If you’re pursuing creative, entrepreneurial work you can’t just rely on productivity tips and tools.

You need creative confidence.

And a powerful way to develop your creative confidence is by adopting a growth mindset.

You’ve heard about growth vs fixed mindset a million times already.

Let’s get a bit more nuanced.

Keep reading to learn about 3 specific mindsets that you can integrate into your personal operating system to become a more effective creative entrepreneur, founder, or creator.

Quick Reminder of Growth (vs Fixed) Mindset

Let’s do a quick refresher on growth mindset and why it matters.

A person with a growth mindset operates very differently than a person with a fixed mindset.

Rather than avoiding challenges and fearing making mistakes, a person with a growth mindset embraces challenges and views mistakes as simply opportunities to learn and improve.

A growth mindset sets you apart because many people fear making mistakes, failing, or looking incompetent — they’d rather play it safe and look good.

A fixed mindset, however, is way of thinking that ensures one stays stuck or status quo.

A person with a fixed mindset keeps doing the things they know they can already do competently rather than venturing out into the creative unknown. They may also believe that intelligence, creativity, and any other quality is inherently fixed — there is nothing one can do to grow or get better.

Rather than giving up easily, growth mindset-oriented people persist in the face of setbacks and continually test out new approaches. They know that with continuous effort and experimentation, they’ll eventually succeed and get through what’s keeping them stuck or holding them back.

They know that if they are committed to a creative pursuit, they will figure out how to get there.

With a true growth mindset, goal achievement becomes simply inevitable. And you become unstoppable.

Here are 3 nuanced flavors of “growth mindset” that you can experiment with and adopt to help strengthen your overall creative confidence:

The Scientist Mindset

To overcome uncertainty, overwhelm, perfectionism, and fear of commitment adopt the mindset of the Scientist.

With the Scientist Mindset, you operate in experiments. You follow the scientific process:

1. First, you Explore & Review. You research, read, gather information, and explore what other people are doing. You review the situation from multiple perspectives to get a holistic view. At this stage, you’re simply learning and exploring — there is no pressure to achieve any “result.” You’re looking for where there’s consensus and where there are gaps (that you could potentially fill in with your unique perspectives and actions). What feels most interesting? Most promising? What do you WANT to do most next? Where would you like to focus your attention on? How could you contribute?
2. Next, you Generate Hypotheses and Theories. What do you think will happen? What could you test out next? During this stage, you’re exploring possibilities about what you believe could happen. You’re generating ideas, theories, and next actions.
3. Then, you Test your Hypotheses by Running Small Experiments. You don’t go all in and commit the rest of your life to something right off the bat. You try things out — knowing whatever direction you embark on is just temporary and can change. Which experiment feels best to test out next? How will you conduct this experiment?
4. Next, you Analyze the Data — You take an objective look to see what you learned or discovered. You ask yourself, “What did I observe? What did I learn? What do I now know more confidently and with greater certainty?
5. Last, you Adjust and Implement your Next Experiment — What do I want to do next? What should I experiment with next now that I know what I know?

You continually repeat this process, build certainty, and build commitment.

It’s a constant learning process that never concludes. There’s no final endpoint — you simply move closer and closer to uncovering your truth and bringing forth your full creativity. All you need to do is identify and execute your next tiny (or large) experiment to be successful.

The “Edit” Mindset

This mindset is another antidote to perfectionism, fear of rejection, and fear of not being good enough.

When you apply this mindset, you shift your goal of creating the “perfect” outcome to creating the next “version” or “draft.”

Everything usually feels so serious — like if you make one mistake, it’ll all end in disaster. But really, everything you do is just an update, a new feature, a modification.

Regardless of what you’re working on, you almost always have the opportunity to go back and make upgrades, changes, or improvements.

When you apply this mindset, nothing is ever “done” or final (until you decide it to be).

Just like the iPhone, there is always another update or version coming out.

You can always edit what you created or build the next version — with updates, bug fixes, and new features!

With this mindset, you move fast, launch things into the world frequently, see what happens, and make small changes along the way.

With this mindset, you constantly remind yourself of the mantra, “Progress over Perfection.”

Any progress, even if tiny progress, is better than waiting until you do more research, make the perfect plan, or feel fully “ready.”

❓ Ask yourself, “What is the SMALLEST thing I can do to move this FORWARD? To make this BETTER than it was yesterday?”

Then commit to take action on that step and create progress. Just get moving.

Focus on the forward movement, rather than the final outcome.

The Artist/Body of Work Mindset

In creative work, there are no “right” or “wrong” answers.

There is no “correct” sequence of events for what you are building.

You can decide to do whatever you want.

So do what you want.

Trust yourself and your intuition.

Do NOT do just what you think you “should” do.

The best artists and songwriters don’t say, “What would my target market want me to create?”

They look at the blank canvas and ask:

• “What do I WANT to express?”
• “What do I WANT to create?
• “What do I like?”
• “What is energizing or exciting to me right now?”

They look to create something authentic. Something that has never been done before. Something fresh, and exciting to them.

And, they aren’t looking to just create one perfect, final masterpiece — they’re looking to create a body of work.

Could you imagine if Picasso stopped painting after one masterpiece? Or if the Beatles stopped creating music after their first #1 hit? How sad would that be for us? For them?

With this mindset, you’re expressing yourself authentically, creating a “portfolio” of experiences or products, and your style and purpose evolve over time.

There is no “right” order.

Zoom out and visualize the entire body of work you wish to create in the long term.

🤘Pick something that is most resonating with you from this body of work and just build.

What’s most resonating with you? Which one of these mindets could you test out next?

Share below! 👇

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 Creative Momentum Coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

I’m also experimenting with building my own “assistant coach” (i.e. my AI clone via GPT), Creative Momentum Coach. Feel free to test it out if you have GPT+ and be sure to give it feedback! It hopefully will help guide you toward bringing your biggest ideas to life — but who knows what exactly it will do at the moment :)

Develop an Unstoppable Mindset was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today I invite you to consider an experiment with the opposite of what you may be gearing up to do for the week…

First, read or listen to this 3-minute story, Relax for the Same Result, by Derek Sivers, one of my all-time favorite creative entrepreneurs and thinkers.

Then, spend 5–10 minutes reflecting or journaling on the following:

• What resonated with you most from this article?
• Where in your life or work do you feel you are working too hard?
• Where in your life or work are you creating unnecessary stress?
• Where in your life or work could you “relax for the same results?”

Feel free to share any insights or reflections in the comments.

Relax for the Same (or Better) Result was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You don’t need to learn another productivity technique or take another course.

The key to feeling like a Creative Badass, accelerating your momentum, and taking on bolder and bigger goals is creative confidence.

What is Creative Confidence?

⚡️I define Creative Confidence as the self-belief that you have the ability to overcome challenging, complex, and uncertain situations and achieve the creative outcomes that you set out to do. When your creative confidence is at level 10, you have zero doubt that you can figure out anything and everything that comes your way with your creativity.

IDEO co-founder, David Kelley, describes it as the ability to come up with new ideas AND have the courage to try them out.

Without creative confidence, no productivity technique or tool will be sustainable.

With it, you likely will never even need another productivity hack or tool again. 🤯

How Do You Get Creative Confidence?

Creative confidence is like a muscle — it can be strengthened through deliberate effort and experience.

Momentum and Guided Mastery

The best way to build creative confidence is through a process that social psychologists call “guided mastery” — experiencing one small success after another — and increasing the level of challenge as you go.

Have you heard of the Progress Principle?

