“I finally broke out of the commercial work and did my real creative work!”

“I thought was too old… but I finally finished my novel–and it will be published this year.”  

“After years of trying, I finished my TV pilot.” 

“Last year, I only finished two pieces–this year, it was twenty!”

Do you want to look back on 2020 and say these words? 

You can–even if you’ve tried heroically to reach your creative goals… but haven’t succeeded.

The truth is, you CAN turn your creative visions into reality.

There are just a few reasons people don’t reach their creative goals:

#1: They don’t know what to do or how to do it.

For this one, all you need is information and guidance–someone to listen to what you want and help you lay out the steps. (Sometimes this lack of knowledge is the problem and you don’t even know it—you just feel intimidated or uncertain, and you’re holding back.)

#2: They can’t get through the blocks

There are basically five kinds of blocks that can stop you.

* Physical blocks, like not having enough time, money, energy, or space to do your creative work.

* Emotional blocks, like fear, anxiety, or self-criticism.

* What I call “energetic blocks”—not having the courage, determination, passion, or “fire in the belly” to get it done.  

* Mental blocks, or beliefs like “I can’t do it,” “I can’t be an artist and a good parent,” “It’s impossible to make money as a writer/musician/artist,” and “People will laugh at me.”

* Spiritual blocks: Not trusting yourself to make decisions, or not knowing how to listen to your inner guidance.

All these problems can be solved.

They can seem overwhelming when you consider them all at once, but for each problem, there is a solution.

Even the blocks you’ve had for years, the ones that seem like octopuses with so many waving tentacles, are things you can get through. Truly.

#3: They don’t have the right support—someone who can guide them through the blocks and help them keep going when “stuff comes up.”

Support is the #1 factor that separates struggle from success.

Personally, I could not have gotten where I am (in my creative work, business, and life) without a LOT of support. These days, I work with at least one coach/mentor, and often up to three or four at a time (because different coaches have different strengths, and I’m a big believer in getting all the support I need).

I’ve spent well over $100,000 on my own personal development and training, and I attribute a huge part of my success to that.

Without coaching support, it’s easy to get stuck in your own limitations. We all have them, and unless we identify them and find ways to grow beyond them, we tend to repeat the same patterns over and over, with the same unsatisfying results.

I’ve been helping people do their creative work for years, and I can assure you of two things: 1) you’re not alone, and 2) you can get past what’s blocking you.

The truth is, what blocks you is similar to what blocks everyone else—and these blocks are things you can get through.

(Yes, what gets in your way is yours alone because you’re a unique person with your own individual history and soul, but all blocks have common elements—and solutions.)

Other people have gotten through obstacles like yours. They’ve started doing their true creative work—and thriving. And you can too. You just have to decide—truly decide, like a commitment to your soul—that you will.

P.S. Want to create your breakthrough masterpiece this year? Email me and ask about the CREATE! Mastermind.

Do you know the most important–but most overlooked–step you need to call in all the creative (and other) success you want in the new year? 

This step lets you get past the pattern of repeating the same mistakes and same disappointing results over and over, year after year.

It clears out the disappointment, self-blame, and worry that you’ll never reach your creative goals.

It creates an opening for joy, confidence, and anticipation. 

It gives you a foundation for success.

What is that step? 

It’s looking at your regrets and mining them for the gold within: what you need to succeed in the coming year.

It’s tempting to bypass this step–after all, regrets are uncomfortable, and we don’t want to get caught in negativity.

It’s tempting to look past those regrets and focus instead on the shiny, exciting part: all the good stuff we want in the new year. 

But, trying to launch into our goals without coming to terms with our regrets is like trying to begin a marathon with your feet still stuck in mud.

When we clear the regrets and disappointment in ourselves, we can discover the gold underneath: the true deep belief in ourselves–and the inner resources and opportunities–that will make our dreams real in 2020.

Coming soon: A virtual circle

*~* MUD INTO MAGIC: Turn Your Regrets into Success in 2020 *~*

In this circle, we’ll clear the regrets you’re holding about 2019 so you can stop repeating the same mistakes and patterns. 

We’ll also uncover the inner gold–the beliefs and steps you need to reach all your big creative goals in 2020.

I’ll be broadcasting from the Artist in Action Facebook group, so join us there!

Want to make 2020 the best it can be?

Here’s what I recommend: find a theme for the year.

Your theme connects all your goals, resolutions, and actions by identifying one fundamental quality that will help you reach your goals. Possible themes include courage, gratitude, creativity, abundance, love, spirit, power, healing, persistence, clarity, laughter, ease, curiosity, respect, fun… and more.

