The trend from your feedback was that you have no shortage on creative ideas, but the discipline and follow through needed to complete those ideas were always missing.

I’m a recovering procrastinator, and I needed to practice hard hitting, practical steps to finish my creative endeavors.

So here are 7 “In Your Face” tips I recommend:

1. Shut Up (yeah, I said it.): Stop talking about “I’m planning to…” or ” Here’s my vision…” or ” I’m thinking about launching…”. Don’t start talking until you can tell someone  how cool the last project you just wrapped up is.

2. Start Small: Don’t try to launch the book or graphic novel until you launch the short story. God teaches us that when we are faithful over the seemingly small things, He’ll set us over more. (Matthew 25:21)

3. Quit Being a Perfectionist: Launch now with what you have. Just like Hollywood, you can get better during the sequel…get the first movie going NOW!

4. Write It Down and Date It: This allows you to see what you’ve written once you get down the road and to see if you completed it. The date emphasizes if you’re wasting your time away, or better yet, if you are progressively accomplishing goals.

5. Know When You’re Most Productive…and when you’re not: If you know there’s a time when you’ll get most distracted and interrupted, find a better time.

6. Stop Working Alone: Accountability:Once you start involving others such as fellow artists, sponsors, clients, etc, it becomes bigger than you. You have others that are counting on your follow through.

7. Acknowledge Your Age: Once I began to realize that God placed me on assignment, I also realized that I had a finite amount of time to complete the mission. I’m getting too old to always be in the same place I was 6 months or a year ago with no growth to show for the time.

TAKE THE ORIGINAL POLL:

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It’s unfortunate that it’s such a well known concept.

Matt Tommey, author of “Unlocking the Heart of the Artist” says that it’s a curse we Creatives have experienced dating back to Cain and his descendants.

Don’t believe it? Ever experience any of the following in your creative pursuits:

Restlessness?

Wandering? Knowing your gift has a place, but not able to find it?

Unproductive? Trying to put your talent to work, but never earning enough.

Take a look at this brief video to see how the attributes of Cain’s life mirror the lives of many artists and creative people:

Dig Deeper:

See Inside

I highly recommend that you get Matt’s book, “Unlocking the Heart of the Artist” , where he goes into great detail on this and guides you toward the Biblical solution.

Artist, author, musician, Matt Tommey

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This post has nothing to do with the Grammys as a whole, nor is it a “gospel music versus secular music” post.

Rapper Nicki Minaj's Controversial Grammy Show

What this is about is something that I’ve written on before: the POWER and influence you have as an artist and the evil that wants access to that power …and why.

God has empowered creative people with His ability to use sight, sound and motion to communicate and evoke emotion.

Satan, the enemy of all people, is well aware of your God-given ability and its power and impact on people. If he can influence you to use your talent for his agenda, it can influence how people feel, think and act.

See a perfect example of this demonstrated during the 2012 Grammy Awards. See how choreographers, designers, artists, musicians and others use their abilities to express what some called blasphemous, over the line and a mockery to the Catholic church:

WARNING: View with caution…then share YOUR thoughts below. Is it too much? Are we overreacting?

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Being an artist, writer or any other type of creative person is a blessing, but when it comes to taking action on the right ideas, it can be a real challenge.

Your creative mind can get STUCK from one of two causes: Either you have an idea, yet you don’t know it’s full potential…or you have TOO MANY ideas and you don’t act on either of them!

Got 10 minutes?

PART ONE:

Here is a simple but effective method of mapping out your creative potential:

(We first launched this video sometime ago, but it seems even more relevant today!)

PART TWO will tell what to next AFTER mapping out the potential of your concepts or ideas.

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"Soul Stirrer"- Click to Enlarge

One of the things you MUST have on your list for starting a new year off right is to have a fresh sketchpad.

There’s nothing that says the sky’s the limit for fresh concepts and ideas like the blank pages of a sketchpad or journal.

Here’s an example of a totally unexpected drawing that came from listening to a little music. To make it interesting, I chose a sound that I don’t necessarily listen to daily.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Click the video below to witness the actual creative process (be sure to crank your speakers UP!):

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