One of my favorite creativity & innovation researchers is Harvard professor, Teresa Amabile. She conducted a large study to discover the states of inner work life and workday events that correlated with the highest levels of creativity and productivity.

For four months, Dr. Amabile and her colleagues asked 238 project team members across seven different companies to respond to a daily email survey inquiring about their feelings, motivation, performance, and creativity. This resulted in about 12,000 diary entries.

Much was learned from this research initiative, but their primary finding was the “Progress Principle.”

They found that experiencing progress on meaningful work was THE most significant factor related to the highest levels of creative output, productivity, and even fulfillment.

⚡️ The best way to strengthen your creative confidence is to experience one small success after another. To follow through on the things you say you want to do — no matter how small these things are. To feel regular progress.

Break your goals down into smaller steps and then build confidence by accomplishing one small step after another.

In other words, by creating and sustaining momentum.

This means using any technique that works for you to get one small thing done, starting today.

❓Ask yourself, “What progress do I want to make next?”

Then execute.

Acknowledge and Celebrate Your Progress to Strengthen Your Psychology

To amplify the benefits you get from building momentum, it’s important to actually acknowledge and celebrate your successes and progress.

Dr. Amabile and colleagues also found that tracking small wins every day further elevated employee motivation.

Simply recording your progress may help you appreciate your small accomplishments, which in turn may boost your sense of confidence, performance, and momentum that you can carry with you toward achieving bigger and bolder goals.

❓Do YOU pause and reflect on your progress?

👉 Try keeping a weekly or daily progress log (perhaps in a google spreadsheet or a handwritten journal). Any time you feel you’ve made progress on something meaningful, record it. Or simply ask yourself at the end of each day, “What progress did I make?”

👉 Create a “Wins Board” or wins repository. Create something in Trello, a google spreadsheet, or even a physical board to remind yourself of all the badass stuff you’ve done. Gather your accomplishments, awards, client testimonials, positive reviews, media coverage, nice notes from people, etc. — anything that gives you a creative confidence boost and reminds you that you have done great things in the past and can do them moving forward. Review this board weekly.

If you make progress or accomplish something and you don’t celebrate or acknowledge it, you’re actually training your mind that what you’re doing is not meaningful!

When you celebrate something, no matter how small, the reward circuitry in your brain gets activated, and the neurotransmitter dopamine is released. This release of dopamine not only energizes you and feels great, but it also tells your brain to repeat what triggered its release.

In other words, celebrating your progress and successes doesn’t just feel good — it actually helps to reinforce the positive actions, behaviors, and decisions that you made so that they are repeated again in the future.

Celebrating your small wins can literally fuel your momentum.

You don’t need to throw a party every time you make progress or accomplish something, but if you’re not taking the time to acknowledge and celebrate your wins in some small, personally meaningful way, you’re missing out on a simple but powerful way to build creative confidence and accelerate your momentum towards your creative goal.

Practice Gratitude

Performing simple weekly or daily acts of gratitude can have a big impact on your health and happiness — and thus your creativity and productivity.

There are many psychological benefits of keeping a gratitude journal. And simply visualizing and reflecting on what you are grateful for can bolster your internal resources.

Perhaps the strongest benefit in regards to helping creative confidence that I’ve experienced is building the belief that I am and have enough in my life.

I don’t need to achieve certain outcomes to feel validated or worthy. This has given me a sense of freedom and confidence where my self-worth is not tied to the success or failure of my creative pursuits. If someone rejects something I create, no worries. I have enough love, relationships, and resources to feel enough. Everything I achieve creatively is a bonus in my life and I can pursue those goals for the experience and journey — I don’t need a certain result from them. This feeling helps me stay committed but detached to my goals — which in turn increases my confidence and resilience.

❓ What experiences, relationships, accomplishments, or material things are you grateful for?

Closing

When you focus on building your creative confidence, you’ll come up with more creative ideas, make bolder decisions, and have the courage to consistently take action toward your creative goal.

❓What small steps can you take this week to begin cultivating your creative confidence?

Pick ONE to start building your momentum TODAY.

Let me know what’s resonating with you in the comments or privately messaging me. 🤘

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success. I believe that I have unique expertise in the psychology of creative work.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 Creative Momentum Coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, toolkits for creative entrepreneurs, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies & systems that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

How to Build Creative Confidence was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Introducing Creative Momentum Coach AI

I created a customized AI coach that will help you get unstuck, be more productive, and follow through on your most important creative goals.

First, I inserted USB cables into my brain and downloaded all my knowledge and perspectives on the psychology of creative work into a customized GPT. We’re talking years and years of practical insights from my own entrepreneurial and artistic endeavors, a PhD worth of knowledge on creativity, Flow, and positive psychology, and 8+ years of experience coaching creative entrepreneurs around the world.

Then, I trained Creative Momentum Coach AI to help users using my signature 3-pillar Creative Momentum Coaching system. It’s not going to just spout out information to you, it should coach you through whatever situation you want help with!

​Creative Momentum Coach AI is trained to help coach you to:

• Overcome overwhelm
• Better prioritize your projects
• Define your creative vision
• Stop procrastinating
• Break down your huge goals into definable pieces
• Design effective habits
• Optimize your time and build effective schedules
• Overcome impostor syndrome
• Stop being a perfectionist
• and more!

Just share with it whatever creative challenge or opportunity you are facing and it should coach you through it.

It’s pretty fun!

Sometimes it gets a bit weird like any other ChatGPT thing, but if you give it feedback it should quickly recover.

I invite you to experiment with it for yourself, give it feedback, and use it regularly as your creative collaborator and guide.

Originally I had thought that these custom GPTS would be free to anyone — but a kind user this morning pointed out that one must have a GPT Plus subscription to use (bummer).

But hopefully this will change as the GPT Store opens up more to the public (fingers crossed)

If you do have a GPT subscription, test it out!

Your feedback and regular use of it can help it have a growing impact on other creators and entrepreneurs around the world.

I’ll share more videos and walkthroughs of how to use it in the future, but for now just go and have fun with it!

Thanks for checking it out and let me know how you’re using it!

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

AI Productivity and Accountability Coaching for Creative People🤘 was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This morning, I saw a fellow coach post this on LinkedIn and it resonated with me:

It’s hard to change your thinking on your own.
It’s hard to create new patterns of thinking when old patterns are so comfortable.

Working with a coach, I get to consider my thinking from different angles.
My coach asks me questions I might not ask myself.
My coach helps me test my assumptions.
My coach calls me out when I am repeating a pattern, I said I didn’t want to repeat. 😊

With my coach, I can “think through” my thinking, and choose actions that lead to different results.

Yesterday, I was talking with a client about her new direction and creative vision.

She was clear on her direction and what she wanted to bring to life — and clear on her why.

It was inspiring to hear.

She also had done a great job identifying who she would need to become and what she would need to do differently to not feel stagnant anymore — and actually make her vision happen. It all seemed totally possible and within her capabilities and circumstances.

And yet, when we moved more into discussing the next actions to take and a roadmap to follow, an interesting thing happened.

Those old thinking patterns and limiting beliefs jumped right back out — the very same ones she previously explicitly identified as holding her back and keeping her stagnant.

The ones focused primarily on worries, concerns, and reasons to play it safe

The ones that rationalize doing things in similar ways so that she would feel more certain and planned out.

Anytime we’re making a transition in our life and work (especially bold, creative ones) those damn old habitual and limiting thinking patterns are going to show up and do everything they can to stop us or slow us down.

They are well-intended and want to keep us safe, secure, and certain.

