SELF-INQUIRY PAGES: How to Unleash Your Creative Mojo
One of the reasons why aspiring entrepreneurs, writers, artists, musicians and other cultural creatives struggle is because they routinely run into obstacles (inner and outer) that derail them. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Sometimes all that's needed for a creative person to get unstuck is a few minutes of reflection, ideation, and a change of mindset.
That's what Idea Champions' online, self-inquiry pages are all about.
Created by Idea Champions' co-Founder, Mitch Ditkoff, self-inquiry pages are a kind of chiropractic adjustment for your creative mojo.
What follows are the names of the 84 self-inquiry pages I have developed so far, some of which are used in my online Year of Living Creatively course (the date of the next one is yet undetermined).
1. Follow Your Calling
2. Discover Your Real Question
3. The Art of Self-Reflection
4. Clarify Your Vision
5. Dream Big with Blue Sky Thinking
6. Make More Time for Creativity
7. Everything Begins with an Idea
8. When and Where Do You Get Your Best Ideas?
9. This is It! Begin Now!
10. Just Say Know: It's OK to be Ignorant, But Only for a While
11. The Ten Characteristics of Highly Creative People
12. You Are on a Hero's Journey!
13. How to Get Out of the Box
14. Honor Your Crazy Ideas
15. Diffuse Your Inner Critic
16. Illuminate Your Blind Spots
17. Develop Your Own Natural Practice of Creativity
18. Overcoming Obstacles: How to Trick the Trickster
19. Go Beyond Your Limiting Assumptions
20. Find Your Natural Work Rhythm
21. Create the Space to Create
22. Act As If
23. The Art of Asking for Help
24. Embrace Messiness, Awkwardness, Frustration, and Difficulty
25. Take More Risks
26. Boundary Alert: How to Say "No"
27. Pilot! Experiment! Try Something New!
28. The Imperfection of Perfectionism
29. Simplify!
30. On Giving and Receiving Feedback
31. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
32. Putting the Moment Back Into Momentum
33. The Art of Self-Acknowledgment
34. Is It Really More Discipline You Need?
35. Incubate! Lay Fallow! Let It Be!
36. Attract More Support
37. Spark Your Imagination
38. Deal Wisely With Self-Doubt
39. See Through New Eyes
40. The Practice of Creativity is Like Gardening
41. Five Inspiring Creativity Videos
42. What Is the Impact of Noise in Your Life?
43. Immerse!
44. Cultivate Patience
45. Honor the Dance of Polarities
46. The Attraction of Distraction
47. The Socratic Method
48. Untangle the Hairball of Your Own Creative Potential
49. Nurture or Fracture: Dealing with Your Significant Other
50. How Rumi's Poetry Can Spark a Breakthrough for You
51. Create Creative Community
52. On Being a Creative Catalyst for Others
53. Perseverance Furthers
54. Redefine Success
55. How to Change the Old Story You're Telling Yourself
56. Maximize Your Focus and Attention
57. Navigate the Messy Middles
58. Make Friends with Uncertainty
59. Failure Is Not What You Think It Is
60. Real Creativity Requires Solitude
61. The Relationship Between AHA and HAHA
62. Liberate Your Subconscious Mind
63. Remove the Pressure of Time
64. How to Get Into the Flow
65. Creativity Is All About Making New Connections
66. On Being a Brainstorm Buddy
67. Radically Increase Your Odds of Success
68. How to Get in Sync With a Possible Collaborator
69. The Wisdom of Pablo Picasso
70. The Wisdom of Frank Zappa
71. The Wisdom of Steve Jobs
72. The Wisdom of Albert Einstein
73. The Wisdom of Ludwig von Beethoven
74. The Wisdom of Elon Musk
75. The Wisdom of Leonardo da Vinci
76. The Wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi
77. The Wisdom of Vincent Van Gogh
78. The Wisdom of Frieda Kahlo
79. The Wisdom of Nicolas Tesla
80. The Wisdom of Georgia O'Keeffe
81. The Wisdom of Amadeus Mozart
82. The Wisdom of Michelangelo
83. The Wisdom of John Lennon
84. The Wisdom of Martin Luther King
The creator of self-inquiry pages
50 awesome quotes on possibility
Photo: Peter Fogden, Unsplash
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2022THE SELF-INQUIRY RAFFLE: Unleash Your Creative Mojo
If you have a big aspiration to create something new and wonderful in this world and currently find yourself operating on less-than-all-cylinders, this is your lucky day.
WHY? Because I am giving away five of my mind-opening creativity catalysts for free -- as in no cost to you, no fine print, no strings attached. And YOU get to choose which ones you want.
