Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The Paradox of Creative Courage

The best way to have creative courage as you work is to forget about creativity, courage, fear, or imagination, and simply SAY WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY.

The inner shakiness a lot of artists get is a lot like fear of public speaking: once the focus shifts to getting out what we have to say, with that becoming more important than how we're feeling, then the fear evaporates. Which we may not even realize until later.

Ever looked up and found that the time had passed and the work was done? (Well, a first draft of a piece of it, anyway.) It's a great feeling.


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5 comments:

Debra said...

Simply say what you have to say...I really like that no nonsense approach, Peggy!

It does feel very good not to get caught up on all of the inner chatter that can occur! It's almost like a form of meditation when that happens.

Peggy Payne said...

Exactly: a form of meditation.

Anonymous said...

So delighted to have found your site! Your interests are similar to my own, and even though I live in Sedona, Arizona, I have a little summer condo in Brevard, and my kids are at UNC-Chapel Hill. I'll post my own site here -- SunCoach.com
but mainly I just wanted to say hello, and say what a nice job you do here!

Peggy Payne said...

Welcome, Suncoach. Thanks for visiting and speaking up. I've always meant to go to Sedona at some point and haven't done it yet. But will definitely come to your site soon.

I was just up Brevard-way, in Sylva. So beautiful. The cherry trees were in extravagant bloom.

Peggy Payne said...

Well, Sunny, I've just visited your suncoach.com site which is reallyto me seems to be about a technique for bold living: aligning your stuff with who you are.

Also, for other readers, Sunny has written two highly successful books on this subject: How To Be Organized In Spite Of Yourself, a Book-of-the-Month Club featured selection, and Organizing For The Spirit.