But they also limit our growth and creative potential.

Luckily, my client and I were able to continue our conversation and call out these motherf*ckers and get her back on the bold track.

Do you have anyone in your corner calling out your negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, unconscious thinking blocks…and your bullshit?

If not, I hope you find someone to help you do this soon.

If you’d like support from me on this, there are a few ways to get it:

1. Join the next 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge. Doing the Challenge will really bring out and challenge those unhelpful thinking patterns. By the end of Day 30, you’ll likely feel that those motherf*ckers have lost much of their power over you. Choosing to do something, deciding what to do, and actually following through on it every day is a transformative thing. And, if you join the Mastermind membership level, I host a weekly, live group coaching session that focuses on eliminating self-doubt, unconscious blocks, and anything else keeping you stuck. ⚡️If this is your first time joining The 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge, get 20% off with the code NEWCHALLENGER20
2. Not into groups at this time? You can still challenge yourself via a low-cost, high-impact form of habit coaching that I am offering again in 2024. It’s all about setting priorities and staying accountable to them, and it’s facilitated completely over text. It’s asynchronous and lightweight, yet could be the extra accountability and perspective-challenging boost you need.
3. ​Creative Momentum Coaching — Work with me via my signature 1:1 coaching system designed to help you go deep and fast. This is more intensive and customized. You can schedule a complimentary 45-minute session with me to experience what it’s like and learn more if you’re serious and open to financially committing.

I believe my expertise in the psychology of creative work and the structures I’ve created to support creative people like you with bold goals could be a difference-maker for you.

Let’s go! 🤘

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

Changing: How’s That Working Out for You? was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

🤘Spoiler Alert: They essentially guarantee you will make meaningful momentum on your creative goals, no matter how overwhelmed, scattered, doubtful, or unorganized you feel.

Do you know why I host 4+ Coworking sessions per week in the 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge?

Because these virtual coworking sessions are game-changers for creative people.

Here are 7 reasons why virtual coworking sessions can fuel your creative momentum:

1. They Help You Prioritize

We creative, entrepreneurial-minded people don’t have a problem generating interesting possibilities and ideas.

It’s a superpower — but also can easily lead us to a state of possibility overwhelm.

It’s easy to lose direction or not know which next step to take.

Our virtual coworking sessions start with declaring what you will be working on and what you aim to achieve during the session.

This act of vocalizing your objectives can help sharpen your focus and prioritize tasks that matter the most.

The more coworking sessions you show up for, the more you strengthen your prioritization and decision-making skills. Two of the most critical skills for creative momentum.

2. They Sharpen Your Focus

Being in a virtual space with other committed individuals reduces the tendency to get sidetracked.

There’s a collective energy that magnifies concentration and commitment to the task at hand.

3. ​They Provide Support and Encouragement

When you cowork virtually, it feels like you’re part of a tribe that understands and values your goals.

No more feeling lonely or that your aspirations are insignificant.

When we connect face-to-face and share what we are working on, we are always met with cheerleading from our fellow virtual creative coworkers.

4. They Help You Overcome Procrastination

It’s no secret that “getting started” can be the hardest part.

It’s so easy to procrastinate when we are alone.

The structured setting of a virtual coworking session means there’s a defined start and end time, helping to eliminate the “I’ll do it later” syndrome.

5. They Help You ​Combat Perfectionism

One of the deadliest assassins of creative momentum is perfectionism.

Creative minds often wrestle with the desire to over-plan, over-research, feel more “ready” — all signs of perfectionism.

Virtual coworking provides a framework where progress is more important than perfection.

Watching others move forward can inspire you to do the same.

6. They Guarantee Meaningful Momentum

When you combine prioritization, amplified focus, decreased perfectionism, and motivational support you get guaranteed progress on your most important goals.

All you have to do is show up.

7. They Help You Develop Time Management Skills and Self-Accountability

For those who find it hard to manage their time, especially creatives who may also have ADHD, virtual coworking is a blessing.

By committing to specific time blocks, you practice the art of allocating and respecting your time, leading to enhanced productivity and time awareness.

Showing up to coworking sessions builds self-accountability and strengthens self-trust.

Hear what creative badass, Sandra Vivas has to say about the benefits of virtual coworking on her creative process.

Have you tried virtual coworking? Let me know below in the comments!

If you’re looking for a place to start, try out:

• Focusmate
• Caveday
• The 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge (Mastermind Level Membership) *Note: This is the community I facilitate.

⚡️If this is your first time joining The 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge, get 20% off with the code NEWCHALLENGER20

Virtual Coworking: Why It’s a Game-Changer for Creative People was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

⚒️ At the end of this article, I’ll share a resource I developed to help you diagnose which of the 25+ biggest psychological blocks to your creative momentum may be most slowing you down (and what to do about it).

But first, let’s look at the challenges with creative work…

Bringing to life the ideas that you uniquely envision and that only you can pull off means that you’re working without a clear template.

There is no easy checklist.

There is no clear career ladder.

There is no “correct” sequence of steps to follow.

There is no exact list of competencies or skills you need to develop with the exact resource.

As a creative entrepreneur, you have to do it all.

You have to figure out the what, why, how, who, when, and where.

Then you have to implement and execute it all.

And then you need to evaluate to see if it all is working or not (and identify how to adjust, develop, and refine).

And underlying all of these activities is our never-ending battle with our negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, and unconscious blocks.

Creative, entrepreneurial work is hard enough as it is when viewed objectively.

Layer in the subjective (aka psychological) and it feels almost impossible at times.

But Why?!?!? 😩

Our brains are biologically wired and evolutionarily programmed to resist change.

Yes, this is even true for creative people.

Even if you truly want to do bold, creative, authentic things…your brain still has parts that solely want to keep you safe and secure.

🧠 This means that parts of your brain want to (move away from this) → (and go to this):

• Uncertainty → Certainty
• Complexity → Simplicity
• Fuzziness → Clarity
• Risk → Safety
• Discomfort → Comfort
• Unpredictability → Predictability
• Feeling like an Incompetent Beginner → Feeling Competent
• Feeling Out of Control → Feeling In Control

Creative work is all about doing things differently and going against the status quo.

It inherently brings about everything on the left side of the above list.

It goes against the brain’s ingrained programming.

It can literally feel like a battle between different parts of your mind when you decide to be and do something creative.

Extraordinary effort, focus, and commitment are required to operate against what’s inherently wired into our brains.

🛑 25+ Biggest Psychological Blocks Slowing You Down and Making You Procrastinate

Often what’s most holding you back is your own psychology.

You don’t need to learn another productivity “technique” or start using a different productivity app. They all work.

You already have all the skills you need to act on your creative goals.

But there is a good chance you aren’t taking a close enough look at the neuroscientific and psychological barriers present.

Sometimes all it takes is to notice and acknowledge them for the resistance to melt away.

Build your self-awareness and better understand which of the 25+ possible psychological blocks might be slowing you down most:

​The Stop Procrastinating and Just Get Started Checklist​

Which of the 25+ psychological blocks are you experiencing?

In the link below, I share in a Medium article more about the complexity of procrastination for creative people (and what to do about it).

👉 Use this resource to quickly diagnose why you’re procrastinating — and what to do next to overcome your resistance.

Implementing this checklist may mean the difference between keeping your most meaningful ideas stuck inside your head or actually bringing them to life.

End Your Procrastination and Inconsistency Once and For All

One of the simplest ways to overcome the blocks slowing you down is to not try to do it all yourself.