I am launching this raffle because I want to, not because I have to. It is not a marketing ploy, gimmick, or sneaky way to get you to buy something from me. I'm doing this because I trust my intuition and know that the five people who WIN the raffle are going to get some major value from it and, PERHAPS, what they are here to manifest in the world will have a better chance of seeing the light of day.
There is no entry fee. I am not trying to collect your email address. (I have my own). There is nothing in it for me but the joy of conducting this little experiment.
To enter the raffle, all you need to do is send an email to me (mitch@ideachampions.com) with the words "Self-Inqury Raffle" in the subject line. Then, a week from now, I will pick five names out of the proverbial hat (my favorite hat, by the way) and let the five winners know they won.
What is a self-inquiry page? A simple, engaging, enjoyable way for you to pause, reflect, and (possibly) have a creative breakthrough on a committed project of yours. If you're stuck, the self-inquiry page will get you unstuck. If you're already unstuck, the self-inquiry page will accelerate your process of manifesting whatever dream, vision, or commitment you have.
Just to whet your appetite, here is a master list of self-inquiry pages you will be able to select from (assuming, of course, you are one of the five winners).
SELF-INQUIRY PAGES
1. Follow Your Calling
2. Discover Your Real Question
3. The Art of Self-Reflection
4. Clarify Your Vision
5. Dream Big with Blue Sky Thinking
6. Make More Time for Creativity
7. Everything Begins with an Idea
8. When and Where Do You Get Your Best Ideas?
9. This is It! Begin Now!
10. Just Say Know: It's OK to be Ignorant, But Only for a While
11. The Ten Characteristics of Highly Creative People
12. You Are on a Hero's Journey!
13. How to Get Out of the Box
14. Honor Your Crazy Ideas
15. Diffuse Your Inner Critic
16. Illuminate Your Blind Spots
17. Develop Your Own Natural Practice of Creativity
18. Overcoming Obstacles: How to Trick the Trickster
19. Go Beyond Your Limiting Assumptions
20. Find Your Natural Work Rhythm
21. Create the Space to Create
22. Act As If
23. The Art of Asking for Help
24. Embrace Messiness, Awkwardness, Frustration, and Difficulty
25. Take More Risks
26. Boundary Alert: How to Say "No"
27. Pilot! Experiment! Try Something New!
28. The Imperfection of Perfectionism
29. Simplify!
30. On Giving and Receiving Feedback
31. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
32. Putting the Moment Back Into Momentum
33. The Art of Self-Acknowledgment
34. Is It Really More Discipline You Need?
35. Incubate! Lay Fallow! Let It Be!
36. Attract More Support
37. Spark Your Imagination
38. Deal Wisely With Self-Doubt
39. See Through New Eyes
40. The Practice of Creativity is Like Gardening
41. Five Inspiring Creativity Videos
42. What Is the Impact of Noise in Your Life?
43. Immerse!
44. Cultivate Patience
45. Honor the Dance of Polarities
46. The Attraction of Distraction
47. The Socratic Method
48. Untangle the Hairball of Your Own Creative Potential
49. Nurture or Fracture: Dealing with Your Significant Other
50. How Rumi's Poetry Can Spark a Breakthrough for You
51. Create Creative Community
52. On Being a Creative Catalyst for Others
53. Perseverance Furthers
54. Redefine Success
55. How to Change the Old Story You're Telling Yourself
56. Maximize Your Focus and Attention
57. Navigate the Messy Middles
58. Make Friends with Uncertainty
59. Failure Is Not What You Think It Is
60. Real Creativity Requires Solitude
61. The Relationship Between AHA and HAHA
62. Liberate Your Subconscious Mind
63. Remove the Pressure of Time
64. How to Get Into the Flow
65. Creativity Is All About Making New Connections
66. On Being a Brainstorm Buddy
67. Radically Increase Your Odds of Success
68. How to Get in Sync With a Possible Collaborator
69. The Wisdom of Pablo Picasso
70. The Wisdom of Frank Zappa
71. The Wisdom of Steve Jobs
72. The Wisdom of Albert Einstein
73. The Wisdom of Ludwig von Beethoven
74. The Wisdom of Elon Musk
75. The Wisdom of Leonardo da Vinci
76. The Wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi
77. The Wisdom of Vincent Van Gogh
78. The Wisdom of Frieda Kahlo
79. The Wisdom of Nicolas Tesla
80. The Wisdom of Georgia O'Keeffe
81. The Wisdom of Amadeus Mozart
82. The Wisdom of Michelangelo
83. The Wisdom of John Lennon
84. The Wisdom of Martin Luther King
The creator of self-inquiry pages
50 awesome quotes on possibility
Photo: Peter Fogden, Unsplash
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:20 PM | Comments (2)
April 11, 2022THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY: An Overview
"Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller
The Year of Living Creatively is a two-month, online course for anyone committed to manifesting an inspired idea, project or venture and knows they need some support to do so. Click any of the links below for a deeper dive. The next course will begin in September. If you need more info, please contact the creator and facilitator of the course, Mitch Ditkoff (mitch@ideachampions.com)
Overview
Testimonials
An invitation to dive deeper into your own creative process
Who is the course really for?
