E135 - Going FourWords with Guidance
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Hello, my friends. Today, I'm going to start off with a little story about myself. Years ago, there was a time in my life where I thought I had lost hold of my creativity.
I had been working at what I thought was my dream job. I was creating products that you could actually hold and use in your house and, and create beauty inside your life.
And I had been showing up and creating and smiling and saying yes and meeting deadlines, but my creative joy had gone somewhere and I couldn't find it. I had been grinding out my creative work on hustle and harsh judgments for so long that creativity stopped feeling like the calling that I had once enjoyed.
Instead, it became just a job, and a job [00:01:00] that I didn't even like anymore. And my friend, here's what I discovered. The absence of joy in your work is the definition of burnout. I was burned out. I was exhausted, and I knew I needed to reignite my creative passion and my interests in creativity. So I started asking myself different questions.
Instead of asking myself, "What's wrong with me?" Or, "How can I get more done in a day?" Or, "How can I get farther ahead?" I asked myself, "What does Beth need today?"
I asked myself when and why did I stop noticing and loving the life that used to light me up. Now, I have taught and coached and worked with other creatives who have felt similar experiences with their [00:02:00] creativity. Some were professional creatives who felt their creativity wasn't as strong or as vital as it used to be, similar to what happened to me.
And some were people who had a creative hobby that had faded into the background as life got busier and as the world demanded more of them. but I saw some similar threads with all the creative people I've met, and that I've had the pleasure working with. And you know in my world, everyone is creative.
Everyone is creative. So the common thread I saw was that when creativity fades, joy in life fades, too. When creativity has faded, joy in your life will fade, too. So how and why do we let creativity fade? It's a never-ending fountain when we are young, right? [00:03:00] Our imaginations make cardboard boxes into submarines, a few blankets and a couch and a chair into a fort where we need to have a sleepover.
And we spend countless hours drawing and coloring, confident that our work is a masterpiece. So why do we let go of the joy that creativity provides? Why do we let go of it?
I've looked at my experiences and experiences of the creatives that I've worked with and taught and coached, and my discoveries have led me to build a framework about creativity. this is a creative practice of four words, four ways of going forwards towards an abundant creative life.
And these four words, well, they helped me find my way back to [00:04:00] my creativity. And the four words are revive, realize, refine, and release. Each word holds a different space to think and focus on your life. these are four different ways to monitor creativity, energy, and joy. And when I started living inside these four words, it changed my life.
My curiosity returned. My ideas came back. My energy returned. My joy reappeared. These four words have changed my life, and I call these four words my Going Forwards framework. And I'm here today to share how my framework can change your life, too. Going Forwards is a safe way for you to care about you [00:05:00] and your creativity.
Using these four words, you'll discover how to monitor your energy, spark joy in your life again, and understand the importance of actually doing your unique creativity. And you'll learn how to let go of things that you've been holding onto too tight.
The benefits of going forwards are tenfold, but a few of the really distinct ones are maintaining and understanding your creative energy, finding ways to enjoy creating your ideas again, and receiving new ways to hush that inner critic that's so harsh in all of us, and finding ways to reignite that rush of creative excitement that you used to feel either when you first started your creative job or way back when you were a [00:06:00] child.
But the best part about going forwards is it is easy to use and easy to keep using. This can be life-changing for you the way it's been for me, and today I want to show you the best way you can fully immerse yourself into these four words, and that's with a little guidance. Guides, my friend, are the best way to get where you need to go.
Thank goodness for GPS systems, right? Guides are the best way to get better at a skill you need to increase. Thank you to coaches worldwide that guide athletes from children to professionals about how to become a better team player. And guides are the best way to understand the ways when we are learning anything new. Thank you to mentors out there in business who are helping entrepreneurs reach goals and dreams.
So today, I want you to understand the [00:07:00] value of going forwards with your creativity using a bit of guidance. And I've made it really easy to test out going FORWARDS for yourself by joining my membership that teaches you these four words inside my membership. And you can try this on right now for just a dollar.
Yep, a single dollar will let you try out the going FORWARDS membership for a whole month. And then, my friend, after that, it's only $9 a month to continue going forwards with your creativity using a guide, and that guide is me. So let's, let's take a peek at how you can use these four words to increase your happiness as you learn to care for your creativity with me using the going FORWARDS framework.
So let's, let's start with that first word, [00:08:00] revive. Now, most of us have never been taught how to actually monitor our own energy. We can take a look at a gas tank and know if we have a full tank, a half tank, or if we're running on empty, right? But we often have no way of knowing what our energy levels are and when we might need to refuel so that we can get through the rest of our day, right?