As creative, intelligent, motivated, ambitious people, we often think we “should” just be able to handle and do everything ourselves. We’re bad at asking for help or support.

This is a faulty mental model if we truly want to see our biggest ideas come to life in a way that feels more efficient, effortless, and enjoyable.

Don’t go it alone.

Get support and accountability from other dedicated creative people (and from me and my expertise in the psychology of creative work).

👉Join the 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge (starts Monday, January 15th).

⚡️ If you sign up before 2024, get 30% Off any membership level (if this is your first time joining) with the code NEWCHALLENGER30

Feel free to email me and let me know if anything is resonating with you. Or if you have any questions.

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success. I believe that I have unique expertise in the psychology of creative work.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

Creative, Entrepreneurial Work is F*ing Hard. was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This free guide will help you unearth opportunities to do your best and boldest creative work — and be the best and boldest version of yourself.

As a result of going through this guide, you will:

Dial in and Amplify Your Deepest Sources of Motivation

• (Re)connect with your passions and what authentically enlivens you
• Identify your strengths and how to leverage them
• Discover the activities and situations that get you into Flow (the state of optimal experience and peak creative performance) — and how to bring more of it into your life
• Clarify your deepest values and how you will embody them
• Set targets for meaningful extrinsic sources of motivation

Define your Creative Vision for the Next Year

• Create a clear, focused, and compelling vision for who you need to be, what you need to do, and why
• Prioritize and select the creative goals that are most important

Design Personalized Strategies to Actually Make it All Happen

• Apply a set of tools and templates that will help you follow through consistently on your creative vision and bring it to life

How to Use This Guide

This is a comprehensive guide. To get the most out of it, take your time and approach each section with curiosity, openness, and the willingness to challenge your assumptions.

Try to look at things from an objective perspective.

This is not about beating yourself up or feeling bad about what happened (or didn’t) last year. It’s about being honest with yourself and deciding what you want to do and who you want to be moving forward.

Some sections will certainly resonate with you more (or less), but I encourage you to at least reflect on each section.

The sections are intentionally sequenced and organized to help you best:

• Identify what matters most to you and why
• Uncover key insights and lessons learned from your past year
• Discover opportunities for a more aligned, bolder next year
• Define your creative vision and goals for next year
• Make your creative vision and upgraded life actually happen

After you complete the guide, return to it monthly, weekly, or even daily to keep yourself energized and on track. Update and modify it as you and your goals evolve.

I hope that this guide will help you feel clear, energized, and inspired about your year ahead.

*If you’d like to access a free version of the guide in Google Doc form so that you can record your responses and reflections, go here. You’ll get some bonus email tips for getting the most out of the guide as well through that link.

If you need additional guidance or someone to challenge your thinking and nudge you out of your comfort zone, email me — I’m here for you.

Let’s get to work now, shall we?

🎛 Part I: Dial in and Amplify Your Deepest Sources of Motivation

Before you jump into setting big goals for the future, it’s important to make sure you’re setting goals you actually want to work on and achieve.

If you’re setting bold goals that you don’t truly want to make happen or put effort towards, you’ll waste a lot of energy, joy, and time — and feel twice as frustrated should you fail to achieve them (or unsatisfied and empty if you do).

Don’t go after goals that you feel you “should” — go after what you truly “want.”

To see your boldest ideas come to life and become the creator or entrepreneur you know you can be, you need to tap into and amplify your authentic motivation.

With clearer and stronger motivation you simply will be more energized, focused, persistent, and resilient.

You will undoubtedly face obstacles, challenges, and the unexpected.

If your motivation is shallow, forced, or disingenuous, you won’t make it.

Let’s ensure your motivation is authentic and goes deep.

There are 3 types of motivation to think about when designing your creative vision and goals:

1. Intrinsic — what authentically energizes and enlivens you (e.g. your passions, curiosities, inspirations, strengths, sources of flow, values).
2. Prosocial — the impact you want to make on other people, your industry, or your community.
3. Extrinsic — the recognition, rewards, respect, accolades, or money that others give to you for your creative work and goal achievement.

Which of these fuel you most?

How clear and strong is your motivation in each of these areas?

The best way to start getting clear on what truly matters most to you and why is to ask yourself powerful questions that uncover your authentic sources of motivation.

As you reflect, go even deeper and ask yourself “Why?” after each question.

Reflect on the following questions to clarify and amplify your motivation:

1 — Amplify Your Intrinsic Motivation

Start with amplifying your intrinsic motivation: clarifying your passions, curiosities, strengths, and values.

These will serve as the building blocks to your bold creative vision.

You start here because this is the purest source of motivation — if your intrinsic motivation is high, you’ll enjoy what you’re doing and keep going with it no matter what impact you’re making or how people are reacting.

Give yourself time and space to reflect and journal on these questions below.

Be mindful of any patterns or themes you are noticing.

Ask Yourself…

Passions & Joy

• What brings me joy?
• What excites me?
• When am I having the most fun?
• What do I love?
• What am I absolutely obsessed with?
• What did I love to do when I was a kid? What did I want to do when I grew up?
• What could I spend hours learning more about, experimenting with, and doing that would feel like play instead of work?

Curiosities

• What am I curious about?
• What topics do I love learning about?
• What do I want to learn more about next?
• What skills do I want to develop?

Inspirations

• Who do I admire most?
• Who inspires me?
• Who are my role models?
• Who are my top 3 creative influences?
• What types of stories inspire me most?
• Who do I most enjoy spending time around or with?
• Who do I most want to help? What are their goals? Their challenges?

Strengths

• What are my strengths and talents?
• What am I doing when I feel most energized or engaged?
• What am I “a natural” at?
• What have other people told me I am great at?
• What have I done well in the past that I didn’t need explained to me?
• When in the past have I felt “in the zone” or “on fire”?

*Note: To discover or validate your Strengths, you can also use formal strengths assessments, backed by comprehensive scientific research:

• Values-In-Action (VIA) — free!
• Gallup CliftonStrengths — for a fee.

If you decide to take one of these assessments, send me your results and I can help debrief you on what they mean (and don’t mean) as well as how to best put them into action.

Values

Using the list of values next, choose two values that you hold most important — the beliefs that matter most to you — that help you find your way in the dark, and that fill you with a feeling of purpose.

You’ll most likely want to choose 10, but it’s important to select just two because if everything on the list is important to you, then nothing is truly a driver.

When selecting your values, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this define me?
• Is this who I am at my best?
• Is this the filter that I use to make hard decisions?
• Do I put this into practice (and not just profess this)?

You might start by circling all that resonate and then going back through those to work out which are truly your values. Your core values are where all of the ‘second tier’ circled values are tested. For example, you might truly value reliability but have a hard time not choosing family because that also feels like a value to you. However, the value of reliability is present in the way that you show up for your family.

Our values should be so crystallized in our minds, so clear and precise that they don’t feel like a choice — they are simply the definition of who we are in our lives. Try to resist selecting words representing things you’d like to be, should be, or have just been coached to be. This is about who you are.

2 — Connect with Your Prosocial Motivation

Next, connect to your prosocial motivation.

This is the impact you want to make on other people, your industry, or your community.

Prosocial motivation will elevate your drive to bring your biggest ideas to life — if you dial it in authentically. And it will help you come up with ideas, products, and services that are more useful to others.

Give yourself time and space to reflect on these questions below. Journal your responses. Be mindful of any patterns or themes you are noticing:

Ask Yourself…

• Who do I WANT to serve, influence, or impact? (NOT — who “should” I” serve)
• What impact on others do I want to make?
• How do I want to help other people?
• What contribution do I want to make to my community?
• What legacy do I want to leave?

