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An Interview with Jill Badonsky
Author, artist and creativity coach, Jill Badonsky is doing a blog tour to promote her new book the Awe-manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder and I am excited to be the January 14th stop on her tour!
I got her book last week and I have to say how much I love it! It's made up of little tips and idea starters that you can do each day to get the creative wheels turning. It is on my bedside table and I have really enjoyed reading each days' prompts each morning.
I have posted a page from January 14th of the Awe-manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder at the bottom of this post with her permission. Click to enlarge to view the page!
Here's a little interview I did with Jill:
Your new book is about being creative every day. Do you feel that doing daily writings in a journal is a necessary step to a creative life?
Yes, absolutely. One can be creative without writing in a journal, but there are so many advantages to it I'm not sure why any of us wouldn't want to do it. Just 2 minutes writing a day can make a difference. Journal writing not only accesses our creativity it also helps develop neural pathways that act as water-slides for new ideas. Talking to ourselves on the page frees us, allows us to play, opens the pathways for making mistakes in our writing or art that lead to discoveries we hadn't considered, helps us stumble into new perspectives, elevates the very awareness we need to flourish, reminds us of our uniqueness and enhances our self-confidence which is fuel for creative progress. The Awe-manac has at least one journal writing prompt for every day of the year to help journal writers with some fresh new journal approaches
What is the number one thing that seems to block people's creativity? For me it's when I compare my work to the work by other people’s -- that can really bring out my inner critic!
Comparison is toxic in the creative process. It's a natural and normal impulse to compare but once you find yourself doing it, it's important to derail it before it derails you. When I find myself comparing I do a "Frank" named after Frank Sinatra and his song .. "I'll do it my way." I say to myself, "That's great what they're doing, but I'll do it my way." Or my default mantras are "So what, I'll do it anyway," "I can't wait to get started."
Comparison comes from the fear of not being good enough or of falling behind. The many faces of fear are what block people the most. Perfectionism, which is another form of fear, stops people from starting or causes them to quit too soon. Fear of giving up a comfortable routine, of wasting time and money, of success, of exposure – all these fears surface when we approach this delicate and beautiful process called creativity. We become stronger in life in general when we figure out ways to proceed despite the fear. Fear is not triggered when we lower our expectations and break things waaaaaay down into tiny steps like working for 2 minutes at a time, setting up our work space for 5 minutes, day dreaming for 45 seconds about our creative intention.
I love that your new book focuses on being creative in little ways as well as big ones, that art doesn't have to be "serious". What is your favorite prompt or exercise from your book?
It's hard to pick just one favorite prompt but I would have to say that my favorite type of prompts are the ones that make me laugh – sometimes that's enough. When I'm stuck in my writing, I find that the "word pools" easiest because they make writing easy since a group of words and phrases are already provided so I don't have to start from scratch. Repeated completions also make starting easier and our mind loves repetition so it's fun to see what it volunteers as we get going in the process.
Bio for Jill Badonsky:
Jill is a corporate drop-out, an artist, poet and founder of Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching: A radically different way of coaching that involves play, intuition, small steps, audacity, goofing off and compassion. Jill is a columnist for Creativity Portal and author of the book The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration and the recently released The Awe-manac: A Dose of Wonder. Jill believes in miraculous healing properties of the creative process. She lives in San Diego with two cats and a bougainvillea. www.themuseisin.com www.kaizenmuse.com
Author, artist and creativity coach, Jill Badonsky is doing a blog tour to promote her new book the Awe-manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder and I am excited to be the January 14th stop on her tour!I got her book last week and I have to say how much I love it! It's made up of little tips and idea starters that you can do each day to get the creative wheels turning. It is on my bedside table and I have really enjoyed reading each days' prompts each morning.
I have posted a page from January 14th of the Awe-manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder at the bottom of this post with her permission. Click to enlarge to view the page!
Here's a little interview I did with Jill:
Your new book is about being creative every day. Do you feel that doing daily writings in a journal is a necessary step to a creative life?
Yes, absolutely. One can be creative without writing in a journal, but there are so many advantages to it I'm not sure why any of us wouldn't want to do it. Just 2 minutes writing a day can make a difference. Journal writing not only accesses our creativity it also helps develop neural pathways that act as water-slides for new ideas. Talking to ourselves on the page frees us, allows us to play, opens the pathways for making mistakes in our writing or art that lead to discoveries we hadn't considered, helps us stumble into new perspectives, elevates the very awareness we need to flourish, reminds us of our uniqueness and enhances our self-confidence which is fuel for creative progress. The Awe-manac has at least one journal writing prompt for every day of the year to help journal writers with some fresh new journal approaches
What is the number one thing that seems to block people's creativity? For me it's when I compare my work to the work by other people’s -- that can really bring out my inner critic!
Comparison is toxic in the creative process. It's a natural and normal impulse to compare but once you find yourself doing it, it's important to derail it before it derails you. When I find myself comparing I do a "Frank" named after Frank Sinatra and his song .. "I'll do it my way." I say to myself, "That's great what they're doing, but I'll do it my way." Or my default mantras are "So what, I'll do it anyway," "I can't wait to get started."
Comparison comes from the fear of not being good enough or of falling behind. The many faces of fear are what block people the most. Perfectionism, which is another form of fear, stops people from starting or causes them to quit too soon. Fear of giving up a comfortable routine, of wasting time and money, of success, of exposure – all these fears surface when we approach this delicate and beautiful process called creativity. We become stronger in life in general when we figure out ways to proceed despite the fear. Fear is not triggered when we lower our expectations and break things waaaaaay down into tiny steps like working for 2 minutes at a time, setting up our work space for 5 minutes, day dreaming for 45 seconds about our creative intention.
I love that your new book focuses on being creative in little ways as well as big ones, that art doesn't have to be "serious". What is your favorite prompt or exercise from your book?It's hard to pick just one favorite prompt but I would have to say that my favorite type of prompts are the ones that make me laugh – sometimes that's enough. When I'm stuck in my writing, I find that the "word pools" easiest because they make writing easy since a group of words and phrases are already provided so I don't have to start from scratch. Repeated completions also make starting easier and our mind loves repetition so it's fun to see what it volunteers as we get going in the process.
Bio for Jill Badonsky:
Jill is a corporate drop-out, an artist, poet and founder of Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching: A radically different way of coaching that involves play, intuition, small steps, audacity, goofing off and compassion. Jill is a columnist for Creativity Portal and author of the book The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration and the recently released The Awe-manac: A Dose of Wonder. Jill believes in miraculous healing properties of the creative process. She lives in San Diego with two cats and a bougainvillea. www.themuseisin.com www.kaizenmuse.com
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Hi, I have just found your blog recently - and have loved it by the way. I can't help but ask, do you really doubt YOUR work? I find it so hard to believe! LOL, I am always astounded by my favorite artists doubting themselves and their creativity. I do have to say hearing it though helps in my own self-doubt, but I still find it hard to believe! I am really wanting your new book also (waiting to see if I win it on a give-away!) Oh, I suppose I can also ask you where do you tend to find images for your collages? I can't ever find anything useful ... anyway, thanks for the blog!
# posted by 
: 10:03 AM
: 10:03 AM
So sorry to hear about Toby. It sounds like you have a good attitude and plan for dealing with this. I know you must be heart sick though, hope you can find some comfort in doing your work, its beautiful and brings joy to many people. Mary
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