What is the real value of The Year of Living Creatively?
How to identify your Year of Living Creatively project
The Year of Living Creatively Manifesto
The underground we cover
Entering the movie theater of your own creative process
The self-inquiry pages
The back story -- origins of the course
More about the creator of the course
People's three biggest concerns about enrolling in the course
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2022TESTIMONIALS from GRADUATES: The Year of Living Creatively
"Mitch Ditkoff, the Founder of The Year of Living Creatively, has the ability to awaken the creative spark in others -- an ability he has honed and refined to a fine elixir over decades of teaching and writing. Be prepared to have your mind blown, your funny bone tickled, and your lights turned on. Mitch's insights, empathetic listening, and presence have had a profound effect on my life." - Michelle Cameron
"Mitch is part creativity shaman, Muse whisperer, writing coach, and mad poet. He employs all of these characters in the service of helping participants launch and bring to fruition their cherished projects." -- Mira Rubenstein
"The Year of Living Creatively is a wonderful course. It's helped me clarify my vision of what I want to accomplish and create a roadmap to get it accomplished." - Mark Stephen Miller
"I am ever so grateful for the Year of Living Creatively experience and for the expansion that I perceive in my consciousness and in my everyday life! This is truly one of the most wonderful gifts I have received from the universe and have given myself in a long time, especially after this outrageous pandemic experience. This course has been like the opening of the clouds after a storm and the joy of letting the warm sun shine into my skin." -- Mercedes Garcia
"The Year of Living Creatively program was a catalyst that provided the guidance, support, and structure I needed to transform my dream of starting a business into reality. It prompted breakthrough thinking on obstacles that anchored me from progress and motivated me to act using innovative ideas and new partnerships." - Doug Stuke
"Mitch has designed a course that has helped me confront my negative beliefs about my creativity and set me on a very positive course of making miracles happen. His theme of synchronicity and teamwork were real ground breakers for me. Thank you, Mitch, for all the love and care you heaped into the course, and into me." -- Joan Apter
"Creativity, I've discovered, comes from a limitless space within me. When I fully open up to it, creativity flows through me. Mitch Ditkoff's Year of Living Creatively course has made it clear to me what a vital part of my life creativity can play. It helped me discover that it is a power that works for me to make my mission in life come true. Mitch has a wealth of inner strength and ability to evoke brilliance in others. Every time I attend his sessions I walk away full of renewed courage, energy, and trust that I am able to fulfill my very ambitious project. Obstacles are removed and I make progress right away." - Tina Lindgreen
"I received a lot of inspiration to continue with my project from The Year of Living Creatively program. Every time I read something new, it was always pointing to the strengtts and the many possibilities a project can have and the many possibilities I have to get to a successful end. I had lots of fun reading the stories. There is a lot of humor involved in the course. And one of the things I want in life right now is to laugh a lot." - Barbara Drausal
"Being part of the Year of Living Creatively provided me with the emotional support I needed to free my inner artist. I became less judgmental about my work and started to embrace and enjoy looking at my work. I feel like I took my work out of the dark and brought it to life again with fresh eyes and less criticism. I am learning to listen to myself and play with the process of giving myself permission to enjoy what I am expressing." - Tina Lipson
"The course is inspiring and practical enough that I am taking it again. During the course, I was able to write about a third part of my life, and design part of a self-sustainable cabin. I was humbled by experiencing my own humanity." - Gretel Rogers
"The Year of Living Creatively helped me take my project a step up -- maybe 3 steps up, making it feel beyond a dream to reality." -- MaryJane Fahey
"The Year of Living Creatively is a unique program that helps unleash human potential in a full-fledged way. Before enrolling in the course, I didn't have the faintest idea of the power and enjoyment of writing. Now I have experienced it. The program has sparked a lot of hope in me." - Nim Lal Bhandari
"Mitch led us through a series of workshops, each thematically different but the goal was the same: to help us get clear and take action towards what really matters to us, bypassing all the usual resistances and excuses. He does this in a safe and fun meeting environment where there are no wrong answers, but perhaps better questions to ask ourselves. He has plenty of visual and video clips from other creative leaders/artists to stimulate us to ask more relevant questions and the courage to take new actions in new territories. Highly recommended." - Linda Hurst