3 — Align Your Extrinsic Motivation

Last, it’s time to align your intrinsic motivation and prosocial motivation to extrinsic sources of motivation.

But first, a bit of a warning.

Doing things solely for fame, recognition, or money will likely not be enough to create consistent momentum and success with your creative or entrepreneurial goals.

Creative work is just too complex, long-term, risky, and challenging to not have intrinsic and prosocial motivation sources. Many times, there is much outside of your control in creative domains that influence the extent to which you experience extrinsic rewards.

If you’re solely focused on the extrinsic rewards you could obtain, your creative work will likely not be very creative, original, or unique anyway — you likely will find yourself seeking to imitate others’ successes vs carving out your own unique path.

Also, relying on extrinsic motivation can sometimes actually “contaminate” your deeper sources of motivation.

If you spend too much time focused on extrinsic motivation sources, it could more frequently trigger negative self-talk and limiting beliefs (e.g. “I am not good enough, what if they don’t like it?, what if they reject me? etc”).

⚡️At the same time, if your intrinsic and prosocial sources of motivation are dialed in and authentic (and they will be if you thoughtfully went through the previous questions), you can align your extrinsic sources of motivation to deepen and strengthen your motivational well.

It’s perfectly fine and positive to want money, respect, and recognition — and you deserve these things as well as a creator or entrepreneur.

For example, I’m looking to win a Grammy for Children’s Music for the original kids’ music that actually rocks I create under the artist name, MrBoodaddy. It’s not my primary motivator (having fun, being creative, capturing moments of my son’s life, and creating something my son loves, are my main intrinsic and prosocial motivators) — but it adds an extra motivational factor into the mix that strengthens my drive and helps me to focus on what next strategies & actions to take in the future.

To better align your sources of motivation, seek out opportunities to connect them. For example:

• “If I have more fame and recognition… I can reach more people and have a bigger impact on their lives.”
• “If I have more money… I can bring bolder, more complex creative projects to life. And this will fuel my personal growth and learning — which can further open more creative opportunities…and bring more impact and value to my community/audience.”

Ok, now let’s identify and align your extrinsic sources of motivation.

Ask Yourself…

• What types of recognition are important to me?
• Are there any awards or accolades in my industry that would be exciting to be nominated for (and win)?
• What indicators or markers of advancement are there in my industry that are important to me (e.g. promotions, number of sales, job titles, certifications, degrees, etc)
• How might more money, more recognition, more fame, more rewards, etc. supercharge my intrinsic and prosocial sources of motivation?

4 — (BONUS) Your 6 Word Epitaph

An epitaph is a phrase or form of words written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone.

Were you to write your own epitaph in six words, what would it say?

Would it be a reflection of your life, how you lived it, who you hoped you were in that time, what you want to leave others with, a message to loved ones or the Earth, a revelation, an epiphany, a declaration, a softening, a questioning, a farewell…?

How to write your epitaph:

Start by taking 3 minutes just writing words — feelings you have, things you love, adjectives about yourself — just whatever words come to mind, jot them down, without judgment, continuously for 3 minutes.

At the end of the time, look back through your list of words and circle the ones that resonate most.

If a 6-word epitaph still doesn’t come to mind, hone in on one word and freely write about it for a minute or two. Synthesize the ideas that came up in your free-write and continue to distill down the main idea emerging further and further until you’ve reached your 6-word epitaph.

The whole process should take 10–20 min or less.

Examples:

• Well, I thought it was funny. — Stephen Colbert
• Either gave it all or nothing.
• Friends are family; family is everything.
• Love is more important than anything.
• Gave in, gave up, gave out.
• Be Creative. Be Courageous. Be Compassionate.
• Create Long-term Value, Today

5 — Looking Back, Looking Forward

Let’s synthesize and amplify things even further.

It’s time to look back to evaluate how you’ve been doing, as well as look forward to the next year (and beyond) and what changes you’d like to make.

Looking Back…

• How intentionally did I live my life last year (as it relates to my authentic sources of motivation)? How would I rate this on a 1–10 scale?
• In what areas did I feel aligned with what matters most to me?
• In what areas did I feel out of alignment?
• If I could go back in time and do the year over, what would I do differently?

Looking Forward…

• What sources of motivation would I like to tap into more next year?
• What does an authentically motivating life look and feel like to me next year?
• How could I creatively combine my authentic motivations?
• How else could I be more intentional?
• What do I want to commit to?

Other Key Takeaways

• What other insights or lessons learned from Part I of this guide would I like to capture here?
• What would I like to further explore?

🎯 Part II: Define your Creative Vision for the Next Year

In this section, you will:

• Review your creative vision and goals from last year to uncover lessons and opportunities
• Get clear on your creative vision and goals for next year — and the capabilities and relationships you need to develop to achieve them

1 — Review Last Year’s Creative Vision and Goals

Look back on last year to uncover key insights and lessons learned that can be applied moving forward.

Ask Yourself…

• How did I do on my most important priorities this past year? (If possible, try to give a rating of 1–10)
• Where did I face my biggest challenges and stresses?
• What am I most proud of accomplishing this past year?
• What, if anything, do I wish I had done differently?
• What lessons did I learn this past year?
• What trends or signals (internal or external) have I seen that might indicate it’s time to pivot or try something new?
• Am I on the best path to becoming the person I want to become and living the life I want?
• Where have I been making excuses for something I need to take more personal responsibility for?

2 — Clarify Your Creative Vision for Next Year

Your Creative Vision

Now, let’s think big picture for the year ahead.

Given what authentically motivates me…

• What do I “WANT” to actually create or bring to life? (Not: what “SHOULD” I do? This language distinction between “want” and “should” is important!]
• A year from now how would I like my life to look? What’s different? What’s the same?
• What experiences do I want to have this year?
• Who do I want to serve, influence, or impact this year? And how?
• What contribution do I want to make?
• Where am I most afraid of taking decisive action?
• What would I do if I wasn’t afraid? What is the BOLDEST thing I could do?
• What else do I want to make happen for myself or others?
• If I were to give my year a “theme,” what would it be?

Who You Need to Be

To bring your bold creative vision to life, you’ll likely need to shift into being a different version of yourself.

This is not about being inauthentic in any way, but about upgrading, modifying, or letting go.

This might look like developing new skills and capabilities, making changes in your behaviors, or letting go of unhelpful thinking and habits.

• What new skills, knowledge, or capabilities do I need to develop to bring my creative vision to life? What is the best way to develop these?
• What habits, rituals, routines, or systems do I need to develop to help support my creative vision?
• What negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, or stories do I want to let go of?
• What sources of distraction or bad habits do I want to eliminate?
• What other small or big changes need to happen?
• What does the best version of myself look like, feel like, and do?

What Support Do You Need?

If you don’t need other people to help you achieve your creative vision, your creative vision may not be bold enough.

Take a few minutes to reflect on what relationships and types of support might help you accelerate your creative vision.

• Who am I most grateful for in my life?
• What kind of support do I need from others and where will I find it?
• Who could I partner or collaborate with?
• What relationships do I want to create or deepen?
• What relationships do I need to let go of that are no longer serving me?
• What else do I need to invest in to accomplish what matters most?

3 — Specific Projects, Goals, Milestones

Even with an authentic, energizing creative vision, it can still feel like too big of a challenge to actually make it all happen.

To actually bring your big, creative vision to life, you need to make things smaller and more specific.

