Going "FOURwords with your Creativity

Welcome to another edition of Create Today!

Today... we are going to explore how you can ignite your creativity by using my creative process "FOURwords".
...Part self care, part habit, part focus……part creative super power... 

My creative process consists of FOURwords:

Together these FOURwords help ignite and maintain a happier, healthier, more productive and profitable creative process. This means you can stay creatively… on track…focused…and also build confidence in (and about) your creative skills.

When you take care of your inner creative…you’ll find that your outer creative skills are at their best - and your imagination, productivity and motivation are stronger and actually healthier!

Let’s take a look at these four words

The first word is REVIVE. Its definition is:
To return to life… to become active or flourishing again

In the REVIVE phase, you need to rest…to exhale and recharge. 

How many times (after a difficult project) do you feel listless and burned out. You feel like you have squeezed out every ounce of creativity.

Without a pause to revive and find time for a creative recharge– you could slowly lose the creative strength and motivation you need  to function at your best.

This is when we need to employ the REVIVE phase of my FOURwords Process. It’s a concentration of invigorating and re-empowering the inner creative spirit through rest, good nutrition, movement and exercise. Here at Create-Today we will continue to explore the different facets of REVIVE - to give you ideas and routines that will help you stay creatively rested. :)

Our second word is... REALIZE. Its definition is:
To bring into life or existence... to conceive vividly as real... to be fully aware.

Here, we concentrate on how we need to REALIZE the creative ideas we see each day.

From where to ideas come? How do we observe our world (as artists)  to conceive new ideas? How to we collect them? And… how do we organize them for future use?

The key to being efficient in the REALIZE phase is training your eye and your mind to constantly search and realize a new idea. It sounds easy... but it really isn't. We get so busy with our world that we spend a lot of our time on autopilot and we are often unaware of half the events and objects we encounter in our day.

Our third word is... REFINE. Its definition is:
To prepare so as to put in a usable condition; to improve or perfect 

In this FOURwords phase we are choosing the idea to REFINE and perfect for our next project.

We prepare…and improve and perfect this idea as we create our next project. 
This is an intense phase requiring deep thought, scheduling and planning.
We are considering...choosing and roughing out ideas, and then tightening up layouts to produce this next great “creation.”

Our fourth word is... RELEASE. Its definition is:
Allowing something to be free and out in the open — and to make something available for use! 

The last of our FOURwords process -  Release and letting go - is very important.

Without a successful finish…and "letting go" of a project - your creative flow will  jam and become blocked—causing frustration and confusion. This can weaken your creative confidence and strength.  

It’s easy to think (when you are anxious about letting others see your work) that you are just "not finished, yet!"  …but perfection procrastination can actually be an excuse for not getting your work “out there” to be seen, purchased and used! 

Knowing when and how to RELEASE involves being brave – about judgement and/or rejection. Learning and knowing when and how to release your work will help build your creative confidence. This is the creative super power I mentioned earlier.

And there you have it… FOURwords: Revive, Realize, Refine and Release

Part self care, part habit, part focus……part creative super power.  

When put into practice and used together -  these FOURwords help create and maintain a healthier, more productive and profitable process to keep your creativity… on track and focused…

Want to explore more about "Going FOURwords" with your creativity?  Just stay tuned! We'll be focusing on each of the FOURwords in future vlogs! Also, watch for my online course "Going FOURwords with Your Creativity." 

Thanks for joining me TODAY - and please return to BDI CREATE-Today for more artsy news, Ideas, and adventures!

Until next time - stay creative my friend!