There IS a way to get over your procrastination—even if you’ve tried and failed many times.
Even if it’s been ten years since you created anything.
Even if you have a day job, a family, or very limited time.
Here’s a scene you might recognize:
It’s the end of a workshop you took to get over your fear and resistance.
You’re alight with insight, your mind and heart blown open.
It’s like you’re at the top of a mountain, breathing clear fresh air and seeing so far.
The closing circle is filled with tears, connection, gratitude. And you leave with incredible clarity and confidence.
When you return to your regular life, you feel strong, energized, and determined, and you’re doing your art. Your confidence climbs.
Then you hit a bump. Family things come up, you have extra work at your day job, you get sick, or you just need a break one day. Your momentum stops, your confidence slips a little.
Bit by bit, in the face of LIFE, the high from your workshop fades and things return to how they were before.
This happened to me, over and over. It happened with therapy, self-hypnosis, counseling… all manner of transformational and healing work.
Over time, I came to realize: these approaches didn’t work long-term because they were missing a fundamental piece of how we change our habits.
Imagine this:
You’re climbing a mountain, and people come to help you. They cheer you on, they help you see what’s been slowing you down, and they help you heal a fear of heights (or falling, or being a mountain climber)…
They even project a holograph of the mountaintop view and lift you up into it so you can experience what it’s like to reach the summit.
You’re energized, ecstatic, transformed. You feel like you could climb ten mountains.
Then they leave, and you lose momentum.
That’s because you can’t climb a mountain with just your emotions, energy, and mindset.
Taking actual, physical steps is what gets you up the mountain.
BUT, if you’re dealing with a lot of self-criticism, negative thoughts, and blocks, you can’t take those steps, right?
So, how DO you go from avoiding your writing or art… to doing it easily and regularly?
You need to combine inner “transformation” and action-taking… in a very specific way.
There’s science behind this. You see, our “lizard brains” (the oldest part of our brain, responsible for primitive survival instincts) are wired to recreate the familiar because it’s survivable.
When we change old habits (ie, when we go from avoiding to creating), we leave the familiar “safety zone”—and our system unconsciously pushes us to return to the old, avoidant ways. (Self-sabotage, anyone?)
Only by creating a new reality—and having our systems experience this new reality as safe—can we rewire ourselves.
So, if you’re going from not-creating to creating, the most effective way is to
(1) Clear enough blocks so you can create
(2) Create enough art to experience yourself as an artist
(3) Let that new experience register in your nervous system and body, and
(4) Continue, working with each successive block (there are usually a bunch!) until your system is adjusted to the new reality:
You, an artist who does your creative work—regularly and easily.
This is what we do in my Artist in Action program. I use specific techniques I’ve learned over the years (and honed with dozens of clients)—to help you fundamentally “rewire” your relationship with your art and creative process.
That’s why my people can break years- or decades-long blocks… AND keep going with their creative work, long after they stop working with me.
If you want this, email me and let me know!!
