Monthly Archives: January 2018

Take the Brakes Off

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‘Cheeky Cherry’

Last year I bought a bicycle. In Berlin this is a rite of passage. It changes your whole experience of the city. I bought the bike off a friend, it’s not a fancy bike but she’s comfortable, red and white. I have affectionately named her ‘Cheeky Cherry’.

Up until then, it had been a long time since I rode a bike.

Shortly after my bike purchase, a friend invited myself and Cheeky Cherry to attend ‘Critical Mass’. It’s an event where hundreds of bikes take to the streets of Berlin and other cities as a form of advocacy. The bikes move in a large mass to completely take over the streets for an evening, taking up hundreds of meters of road at a time.

One thing I noticed was how everyone had their own cycling speed that they were comfortable with. At one point we had the pleasure to ride through a tunnel with a bit of a downhill run (Berlin is very flat). The confident cyclists zipped past me hooting and yipping out loud, enjoying the amplified sounds in the tunnel, others simply let gravity take their bike down the hill.

I, however, had my brakes firmly on. It was ‘better to be safe than sorry,’ I’d always been taught. Yet a small, child-like part of me was disappointed. How great would it have been to take the brakes off and let myself roll with the wind in my face? It would have been exhilarating. But no, that’s not for me. Not possible. I’m not good enough at this. I miss out.

In fact, I had my brakes so firmly on that I felt the bike start to lose balance. My own caution was the thing that might cause me to crash the bike. A certain amount of speed is required to keep a bike balanced. A bike standing still falls over.

Fortunately, I was able to adjust my speed and no crash occurred but this made me think about how often we put unnecessary brakes on in our lives and how these unnecessary brakes may be the very things that are causing us to struggle.

The thoughts and beliefs we have about ourselves and what’s possible for us can create very effective brakes, often unknowingly.

If you are working towards a goal and it’s just not happening then it’s quite likely that you’ve got the brakes on somewhere. You’re holding yourself back and quite likely your ‘bike’ is wobbling a little bit. You may feel discontent, frustrated, self-criticism is kicking in. If nothing is working despite your efforts – you may have even left your metaphorical hand-brake on.

What fun and exhilaration could be waiting for you just around the corner if you risked taking the brakes off, going a little faster, being a little bolder?

Let this year be the year that you take the brakes off and give yourself what you need in order to live your dream creative life.

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Book Recommendation: Mastering Creative Anxiety by Eric Maisel

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There are several books that I recommend over and over again to my coaching clients. Mastering Creative Anxiety by Eric Maisel would have to be one of my top three most recommended books for artists.

This book serves up 24 helpful lessons on dealing with creative anxiety. I like to describe it as your personal menu for getting unstuck. Indeed, Maisel includes an ‘anxiety mastery menu’ throughout.

In this post, I also want to bring attention to how we have fears that are often hidden.

If you’re doing any of the following things, it’s quite likely you have some hidden fears or anxieties that are interfering with you doing your best work.

Symptoms include:

  • Procrastination
  • Avoiding the things you know you should be doing such as marketing or sitting down to do your creative work
  • Indecision
  • Not finishing projects (they suddenly don’t seem so important or ‘everything else’ gets in the way)
  • Saying ‘yes’ to other people’s agendas often at the expense of your own creative work
  • Diminishing the value of your creative work as ‘not so important’ or ‘not mattering’
  • Criticising yourself or your work (self-criticism is often a form of self-protection)

Maisel’s book is one of the best sourcebooks to have at hand for the day-to-day battle of facing your fears, taking risks and continuing to step out of your comfort zone as you create your work.

This book helps you get back on track fast. If you find yourself feeling stuck you can simply open up to the neatly organised contents page and choose the chapter that most closely fits with the challenge you’re currently facing.

Each chapter has an introduction to a particular fear, a ‘to-do’ checklist with practical steps on how to overcome the fear, a teaching tale, a useful anxiety management tool and a motto, affirmation or vow to help you commit to moving past the fear that is blocking you.

Example topics include:

  • The Anxiety of Choosing
  • The Anxiety of Identity
  • The Anxiety of Day Jobs
  • The Anxiety of Promoting
  • The Anxiety of Ruining
  • The Anxiety of Failing
  • The Anxiety of Procrastinating
  • The Anxiety of Success

One of my favourite anxiety management techniques that he recommends is ‘Improved Appraising’ from the chapter on choosing the creative life. Here Eric Maisel guides you through how to better assess how dangerous the creative risks you are taking actually are:

“You examine situations, you analyze them, and you decide if your initial feelings of anxiety are really warranted. Nine times out of ten you will see that they are not, that they are about as threatening as having to decide whether to serve cookies or finger sandwiches.”

He follows this up with the helpful ‘To Do’:

“Change your mind about the threat level of things. If you are used to warning bells going off all the time, change their setting and rig them to go off only when the threat is real and significant.” (p. 58).

Consider this book part of your creative life daily support team.

Find it on Amazon here (affiliate link):

Mastering Creative Anxiety: 24 Lessons for Writers, Painters, Musicians, and Actors from America’s Foremost Creativity Coach