When you define things in smaller and more specific ways, they shift from big, overwhelming, abstract concepts in your head into measurable, objective, and less threatening steps you can take to experience real momentum.

Respond to these sections and questions to help you get clearer, more specific, and more actionable:

Start Fast

Most bold creative visions die early. Ensure you keep going by accomplishing small wins right at the start.

• What quick win(s) would I feel proud of accomplishing in Month 1? In Week 1?
• What is the fastest way to experience a win or create momentum?
• What is the smallest or easiest thing I could do to get started?

Identify Specific Creative Projects and Goals

What aspects of your creative vision can you make more objective and clear?

What projects and goals can you define?

Next, do your best to identify a simple and clear definition of your creative goal. Ideally, you’d begin with a verb, followed by identifying the result, and a deadline.

For example:

• Produce (verb) a Christmas kids’ music album (result) by July 1st (deadline).
• Meditate (verb) for 15 minutes a day for 30 days (result) by February 1st (deadline)..
• Send out (verb) 30 pitches (result) by March 1st (deadline).

If you’re unsure what deadlines you want to set right now, that’s ok.

It’s hard to set specific, accurate deadlines when we’re starting something new. We often don’t know what we don’t know.

Instead, focus on putting in the time and learning along the way.

Just write out the verbs and results (e.g. Write a book, Launch my online course, Finish my film, Build v1.0 of my app) — and come back later to set some dates after you get started and create some momentum.

• [insert creative goal 1]
• [insert creative goal 2]
• [insert creative goal 3]
• etc.

Identify Anti-Goals and Projects to Pause

Sometimes getting clear, specific, and committed on what you WON’T do can be even more helpful. Make sure you have enough clarity, space, and focus to do what truly matters most.

• What do I need to say NO to in order to create the space and focus necessary?
• What boundaries or rules will I set for myself? (e.g. work on 2 projects at a time at most; create time to rest and recharge, etc.)
• What creative goals might be best to “Pause” until another year (or until I achieve my primary goals)?

Create Your Roadmap and Milestones

You can’t do everything all at once, but if you sequence things thoughtfully, you can make amazing things happen.

• What sequence of events makes the most sense for me to pursue?
• 3 months from now, what do I want to have accomplished?
• 6 months from now, what do I want to have accomplished?
• 9 months from now, what do I want to have accomplished?
• 1 year from now, what do I want to have accomplished?
• What other monthly or weekly milestones would be helpful to set up?
• How will I track my progress?

End Strong

There is a decent chance that the big, bold things you’re committed to pursuing will take longer than estimated — and often due to things out of your control.

• Are there any end-of-year retreats or things I can plan for now (where I will have focused time to make one last push and close things out)?
• Do I want to set any dates at the end of each quarter or month to block time and close out my projects and milestones?

📈 Part III: Strategies to Actually Make It All Happen

Now it’s time to make sure your vision doesn’t just stay a dream.

Implement these strategies and tools and you will create powerful momentum and make your creative vision and goals happen.

1 — Daily Momentum Questions

The simplest way to build momentum toward actually bringing your creative vision to life is to ask yourself a set of simple questions each evening.

Take just 5 minutes each evening to reflect and write out your responses to create and sustain momentum:

• What progress did I make today toward my creative vision?
• What progress do I want to make tomorrow?
• What is my very first step with this?
• When is the best time to do this?
• How can I make what I want to do tomorrow more fun, motivating, or enjoyable?
• What distractions could I minimize or eliminate tomorrow?

Best Practices

• Don’t overthink these questions. Trust your intuition and gut.
• Think of responding to these questions as a daily “practice” or “workout” — the more consistent you are, the stronger you become (and the more focus and accountability you create towards making your creative vision happen).
• Keep track of your responses in a journal, spreadsheet, or document so that now and then you can revisit them and review them to see what patterns are emerging. It’s also great to look back at all the wins and momentum you are creating.
• You could even set some repeating notifications in Google Calendar or phone to remind yourself to do these each evening.

2 — Design Effective Habits

As part of what you identified in Part 1 and 2, you may want to build new habits that will help you transform into your best self and support your creative vision.

Here’s how to design key habits that will help you create and sustain momentum toward bringing your vision to life.

When Deciding on a Habit to Build, Ask Yourself:

• What is the tiniest thing I could do that I have control over, that if done repeatedly, will bring me closer and closer to my vision or purpose?
• How can I make this as convenient and enjoyable as possible for myself?

Elements of an Effective Habit for Bringing Your Creative Vision to Life:

1) Connected to Your Creative Vision

• Each time you do the habit, it should bring you closer to your creative vision or be directly aligned with the person you want to be. The action or behavior isn’t random — it’s purposeful.

2) Tiny.

• Big creative visions can often feel more paralyzing than motivating. Make your habit tiny — ridiculously tiny.

3) Controllable.

• Your habits should be under your control, meaning you can execute them regardless of what else is happening around you. It doesn’t need the stars and moons to align perfectly.

4) Convenient.

• Reduce as much friction as possible. Make the new habit feel convenient — so convenient that you can’t say no to it.

5) Repeatable.

• Make your habit repeatable. Your habit doesn’t need to happen every day. What rhythm feels sustainable? Daily? Weekly? Quarterly? Define what consistency means to you, and stick to it.

6) Enjoyable.

• To supercharge your habit, ask yourself, “How could I make this more fun or enjoyable?” You want your habit to be associated with a positive experience. This helps strengthen your habit (and makes the process of bringing your creative vision to life more fun.)

3 — Make “Getting Started” Easy

When you have huge dreams, it is easy to feel overwhelmed — and when we feel overwhelmed, we procrastinate.

Getting started is always the most challenging part when it comes down to creating momentum and making progress on your creative vision.

But once we DO get started, things quickly begin to feel much easier as we go. It’s that initial resistance that is the hardest to overcome.

This’s why, no matter what approach you take towards breaking your creative vision down into smaller pieces and habits, it’s so critical to have strategies for making it easy to get started.

To make getting started easier, ask yourself:

• What is my “warm-up” routine?

Professional athletes, musicians, and performers always warm up before their workouts, practices, and performances. They don’t just jump in cold — that could lead to serious injury at worst, or lower than their peak performance at best.

A professional’s job is to consistently perform at their highest level regardless of how they feel that day — and to do this they create powerful warm-up routines and rituals that get them ready to perform.

My past client Dave, who was writing a feature film, had a simple, but effective warm-up routine that helped him consistently make progress, regardless of what his initial motivation level was that day.

Each morning before diving into his main work of developing his script, he spent 30–45 minutes watching a critically acclaimed movie or TV show while relaxing on his balcony in the sun. While he was watching, he would just start writing notes about what he liked or thought was interesting about what he was watching.

Then when the 30–45 minutes wrapped up, he reflected on his notes and explored how he could possibly apply them to his own film. After that brief reflection, he effortlessly transitioned into applying those notes and ideas to his actual script development work session.

Rather than just jumping into the hard task of developing his script, he eased into it in an enjoyable, inspirational, and low-pressure way that also boosted his creative thinking.

Creating a warm-up routine can be a powerful way to get started and ease into your most important creative work — even when you don’t initially feel like doing it. After your warm-up, you most likely will naturally just get right into your main creative work.

So, What could YOUR “warm-up” look like?

• What is my “mise-en-place”?

In most professional kitchens, it’s all about preparation, order, and organization.

Mise-en-place literally means “put in place” — and is a French phrase that means to gather and arrange the ingredients and tools needed for cooking.

But for many chefs, this phrase goes much deeper. It can be a way of life, even.

