we can look to include 5% more movement in our life. Much more manageable than a complete change, much more doable, and far easier to succeed. And it's so much easier to build upon success than it is to pull yourself up after failing to meet your high expectations. (I just noticed that the number 5 and the percent symbol (%) are the same key on the computer keyboard. Kinda cool, eh?) So, perhaps you can apply this method to creativity. If you're having trouble adding consistent art-making and creativity in your life, see if you can infuse your life with 5 percent more creativity or 5% more art. I like this idea along with the CED challenge because I don't want the challenge to be a source of stress. I'd like to be a source of fun and inspiration. So, if it's causing you stress, try out Jill's 5% rule.

During Jill's visualization in which we imagined ourselves in a meadow with a path in front of us, I saw these little birds carrying letters and keys at the bottom of long strings. I doodled them in the margins of my notes while I listened and after the call, I doodled in my life binder (keeper of lists) with colored pencils and made this:

I think it's super sweet. That's a bunny at the bottom in case it isn't clear in the image. Perhaps it will become a collage or painting later on. We shall see. In the meantime, I've got much to get to today, so I'm off!

Quick notes: in order to use the Creative Every Day button located in the sidebar (and below), simply right-click on the image and save it to your computer. Different blogging applications have different ways of adding images to your blog, but all have help sections which should be able to direct you to instructions on how to do it.

If you use typepad, I wrote a quickie tutorial for posting blog buttons for a different group here. And here's a tutorial from another blogger on adding a picture to your sidebar.

I'll be adding this info to the main Creative Every Day 2008 page, so you can find it if you need it! Happy creating!