We've been taught how to hustle until we crash, and then when we collapse, we call that rest. But that's not rest. My friend, when you collapse, that's burnout, and we want to avoid that. You'll learn inside Going Forward that revive is a stage where you monitor your energy, and you'll learn that revive isn't a one-size-fits-all all the time.
Sometimes filling an empty tank means a short break, a snack, or a quick walk, something like that, something [00:09:00] small and enjoyable. Sometimes rest is literally taking a nap in the afternoon. I highly recommend it. And sometimes revive means real extended rest. And sometimes, believe it or not, rest is exercise.
It's getting out to take a walk, a run, time on your bike, or a plunge into the water. Sometimes reviving means giving your mind a different puzzle to solve, something that pulls you away from whatever has been stressing you out right now. So figuring out which kind of reviving you need in a specific moment, that takes real thought, and it takes stepping outside of whatever is stressing you to think, "How much energy do I have right now?
How much energy do I need for the task ahead of me?" So understanding how to think about what you're thinking about, [00:10:00] and that takes guidance. Going Forward gives you the guidance to show you how you need to think about what you're thinking so that you can read your own energy level and understand what revive actually means for you today.
So you see, guidance is going to help you practice how to revive regularly on purpose instead of only when you have collapsed and burned out from exhaustion.
And now let's move to the second word in our going forwards framework, and that is realize. This is about waking back up to curiosity, about getting out of autopilot. Did you know a majority of folks cruise robotically through their day running on routines that are so automatic that we [00:11:00] stop noticing anything outside of the autopilot rut that we have sunk ourselves into?
We don't see outside of the ruts of routine, and so we miss the beauty, the goodness, the benefits, the blessings that are right in front of us every day. When you have guidance inside going forwards, you're going to learn how realize is the word that breaks you out of autopilot, and realize is what makes you alert again to be curious, to be awake to the world that you are actually living in.
And that, my friend, is where all the beauty is. What are you seeing? What are you noticing? What are you realizing?
Realize is what reignites creativity that's gone stagnant or is blocked Or has completely burned out. [00:12:00] And here is the honest part. Most of us have ghosted our own inner creative for so long that we don't even realize we're on autopilot, and that's exactly why guidance is so valuable in the realize stage.
You need assistance to help you realize what you have stopped seeing. And then you need assistance to realize how to start seeing again, and start appreciating and feeling joy in your life every day. Now, our third word in going forwards is refine. Refine is where you begin to do the creative work that you were meant to do, and here's why guidance is key at this stage.
Doing the work is often where we get stalled. We hesitate with so many things, decisions, [00:13:00] directions, choices, and we spin our proverbial wheels. We spend a lot of time getting ready to work. So we're buying supplies, and we're watching the how-to videos. We're learning about the thing, and we don't realize that we are actually avoiding doing the work.
Not working is often the result of not feeling confident enough to do the work. So we stress out about choosing what to work on. We stress out about the choice. What are we gonna do? Are there other ideas that are better? We get stressed when the work gets hard.
Maybe I can't do this anymore. The refine stage is building back that confidence so that you can choose, you can focus, and you can do the work. The refine stage is working through the problems that feel hard, and oh my, oh my, this is [00:14:00] where creatives need a creative coach. Guidance in the refine stage offers support and encouragement and cheerleading too so that you can do the work.
This is guidance that will help you stay away
from having 11 projects that have been started and nothing actually finished. Going forwards teaches you how you can learn to ramp up your confidence so you can repeatedly cross that finish line project after project after project.
But the best part about the guidance in the Refine stage is that it is going to help you discover the joy in creating again. You want to be able to enjoy doing the work, and that's the ultimate goal inside the Refine stage: doing the work and being joyful about the work you're [00:15:00] doing.
And our last word in the Going Forwards framework is release. This is where you'll put your tools down and you will say, "This project is done." Then you are able to put your work out there to do what it was meant to do. And again, my friend, guidance is key here.
Being able to release, that takes some bravery. So inside Going Forwards, you will learn that release is gonna teach you how to tell yourself that done is better than perfect. Release is going to teach you confidence to stop over-perfecting or waiting for a better time to send or give or sell your work.
And inside Going Forwards, we go deep into the different layers of release, because release isn't just about letting go of finished projects. [00:16:00] Release is also about letting go of old ideas and labels, you know, the ones you've given yourself or one that someone else handed you or left you stinging in judgment over.
