Coaching For Artists
"To be an artist is to believe in life.”
—Henry Moore
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● The Yin and Yang of creative life
When you are creating spontaneously, the flow of the work carries you along.
It’s almost a dream state.
You feel energetic but calm.
Your confidence level soars higher.
You intuitively understand the materials.
You are unafraid to explore and experiment.
You are free to express yourself in limitless ways.
Your capacity for detailed, concentrated work has never been stronger.
This entire experience is almost trance-like, and you want it to continue unabated!
Unfortunately, this ability lapses as loss of belief, lack of direction, time and/or financial constraints perpetuate an environment of tolerations diametrically opposed to the state of mind you need for creativity to flourish. Instead of approaching your art in expressive, adventurous ways, turf wars break out in your mind, and negativity prevails.
This can trigger relentless and indefatigable forces aligned against you: anxiety, nervousness, irritation, impatience, and angry outbursts. Fortunately, working with a coach can help you identify and separate the force that motivates from that which binds you.
● A nourishing environment for artists
In my coaching practice, I work to create a nourishing environment free from distractions, a place where you can be vulnerable without concern. You’ll find my attitude accepting and non-judgmental. This is the context in which artists come to me for personal and/or professional development.
Sometimes my clients are looking to create a structure that supports their goals. Other times they may simply need their spirit nourished and re-energized. Often, building bridges between a creative calling and its actualization is the challenge they face. Whether looking to shed excuses, banish fears, or get a grip on your upcoming exhibition, my coaching will help you tackle whatever priority you set for yourself.
● Whowhatwhenwherewhy
Although there are no set rules for the way I frame my coaching practice, cultivating awareness is an intricate part of the way I coach. Some people have the misconception that awareness appears magically, like a dream. Awareness is the result of existing elements in combinations that can be cultivated through a process of direct but gentle questioning. Knowing my clients allows me to design such questions in a manner that can increase the possibility of awareness for both of us.
Who is your inner being?
What is the goal you set for yourself?
When does the process of imagining a beginning take place?
Where is the dream place where you ultimately wish to live?
Why are you motivated to take action?
Awareness is the key to spending less time with tolerations that zap energy, create frustration, increase anxiety, fear, procrastination, uncertainty, hesitation, misdirection, and financial concerns.
Awareness can pave the way for new thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, and e motions that strengthen your ability to take action and to achieve what is important for you.
Awareness enables you to spend more time creating magical, arresting, evocative ideas that move us, exult us, excite us, and illuminate our days.
Top Ten Artistic “Mindfield” Issues
1. Loss of belief
If an artist’s needs, circumstances, and/or beliefs block his own success, the result could be a loss of creative interest, talents, and skills.
As your coach, I have a number of solution-finding processes that can help clarify and organize your own creative sense of purpose. Prioritizing is one example. A priority is an ideal that may be physical, spiritual, or emotional, or all three combined. Very often, priorities are considered to be at the top of any list of things to achieve in any area of life. Nothing fosters belief greater than a well thought out, fully realized plan of action.
2. Lack of direction
If an artist is unsure of what direction to take and cannot find a safe place in which to explore new possibilities, he can become fearful, misdirected, and unable to create new work.
When your mind and spirit are focused on the same page, life flows along continuously and easily, like a stream. A lack of direction implies an impediment, an encumbrance somewhere that is in the way of identifying important needs. I work with artists who want realignment with their personal vision, as well as artists who have made the deep choice to search for a new alignment.
3. Constraints
For many artists it’s just as important to juggle time, space, and financial constraints as it is actually to create something. Add issues of integrity, selling out, compromises, and lack of emotional support; is it any wonder works of art are ever produced at all?
Tolerations are disempowering and, if allowed to persist, can drain your energy and distract you from creative endeavors. I provide my clients with a relaxing atmosphere, as we work to bring into greater balance whatever changes are necessary for living the exceptional, creative life you really want.
4. Creative juices sapped dry
Sometimes artists are so stressed juggling a professional career with serious artistic interests that they feel lost or disoriented. At other times, they suffer mental blocks, negative self-talk, and lack of energy, all of which can sap creative juices dry.
Imagine:
Your tolerations have never been fewer.
You’re in complete control of your own life.
Your creative juices are suddenly inexhaustible.
Your personal vision for the future is well constructed.
You feel emotionally, physically, and psychically strong.
There is little for you to endure that can drain your energy.
Your values, skills, talents, and other sources of power are in place.
Sound good? If you’re actively seeking meaning and solutions and are willing to risk, learn, and stretch to your potential, your creative juices can always be restored.
5. Self-discipline
All the luck, talent, and intelligence in the world count for little if an artist is unable to distinguish that which is productive and beneficial from the unimportant, unnecessary, and unhealthy in life.
