5 Books & Podcasts to Kickstart Your Creativity
I don’t know about you, but the return to routine and non-holiday family, work, and adulting things has been real this week in my world. I tried to come back slowly, to ease back into a more productive flow after a couple of weeks of being in holiday mode, but for more than a few days recently, every time I started doing anything even remotely work-related or productive, my brain felt like it was swimming in quicksand.
So I started thinking the same thing I think at this time every year, “Maybe I need to buy a new online program to kick myself into gear? Or join a new membership group for accountability? Or maybe I’m finally becoming a lazy couch potato and I’ll never feel productive or do anything valuable ever again.”
Then, one afternoon while on a walk, by sheer grace, dumb luck, or immensely undeserved favor from the Universe, I stumbled on a series of podcasts, books, and articles that kickstarted my creativity and shifted me into gear for work, life, and a few new creative projects that have been a long time coming.
Honestly, such a jolt of creativity and energy shot through me right then that it sort of caught me off-guard. So of course, my first step was to jot down exactly which podcasts, books, and articles were helping me and get ready to share them with you.
Here’s the list ⤵
🖌️ Steven Pressfield's reality-check article about how none of us really have time to create the things we want to create, not even professional musicians, artists, writers, and makers — and where he gives the secret to help us “carve out the time just like the heavy hitters do”.
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🎧 Steven Pressfield’s podcast where he talks in-depth about creativity, self-discipline, and how to beat self-doubt.
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📝 A blog about my favorite Steven Pressfield book War of Art, why it’s my favorite, and how it helped me overcome a big stumbling block to publish my second book.
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📖 Seth Godin’s new book Strategy about how to make better plans, think more strategically, and make smarter choices that will lead to saying yes to what makes us come alive and saying no to what doesn’t. My favorite quote from the book “Creating tomorrow by repeating yesterday is not a useful way forward.”
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🎧 Seth Godin’s podcast about how to show up and do the work even when you don’t feel like it (especially then).
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If you’re looking to start a project or new endeavor, restart something, or just kickstart yourself into productivity, I hope you find something in there that helps at least a little.
After going down this creativity kickstart rabbit hole myself, I heard a gentle voice reminding me that it’s been two years since I published my last book. Two years and many, many abandoned manuscripts and book ideas. That’s way too long and way too many abandoned projects, even if I have been a little busy and am more than a little out of pocket these days #ontheroadagain. So I’m officially working on a new book now (& yes, I buried that nugget in the depths of this message because I’m still feeling shy and not quite sure about going for it again ~ more soon I hope).
One Disclaimer: The podcasts that started this whole thing came from the princess of productivity herself Marie Forleo and although a great number of the resources she shares are free and really valuable in my opinion, she does work very hard to sell her classes and membership programs in those podcasts. And while I have received a huge benefit from a few of her paid offerings in both my consulting work and my creative projects, I realize that for some of us, paid classes and membership groups are a slippery slope of never-ending not finishing and money spending. So I want you to know I’m not promoting anything like that, just offering the podcasts themselves and the books and articles I’m reading in response to those podcasts as resources.
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Wherever you are this morning, I hope you’re finding the courage to get going with whatever is on your heart and on your dream list for this year. Just in case you’re not feeling courageous just yet, I’d love to leave you with this quote from my new daily reader The Creative Act by Rick Rubin⤵
“How do we move forward, considering the stories we tell ourselves?
One of the best strategies is to lower the stakes.
We tend to think that what we’re making is the most important thing in our lives
and that it’s going to define us for all eternity.
Consider moving forward with the more accurate point of view that it’s a small work, a beginning. . .
If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules,
it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things.
We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun.
Perfectionism gets in the way of fun.”
~Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
If you missed last week’s encouraging message about the single best thing I did last year for my own creativity and big dreams, here’s where you can read it on the blog. And if you ever need a channel to express your creativity, your dreams, or how you’re overcoming your own self-doubts and restarting, I’m here.
So much love for you,
Celeste
P.S. It would be remiss of me not to say that if you’re in California right now or have loved ones affected by the fires going on there right now, my heart is with you. I’m thinking of you throughout each day and sending so much love your way.
This is me the day I said yes to another book project this year⤵