Oh, I think we all have those experiences. These are old stories, they're conversations that labeled you not smart enough, not organized enough, not talented enough to allow the world to see and enjoy your work. So guidance here is gonna help you hold up a mirror to see your true self and build the confidence your inner creative needs to say, "I'm worthy of doing the work I feel inside of me."
And it's going to help you have the confidence to let go of whatever has been holding you back.
So when you are going forwards with your creativity in the release phase, there are going to be two things that will help you [00:17:00] so much.
One is that you will have a guide to help you understand all the intricacies about releasing your work or letting go of things you've been holding onto.
And two, you're going to have the benefit of a creative community who have your back, and will share the stories, and help you understand that you're not alone. When you're part of a welcoming community of people that provide guidance and encouragement, this gives you a safe space to grow your confidence so that you can release your work to a world that needs to see and hear what your creative message has to say. So these four words, revive, realize, refine, and release, they offer a lifetime of easy-to-apply creative practices
if you know how to use them consistently. And [00:18:00] consistency is what makes the FourWords framework work like a well-oiled machine. Having real guidance to learn about and then employ these four areas deeply, well, that's how you add energy and happiness back into your life and into your creativity.
And that's not a promise that I'm making lightly. That's what I've watched happen over and over in my life and with the students that I've taught and the creatives that I've coached. And this is exactly why I built my Going Forwards membership. This, my friend, is a space where you'll explore these four words, and you'll discover how and when to apply them in your unique life.
And trust me when I say this isn't a whole course you must study that's going to take hours and hours to go through all the modules. It is not a test that must be passed. [00:19:00] Instead, Going Forwards, it's an easygoing lifestyle that just needs to be used in your life. It is easy to understand, and it is easy to apply.
These four words are going to help bring back your energy.
It's going to help ignite your inspiration. It's going to help you find joy in what you want to create, and it will help you release what you need to let go of
Going forwards, my friend, is a win, win, win, win.
So let me tell you what happens after you apply just $1 as an investment into your creativity. You're going to enjoy a live session with me to explore new ways to focus and practice these four words to help you care for your inner creative. And then you're going to get the Fast Forward. It's a monthly newsletter that is [00:20:00] filled with celebration stories,
tips, and easy-to-apply information about how you can keep going forwards today. And most importantly, you'll get a growing community of creatives who can become your new friends. These will be your people who will be going forwards right alongside you.
You're also going to get discounts and early registration for future Create Today workshops and retreats. And there's going to be an ongoing creative challenge that you can do with your fellow creatives To help you grow your creativity, not just think about it. And you'll have your membership library with templates, replays, and notes from me that will be available whenever you need it, not just the week something was released. See, there's so much creative goodness for you, and I want your creative joy to be something that's easy to reach.
So I've made your entire first month [00:21:00] just a dollar. Yes, just a buck. And after that, it's just $9 a month. you'll probably spend more than that on two coffee drinks or more art supplies this month, right? My friend, if your creativity has gone quiet, if joy in your life is being ghosted by autopilot during your busy days, if you've been shaky about your confidence and you don't know why,
My friend, you need to be going forwards with your creativity so that you can become consistent with your goals. And inside the membership, you're gonna benefit faster because you have some guidance to help you stay accountable and consistent in your practice. And this is what Going Forwards is all about.
It's a loving, creative place that will guide you so that you can become consistent and joyful about your creative [00:22:00] passion, whatever that may be. And that could be, my friend, drawing and painting and sculpting. It could be knitting or crocheting or decoupage. It could be clay projects. It could be gardening.
It could be baking. It could be making spreadsheets. It could be anything that sparks creative joy for you. So going forwards and understanding this creative process, it is easy to do. It doesn't take hours of learning or hours of doing to understand how to add energy and joy into your life.
And this can all be done with a tiny investment in yourself this month. Just a dollar. This is a tiny amount of money, four quarters, that will blossom into big changes in how you see and feel about yourself and your creativity. so here's what I want you to do.
I want you to go to[00:23:00]
www.bdi-create.today and join me for just a dollar inside Going Forwards. Yes, do it today. It's just a buck. You'll also find a direct link in the show notes that will take you straight to the registration, just to make life easy and breezy.
And remember, when you're going forwards, you're not alone. I will be there every step of the way, not pointing out directions from a distance. I'll be right beside you, guiding you and cheering you on. So my friend, what are you waiting for? You'll love going forwards together with me. It's an exciting way for you to stay creative, my friend
