Boost Your Creative Confidence
– Day 3 Follow the Greats

I love learning about new artists and in the past two days have discovered two I knew little about. One was Sonia Delauney who has a retrospective at the Tate Modern in England right now, a show that is finally showcasing her to as the amazing and influential artist that she was during her life. Here is one of her paintings.

 

Yesterday I experienced a Sacred Styling Session with my friend and amazing coach Cynthia Miller. I learned that I am a Water element and what that means in terms of how I should be dressing, from the colors I choose to the styles, textures and flow of the fabrics. It was a fascinating experience that I am still settling into and will share more later. One of the things I loved about Cynthia’s presentation was the connection of her process to work of artist Johannes Itten, who had a strong influence on color theory and was a member of the Bahaus school.

Cynthia shared how Itten taught his students to select a color palette and adopt a free-form painting style that intuitively felt right to them. I was of course fascinated by this process and loved the stories she shared of the connections between these student’s work and how it translated into this idea of connecting to our element through what we wear.

But what does this have to do with how to boost your creative confidence? Today’s lesson is about following the greats!

Follow the Creative Greats to Boost Your Creative Confidence

You can learn a great deal about your own creativity by looking at the lives of other creative people. You may find similarities or differences that are interesting. More importantly, you may learn new ways of seeing the world or using your creativity.

One of my all-time favorite books about the creative process is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The book is about overcoming blocks and working with your inner critic. No matter what type of creative work we like, we all face blocks and suffer from procrastination.

One way to do this is to choose someone whose work you like and learn about how they worked. Read books or interviews about them and try to copy some of their strategies.

For example, if you find that a writer you like begins the day by writing for two hours in the early morning, you might try this. You may learn that a thought leader you follow takes a long after-lunch walk and this is where they do most of their thinking. Any kind of habit or small quirk might be something you can use. Like Twyla Tharp’s idea box that I shared in my last post here. Creative habits don’t have to be dramatic, simple shifts can have a big impact on your creativity.

Another idea is to choose someone you’re unfamiliar with or who is outside of your field. If you’re a songwriter, you may learn something valuable from a good copywriter. If you’re a website designer, you may learn creativity tips from a classical music composer. Anyone creative could have something to offer.

If you are trying to build a creative business, go see what others are doing well. Don’t compare yourself to them but see what strategies they are using successfully that you might be able to adapt to your business in order to boost both confidence and success!

I would love for you to share a creative great that you admire or have learned a particular less on from in the comments below.