Five things that will hinder your creative life

If you're feeling less than creative, this is for you.

Photo by Carl Tronders on Unsplash

We all have our unconscious mindsets and blocks, those unthinking bits, what we believe and how we operate, our beliefs and stories. And this can either move us forwards, or hold us back and definitely affects our creativity.

And it’s this unconscious bit that is actually in control a lot of the time - just in the way we can drive from A to B with no recollection of how we got there or no memory of the micro decisions we took to arrive at the destination.

When I am working with clients, most growth comes when they can start to see what’s holding them back and we spend time working that out and creating new intentions and actions to be more conscious and choose better beliefs and stories.

Sometimes, just the awareness that you are doing something is enough, you can’t un see it and a shift can occur.

Here are some of the key ways that I see people hindering themselves in their creative business, often unconsciously. And if you are currently feeling less than creative, are any of these in your way too?

1. Waiting for approval

Humans are hard wired for connection which can tip over into approval and some of us also have the sort of childhood’s where we gained what we needed from our families and teacher etc by meeting with their approval. The thing is, you actually DON’T need approval from anyone to do what you want in your business, in your life, with your creativity. You are safe to do what you want. If you are seeking approval, ask yourself why? What’s the fear there? What is not being created whilst you search for something that might not be available? What might you do if you removed this obstacle?

2. Denying your real self

This is a big one, too big to go into here, but just in that many people are living ‘quiet lives of desperation’ many are not really being who they REALLY are. Because over time they have conditioned themselves to fit in - with society, the status quo and to pursue careers, relationships etc that have felt, for whatever reason, better, safer.

If you lose and deny yourself, you cannot and won’t create authentically. When you don’t really know yourself and aren’t being the real you, you can’t really create what you are here for. So, are you being the real you? How can you be a bit more ‘you’ every day?

3. Listening to the wrong people

Other people, their opinions about things and their wants/ needs for you can be the death of many things! This is a little related to the point about not being yourself, see above. Even if you are trying your best in that respect, listening to the wrong people, who aren’t on the path or the wavelength that you are, can hinder you. There’s a lot to be said for not taking advice from people who aren’t in the creative arena in the same way you are, and for listening to your own intuition and voice. The need to fit in and align with those around you is strong but… ‘why fit in when you were born to stand out?’ (Dr Seuss I salute you).

4. Lack of self care routines

I could (and won’t) talk about this allll day. But put simply, if you are tired, dehydrated, hungry and over caffeinated, and you haven’t filled your creative cup with whatever it is that you need (for me that’s fresh air, time alone, sleep a calm, attractive ambience to work in and boundaries with my family about interruptions) you’ll feel like shit which = death to creativity.

Work out what ‘self care’ means to you - and do it.

5. Procrastination AKA avoiding negative emotions

Yeah I do bang on about this one, but honestly this is what really gets in the way of a lot of good people being GREAT because procrastination simply curtails the amount of creative output. Procrastination reduces your productivity and hinders momentum and the ability to get into the ‘flow’ and over time, create things that are really good.

I am a master procrastinator by nature if unchecked, so I feel for you if you too are in this state regularly. I now have ways around it to stop it from taking over (Pomodoro, co-working, removing distractions, using blocker apps like Freedom etc). Of course I don’t always win ;) but I mainly do! Would any of these work for you?

With love as ever, here to see you win!

Sarah x

PS - have you spotted this?

If you like reading books in the self development/ productivity/ creativity genre but find you quickly forget the learning, ideas and wisdom in them, I have something for you and I am SO into it! It starts on Monday 1 April.

The Selfish Book Club is back and this time around it offers a slower, deeper dive into some amazing books.

Instead of rushing through a book in a month, having a quick discussion and moving on, I'll be taking you through the ideas and goodness of each book in a slower, deeper way via special resources that I am creating.

You'll be given workbooks and voice notes from me to use to explore the current chosen book fully and we can also discuss the ideas as a community in chat threads too. You can also just work through it on your own and treat it as a lovely personal exploration of the themes and a way of giving yourself some much needed reflection time.

The first book is as you can see Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.

The club is part of my membership, which costs just £7 a month or £70 a year. You are already a free member but if you upgrade to paid, you’ll be in the club!