12 Days of Creativity 2012 – Day 11

Christmas is upon us.

So each day from now until December 25, drop by the Wheel of Creativity blog for a deep breath of spirit in the midst of the festive flurry.

Let’s be creative and connected this Christmas!

It’s the best gift under the tree!

 

Lean back.

Take a deep breath.

Look up from the screen.

Relax.

 

Station 11 and the Wheel of Creativity gives me… a grown plant for pruning

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

 

Orson Welles

 

There comes a point in the process of creating anything new that is about nothing but sheer nose-to-the-grindstone, out-of-balance-for-a-while, get-the-job-done discipline. By the time you’ve gotten to this point, you’re serious about what you’re doing: you’ve clarified your vision, you’ve done the research and you’ve completed the draft.

Now you have to perfect the product. Nature in its wisdom puts the work here, because by this point your investment is so great that it’s usually too painful to quit. But abandoning ship may cross your mind more than a few times.

When I was producing documentary film and TV, people often approached me with a good idea. “You should make a film about…,” they would say with hopeful eyes. It took me a while before I stopped feeling the pressure of “Yes, you’re right. I should make your film.” But the more programs I produced, the more I realized that many projects are years in the making. Only the person with the passion has the stamina to see them through. No one can do that for you.

This is a timely subject for me now, as I have just released my book, The Wheel of Creativity: Taking Your Place in the Adventure of Life for sale in the marketplace. The first seeds of this book planted themselves in me ten years ago. It has taken this long for them to grow into a plant that I hope will nourish many of you the way it has nourished me. All the living, learning, experimenting, teaching, listening and revising I have needed to do is done now. These past months have been the most intense of all, as I have cut away what needed cutting and shaped what remained into a finished product. Now, it’s time to let go.

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK FOR FREE on December 25 and 26 at Amazon.com.

PRUNING is station 11 in The Wheel of Creativity.

What needs completion in your life before you can move forward?

First Day of Creativity – Hunger

Second Day of Creativity – Appetite