Chefs can easily do six hours of prep for a three-hour dinner shift. They make sure everything that they need to cook that award-winning meal is in an organized, ready-to-access place.

All of their ingredients and tools are at hand, in a deliberate order and organization, so that they are ready to begin their work and perform it at the highest level.

For me if I am creating music my mise-en-place could look like this: my music workstation is decluttered, the song I am focusing on is loaded up on my computer, my guitars are tuned and plugged in — ready to go, my mics are set up properly, my levels have been checked and ready to record.

Essentially — everything is already set up and ready to go — so when I sit down I can jump right into creating.

I don’t need to scramble to find anything. I don’t waste any time getting set up. I just start.

What could mise-en-place mean to you?

4 — Optimize Your Time

Being deliberate about how spend your time & energy is one of the most important things you can do to ensure you bring your creative vision to life.

It can be helpful to identify how to best “chunk” your hours and days — especially if you have many competing priorities that require different types of thinking & decision-making.

One helpful concept to apply to your creative work is Maker vs Manager Time.

Maker time is devoted to strategizing, building, creating, and developing. Ideally, you’d protect longer chunks of time for these maker time sessions. It’s for what Cal Newport refers to as deep work.

Without maker time, you likely will feel “busy” but not “productive” — and won’t experience the desired momentum towards your creative vision.

We all will have manager time activities (e.g. communications, coordination,, administration, etc.) that we need to attend to regardless of what we are pursuing.

But think about how you might more effectively shift them around or batch them together so that they don’t interfere with your maker time.

Check out these articles to get ideas about how to batch your time and activities to best support your goals:

• Read This Google Email About Time Management Strategy
• Follow the 90/10 Principle for Peak Personal Impact

5 — Design Your Ideal Week

Take your commitment to your creative vision to the next level by actually mapping out your “ideal week.”

When I say “ideal,” I am not referring to your fantasy week where you would have no day job, no family or relationship responsibilities, and no need to engage in physical activity.

I am referring to ideal in the sense that given all that you are required to do, how do you want to design your days so that you are also spending time on what is most meaningful to you (e.g. your creative work, your day job, your most important relationships, etc.).

Mapping out your ideal week (and tracking to see how well you can stick to it) will give you a snapshot of the difference between what you say is important for you to do and what you actually do.

This exercise will open your eyes to: a) the choices you make around how you actually spend your time, and b) how much time things actually take you to do (we often underestimate how long things will take us, especially creative work). This process will give you new insights into how to better manage your time and distractions.

Instructions

1. Open up the Ideal Week Template
2. Go to FILE → Make A COPY to create a version for yourself that you can edit.
3. Look at some of the included examples of other people’s Ideal Weeks for inspiration
4. Reflect on the milestones and activities that you’ve identified for your creative goal, your other goals, your relationships, your responsibilities, and other activities that you want to experience.
5. It can be helpful to give each day a Theme to provide intention & focus. (For example: Monday = Marketing, Tuesday = Creative Project Day, Wednesday = Workflows, Thursday = Thought Leadership, Friday = Exploration)
6. Try to strive for at least one 90-minute block of focused creative work time per day to create opportunities for peak performance and “maker” time. If you can’t, do your best to get an hour of undistracted time.
7. Batch your activities strategically into Focus Areas to prevent too much mental switching between task types (which will drain your energy)
8. Create buffer time in between activities for added flexibility — you aren’t a robot! And activities may go over.
9. Feel free to use silly code names or color code your activities in the template to create a more vivid, inspirational picture of your ideal week!
10. Print out or keep your ideal week somewhere that you see it multiple times per day
11. Test out your ideal week. Track how you actually spend your time, what feels most challenging, what feels easiest, where you have underestimated or overestimated time needed for an activity, what patterns you are noticing, what most throws you off schedule, etc.
12. Update and adjust your ideal week based on what you learned and test out version 2.0 (or 3.0, or 4.0, etc).
13. Repeat steps 1–12 until you have created your own personal creative momentum system that ensures you achieve your creative goal!

6 — Find Your Flow

Flow is the state of optimal experience — where you are operating at your highest levels of creativity and performance.

More Flow = achieving your creative vision faster, more effortlessly, and with more enjoyment.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could bring more Flow into your work and life?

You may think getting into this state of optimal performance is out of your control — a blessing from the creative gods that is gifted to you unpredictably.

This may be your current experience with Flow, but it’s simply not true.

You can actually deliberately design your experiences to increase your likelihood of getting into Flow.

7 — Make Your Creative Vision and Plan for Achieving It Visual

Print out your responses to this document.

Create a bookmark and reference it once a week.

Summarize your main takeaways and next actions and put them up on sticky notes on your bathroom mirror.

Write things out on a giant whiteboard in bold lettering.

Turn pieces of this into a screensaver.

Do something so that the reflection, visioning, strategizing, and planning don’t just stay a one-time event.

Make your most important takeaways, plans, ideal week, habits, next steps — anything that you feel is most important — VISUAL where you will see it them least once per week, every week.

🙌 Get Support

I hope this guide has been helpful to you and your creative goals. Please let me know in the comments or by messaging me directly.

I’d love to invite you to strengthen your creative vision and execution of it.

1 - I will be offering a special 90-minute Reflection and Visioning Coaching session (along with post-session support) for $202.40.

Sharpen your creative vision, design specific strategies and milestones for bringing it to life, and create a plan for overcoming any negative self-talk and limiting beliefs slowing you down.

⚡️Book a 20-minute Discovery Call with me to learn more and discuss what this could look like for you.

2 — Save your spot for the next 30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge. Make Progress on your 2024 Creative Vision every day for 30 days with the support and accountability of a group of committed creators and entrepreneurs from around the world.

Best wishes in all that you do and may your next year be momentous!

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

Bigger, Bolder, Better: The Annual Reflection Guide to Design Your Best Year Yet 🤘 was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When it comes to creativity, “more” is not always “better.”

In our relentless quest to achieve the ambitious creative goals we’ve set for ourselves, we often overlook a crucial ingredient: the power of stepping back and letting our ideas incubate.

This concept is not just a feel-good suggestion; it’s backed by scientific research.

If you aren’t getting time away from your work, the quality of your creative output will actually suffer.

Are you leaving enough time and space for incubation?

Rethinking Hustle Culture

Creativity is not a linear, predictable process.

Contrary to what “hustle” culture would have you believe, our most innovative work does not come about through simply going harder or doing more.

We must unlearn the notion that if we’re not getting the creative results we’re hoping for, we need to do more.

Paradoxically, in order to reach higher levels of innovation and solve more complex problems, we actually need to do less at times.

We need time for restoration not only to prevent burnout (which can completely derail us from our creative goals) but to actually help us more effectively and effortlessly achieve our creative goals.

We need breaks and space to simply allow our mind to wander freely without directly tasking it to do something.

The Power of Incubation

These moments of distancing yourself from your goal encourage incubation, an unconscious cognitive state where your mind is free to process the enormous amounts of information that you have been consciously feeding it.

When the mind is relaxed and free to unconsciously process everything, it can lead to abrupt moments of insight, those “a ha” moments that I’m sure you’ve experienced while showering, taking a walk, driving, doing the dishes, or some other non-work activity.

In fact, our unconscious mind is actually much more powerful than our conscious mind at making creative associations and solving complex problems.

Incubation is all about giving our brains the space to make unexpected connections.