It’s easy to become confused or disoriented by a weak sense of purpose, images of failure, self-doubt, or hardship; nevertheless, you can learn to overcome these limitations. Self-discipline is a skill that you can refine and sharpen over time to help magnify your creativity. Studies show that self-discipline can take the person of average talent and intelligence much further than the best and brightest without it.
Often clients enter into the coaching relationship seeking articulation, understanding, and modification of their life-purpose.
“Purpose is the cornerstone of self-discipline. Once you set a clearly-defined purpose, you have a specific
direction to focus your energy.” Excerpted from The Neuropsychology of Self-Discipline.
6. Outside influences, internal pressure
Artists are driven by an intrinsic need to express themselves, explore new ideas, and create change. Outside influences and internal conflict make it easy to lose contact with the chance occurrences and unique events that form positive resonance between art and artist.
It’s often difficult to stay focused, to function and to create art when life is filled with so many high-pressure situations, demanding schedules, and multiple responsibilities. Add to the mix internal negative self-talk, procrastination, and insecurities, and sometimes you can unwittingly customize your own failure.
Another basic premise of my coaching practice is that people have a choice. Obstacles and difficulties are a natural force of nature. Conditions are never perfect in which to create art, they never will be; however, in responding to them, you have options. A choice is freedom among the options, and decisions are a commitment down that path. As a coach, I support your self-care and self-value. My responsibility is to guide you to a place where you can best make powerful choices that are consistent with your purpose and values.
7. Excuses Procrastination:
Visiting relatives, a sick puppy, indigestion, house cleaning, or astral traveling. Are any of these excuses part of your repertoire? Dig deep enough, and eventually you’ll discover that excuses lie at the heart of procrastination.
Few things can disrupt the creative flow faster than procrastination. Dig deep enough, and you’ll discover an underlying truth to every excuse. Typically, an excuse means that we are not ready to take responsibility for a particular situation and, thus, seek to avoid it. However, that explanation fails to provide a better alternative. In addition, it can cause aggravation and emotional tension, which may result in undesirable behavior. In order to reduce or to eliminate excuses that prevent an artist from moving forward, discovery of the underlying truth is an essential part of the coach/client relationship.
The “clean sweep” personal foundation program that I offer can help an artist learn to recognize and to overcome unresolved conflict by replacing it with powerful alternatives. Using a client’s own experience, values, and integrity, I work to help him get clear of situations (excuses) that prevent his leading a higher quality life. Imagine bringing to each creative endeavor a clear, focused, and motivated energy, instead of an excuse.
8. Criticism and rejection
Criticism and rejection hurts, no matter how well intended. We cringe at the thought of it. Even if we have the courage to attempt the realization of our dreams and the motivation to take risks, criticism and rejection can undermine the process, creating self-doubt, insecurity, and apprehension.
There is no long-term benefit in denying it, ignoring it, or trying to safeguard against future occurrences; criticism and rejection are as intricately connected to the creative process as pencil, paper, clay, a script, a score, and, ultimately, growth. Coaching, however, can help to set the stage for acceptance, courage, and determination, so that your energy is not diverted or scattered.
9. Poor planning
Artists require practical, emotional, and existential “space” in which to create their work. However, physical space, resolution of burdensome concerns, and emotional support don't occur in a vacuum. They require a plan of action, which many artists fail to adequately address.
A guiding principle of human interaction is that people ultimately have a choice. A choice is something one makes based on reason, logic, and intuition, but making the right decision is not always easy. It can be difficult to identify and to target what’s important. Adjustments may be necessary along the way. There could be unexpected areas for learning and development. My goal as your coach is to provide tools, resources, and a stress-free collaborative environment to help you develop a plan of action with results that are attainable, measurable, and specific, in spite of any obstacles.
10. Loss of focus
Are you feeling blocked, with nothing to express, and no prospects looming on the horizon? Are you waiting for intervention, lightning, something, anything inspirational to happen? Loss of focus may be at the heart of the problem.
Loss of focus can happen to anyone. An artist may be crammed with ideas but, for some reason, be unable to overcome the hurdle to get started. His innermost feelings about everything he deeply cares for are jammed up inside. At such times, it may be necessary to get back to basics.
Coaching offers an opportunity for artists to do what they do best—to explore and to reflect upon what they are naturally inclined to do. Perhaps you need to let go of projects that don’t allow you to be more creative. Maybe you need to eliminate tolerating the circumstances that diminish creativity.
Perhaps all that’s necessary is some quiet time, away from the fray. I coach clients to stretch at their own comfortable pace. Sometimes, all that stands between an artist and successful completion of his work is a shift in thought, perception, or mood. Resolve that, and one’s ability to take action and achieve what is important dramatically increases.
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