Your theme reflects how you want to BE and FEEL as you move through your year. Once you have your theme, you approach each day and action from that theme. Achieving your goals follows naturally.

I first used a new year’s theme in 2012. I was recently married and had just found out I was pregnant. I knew there were big things coming that year: buying and renovating a house; moving; leading a team of copywriters in a launch; leaving my intense advertising job to start a coaching business; and of course, growing a baby, going through labor and birth, and becoming a mother. I knew it could be incredibly stressful, and I knew I didn’t want to push through it, straining myself and my health. I wanted it to flow easily. So “FLOW” became my theme for the year.

In everything I did, I tried to flow. And, even I was surprised at the results. I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I moved through all the transitions—and led a copy team in an advertising launch, finished a draft of a story collection, and launched a new website for my coaching business.

There was a lot to do, and there were hard times (including a complicated labor and tough postpartum period ), but through it all, I kept flowing through my life, connected with my heart and supported by the universe and the people around me. I hadn’t expected it to be so effective, but it was. My theme connected me back to the flow I wanted, and everything else flowed from that.

How to create your theme for the year

1. What’s missing?

Look at the different areas of your life (career/life purpose, money, health, romantic relationship, friends and family, personal growth/spirituality, play and fun, physical environment). What is unsatisfying or missing?

2. What do you want?

Now write down what you want in your life this year. What are your goals? Big or small—put it all down.

3. How do you want to feel and be?

Ask yourself: What quality do you need to have to reach those goals? How would you like to feel as you move towards those goals? List all the words that describe how you want to feel and be in the coming year.

4. Choose a theme for the year

Now, look over your list (from #3). Choose one word that calls to you and sums up how you want to be this year. Say your word aloud. See how it feels. Close your eyes and imagine yourself moving through the year with that quality. How does it feel? If it feels right, that’s your theme!

(Send me a message telling your theme for the year. I’d love to know! :-))

5. Live your theme!

Put your theme up where you can see it. Feel it in your body. If you want, you can dance it or create a vision board with images evoking your theme. Most importantly, focus on your theme as you move through each day—embody this quality and live your life from this theme.

Good luck, and may 2020 bring you all the blessings of your theme!!

Winter solstice blessings to you! 

The solstice is the longest night of the year. Many of our ancestors celebrated the solstice by waiting through the long night for the return of the sun. 

This is the dark time, symbolizing those times when life is hard or we walk through the unknown. 

Always, the light returns.

And so this is the perfect time to reflect on what has been dark for us this year–and reconnect with hope.

I’m sharing a journaling exercise with you. May this process bring you through the dark and back into the light of hope.

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Solstice journaling and reconnection to hope

Materials: Journal, pen, candle (and matches)

1. What was dark or hard for you this year? (Goals you didn’t meet? Failures or setbacks? Things you’re grieving or angry about?)
2. How are you blaming yourself for these things? Are there any ways you’re stuck in a negative mindset?
3. Take a moment to expand and connect to your Highest Self, the you who is connected to Universal Wisdom. From this perspective, see those self-blaming, negative parts of you with compassion. What words of guidance and compassion does your Highest Self have to offer?
4. Forgiveness is a key part of freeing yourself from negativity. Releasing fear, anger, or grief–not because you should, but so that you may be free–creates an opening that allows hope to enter. If you can, take a moment to forgive yourself. Hold yourself with true compassion and love.
5. Light a candle and allow yourself to feel the light of hope entering your life.

(Winter solstice in 2019 occurs at 11:19 pm ET on Saturday, December 21.)

Do you want a lot more artistic success? 

Awards, grants, best-seller lists–and all the awesome stuff that comes with that, like the financial security to just DO YOUR ART, when and how you want?

I’ve been thinking a lot about what goes into success–why some artists achieve it… why so many don’t… and exactly what you need to do to have the artistic success you want.

I shared about this in my latest livestream circle: The Big Magic Behind Artistic Success (What really leads to success–and how you can tap into it).

This is brand new–and at a whole new level of insight–so I know it will open up a new level of success for you.

Catch the recording in the Artist in Action Facebook group. It’ll be there until Thursday night, so watch it soon!

P.S. If you want to find out about future circles and events, drop your email here.

P.P.S. I’m also offering a super super deal on the Creative Witchery Success Activation–where you can discover the source of your creative plateau, release what’s keeping you entrenched there, and start bringing in big creative success. It’s $200 off till 11:59 pm Thursday, so if you want one, grab it soon. (Go here and enter SPECIAL as the coupon code to get the $200 off.)