The Science of Incubation — Why It’s So Helpful

Research backs up the power of incubation, showing that incubation:

• Lets our conscious mind rest, replenishing cognitive resources.
• Helps us become less fixated and “stuck” on ineffective solutions and approaches
• Activates and integrates unconscious neural pathways (i.e. builds new connections), leading to novel ideas.
• Promotes opportunistic assimilation — as you go about your day, you may more effectively take notice of something that’s related to your problem and assimilate it into your creative thinking

A Story of Incubation and Innovation

In 1976, John Reed, then the head of the new Consumer Services Group at CitiGroup, went on vacation to the beach. He needed to get away from the stress and turmoil of his high-impact position, which started in 1974.

He thought he was taking a vacation to rest and recharge, but what happened on this trip to the beach would forever transform the banking industry.

While lounging at the beach, John suddenly was hit with inspiration. Quickly, he grabbed a pen and some paper and began transcribing his thoughts.

In this brain-dumping of ideas, John outlined a new vision for consumer banking, believing that it would become a core business that could not only help his company grow, but one that would deeply benefit society in general.

What he thought was a break to rest and recharge turned into a pivotal moment in banking history. His ‘Memo from the Beach’ laid the foundation for consumer banking and ATMs as we know them today.

This story exemplifies how stepping away from work can lead to creative breakthroughs.

Practical Tips for Incubation — Find Your Incubation Activity

Whether it’s a walk, a bath, or even doing dishes, find what helps your mind detach from your goals.

What ideas or opportunities could you experiment with to bring more incubation to your life?

What helps your mind wander?

I find that there is a great opportunity for incubation in the mundane. Those everyday activities that we often take for granted, or approach with annoyance, can actually be reframed into powerful opportunities for incubation.

Here are some ideas to experiment with:

• Driving — The repetitive nature of driving, especially on routes we know well or long boring drives, can shift our focus away from active problem-solving. This mental shift allows subconscious thoughts to surface, leading to unexpected creative insights. I personally get a lot of ideas for the hooks, melodies, and lyrics of the music I create while driving.
• Doing the Dishes — The simple, almost automatic act of washing dishes can be meditative. The sensory experience — the feel of the water, the sound of clinking dishes — can act as a gentle distraction, allowing the mind to wander and explore creative ideas. A ​study in the scientific journal, Mindfulness​, found that mindful dishwashing — focusing on the smell of the soap, the warmth of the water, and the feel of the dishes — led to a 27% decrease in nervousness and a 25% increase in inspiration.
• Taking a Bath or Shower — There’s a reason taking a long hot bath is the cliche incubation and “a-ha” insight generator. Baths work! Archimedes famously shouted “Eureka!” in his bath upon discovering the principle of buoyancy, showcasing how relaxation can lead to monumental insights. The combination of warm water and solitude creates an ideal environment for the mind to detach from work-related artifacts and roam freely.
• Walking the Dog — Walking the dog combines physical activity with a change of scenery, which can stimulate new neural connections. The repetitive motion of walking, coupled with the responsibility of caring for a pet, provides just enough engagement to keep us grounded while our minds explore creative avenues. Studies also show that walking, especially in nature, can significantly boost creativity. Nature walks have been linked to enhanced cognitive functioning and increased creative output. One of our very own Challenge members, Cassandra, has talked about the restorative power of her walks with her dog after long days of work.
• Gardening — The tactile and nurturing nature of gardening allows for a calming, immersive experience. As you focus on planting and tending to plants, your mind can solve problems in the background.
• Cooking — Cooking can not only be relaxing, but it can provide the mind with small challenges to solve. While experimenting with ingredients or cooking methods, a person might suddenly find a solution to a problem they’ve been ruminating on. Prepping a meal can become a meditative act that allows the brain to detach and restore.

Why These Activities Work for Incubation

• Mindfulness: They promote a state of mindfulness, which has been shown to enhance creativity.
• Distraction: These activities provide a gentle distraction, allowing the unconscious mind to work on problems without the pressure of direct focus.
• Change of Pace: They offer a change of pace and environment, which can shift our perspective and open up new ways of thinking.
• Sensory Stimulation: Engaging multiple senses — smell, taste, touch — can stimulate different parts of the brain. Multisensory engagement can enhance creative thinking and problem-solving.
• Cognitive Rest: Mental downtime allows the brain to shift gears, often leading to creative insights.

What are some other activities that you could experiment with?

Prime Your Mind for Incubation with Powerful Questions

There is some evidence that priming your mind with questions before embarking on incubation activities can potentially be useful for activating your unconscious mind’s processing. Our brains naturally want to close open loops, so identifying a few questions that you’d like your unconscious mind to reflect on and generate insights for could be a useful approach. The key is to not engage in consciously trying to figure out these questions though. Just let your unconscious mind do the work while you engage in your incubation activities.

Try priming your unconscious mind before bed as well and see what insights emerge for you.

Capture Your Ideas

Even though you aren’t consciously working on your goals, you still want to be prepared for when those insights and “a-has” start flowing!

Keep a small notebook in your pocket or use your phone’s voice memo app to record those freshly made creative connections and solutions so you can further develop them later.

👉Let me know what’s resonating with you and what you’ll apply next.

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.
I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 Creative Momentum Coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.

I’m also experimenting with building my own “assistant coach” (i.e. my AI clone via GPT), Creative Momentum Coach. Feel free to test it out for free and be sure to give it feedback! It hopefully will help guide you toward bringing your biggest ideas to life — but who knows what exactly it will do at the moment :)

Unlock Creativity Without Burnout: The Power of Incubation was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m excited to invite you to a Free workshop that I’m hosting in collaboration with CreativeMornings on Wednesday, December 13th from 9:00–10:00 am Mountain Time called Designing (and Sticking to) Effective Habits for Creative People.​

☝️Register at the link above!☝️

Even if you can’t make it live, there will be a replay you can watch — and you’ll get access to some new Creative Momentum Habit Design templates/tools that you can use in 2024 (cause let’s get real, none of us are trying to create and stick to any new habits these last 6 weeks of 2023, am I right? 😂)

I Need Your Help!

I’d love to make this workshop as helpful and relevant to you (and other creative people) as possible.

👉 Could you comment below (or message me) and let me know your thoughts on any (or all) of these?

• What habit(s) do you want to develop and stick to?
• What has been a game-changing habit for you (either in the past or now)?
• Regarding habits, what have you most struggled with in the past?
• What else about habits do you want to know about?

About the Workshop:

With so much out of your direct control with creative work, you need to focus on what you can control — your habits.

Creating and sustaining effective habits will help you experience momentum — the key to your productivity, motivation, and well-being as a creative person.

You’ll Learn:

1. How to design effective habits
2. Why it’s so hard to stick to habits as a creative person
3. How to transform your habits into Flow experiences so you DO stick with them (and maximize their benefits)
4. When to let go of habits that no longer serve you

What to Expect:

• 🗣 A conversation around why creating and sticking to habits is so challenging (but important to achieving your creative goals!), and what you can do to be more consistent
• ⚒️ A practical 6-element framework for designing effective habits(plus a worksheet we’ll dig into during the session to help you diagnose and design your habits)
• 📂A set of core “creative momentum habit” templates that you can adopt and customize to support your focus, progress, and well-being
• ⚡️A unique approach to transform and evolve your habits for maximum effectiveness by integrating Flow theory
• 🦶️A conversation around when to let go of habits that no longer serve you or your goals

Thanks so much for your input.

Hope to see you at the workshop on December 13th!

Coach Jeff

Creative Performance & Leadership Coach

I help creators and entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.

Free Invite: Designing (and Sticking to) Effective Habits for Creative People was originally published in Creative Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.