"I want you to know how much I appreciated participating in The Year of Living Creatively. The entire process was very supportive. The self-inquiry pages helped me examine some of the things that were holding me back. Along with your feedback, they helped me go from thinking my biggest goal was just to boost my writing to realizing that my overarching desire is to let go of my Aspergian fear of being visible and to live big and bold as my own true self in all my autistic glory! This helped me choose a project that really sparked my passion and go after it in a big and bold way. I loved having a creative process partner and we plan to continue doing weekly support calls. The group Zoom calls were also helpful. It was good to see how other people were overcoming challenges and blocks to their creativity. I had a hunch when I signed up for the program that it would stretch me in some very positive ways, while forcing me to face some very old and deep fears. I'm glad I trusted my intuition, even though, at times, facing down those fears was terrifying! I had all the support I needed to 'face that fire and walk right through it.'" - Janet Cook
"I highly recommend The Year of Living Creatively. Before I started, I was stuck on a plateau in my venture of writing my memoirs. Very soon after taking the class, I got my mojo back and made huge amounts of progress in so many different ways related to my project. Mitch is an amazing coach who is an incredible listener and knows when to "kick your butt" and when to offer words of encouragement. Try it! You'll like it." - Maribeth Raullerson
"Travel within, face demons and overcome them with loving support of Mitch and team members. I not only enjoyed the course, I made major headway" - Tucker Robbins
"The Year of Living Creatively is a truly amazing learning experience. Mitch's explanations, stories, and examples were very helpful in opening up my creative channel while at the same time pushing me to focus on the details. Mitch is a caring mentor, motivator, and smart coach. I highly recommend the YOLC program to anyone who always wanted to succeed in a new and creative project." - Gilman Hanson
"In The Year of Living Creatively, I've significantly moved forward on my writing project, and adjusted my self-definition, as well. I began to see that defining myself as having a lack of self-discipline (very painful) was never going to help. I began replacing that thought with an excited curiosity to see what will manifest. I'm so delighted in my enlightened-up experience, that I've just re-registered for the course. I feel there is so much more to mine to enrich my process." - Ellen Goldberg
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2021Year of Living Creatively Manifesto
The Year of Living Creatively is a two-month, online course designed to help anyone committed to manifesting their brilliance on planet Earth. The next course begins in April. What follows is the course's manifesto -- it's irreducible DNA.
-- Creativity is our birthright
-- Everyone has a calling
-- We are never more than a breath away from a breakthrough
-- This is the perfect moment to begin
-- Self-expression begins with the self. Know thyself.
-- We are all infinitely more creative than we think we are
-- We have a gift. It's time to open it.
-- Celebrate what makes you unique
-- Ideas may be a dime a dozen, but the process of transforming them into reality is priceless.
-- Choose!
-- Creating creates you
-- The Creator of everything lives within you.
-- It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. It matters what you think.
-- The only failure there is is being afraid to fail
-- Infinite possibilities await
-- You are a star. Shine!
-- Do what makes you come more alive
-- We are human beings, not human doings. When we know that, we can do anything.
-- Make a mess. Then clean it up. Then make it again.
-- Give yourself permission
-- If at first you don't succeed, try second
-- We need each other to help us realize we don't need each other
-- Everything begins as an idea
-- Something wants to be created through you. What is it?
-- You are already empowered. You were born.
-- If you need help, ask for it
-- Trust yourself
-- Have more fun
-- Celebrate who you are
All of the above is included in The Year of Living Creatively -- an eight-week, online course designed for anyone wanting a boost, jiggle, or jolt to help them turn their impulse to create into a reality.
The Year of Living Creatively
What is the Real Value of The Year of Living Creatively?
Who is the Year of Living Creatively Really For?
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:05 AM | Comments (1)
December 10, 2021THIS JUST IN: The Year of Living Creatively Testimonials
If you are in the process birthing (or wanting to birth) an inspired idea, dream, vision, goal, or creative venture, I invite you to consider enrolling in my upcoming YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY course -- a two-month, online learning adventure (starting on April 17th, 2022) designed to provide aspiring innovators with all the insight, mojo, and mastery they need to manifest their heart's desire.
It's fun. It's engaging. And it works. Tuition is $479. Payment plans are available.
Here's what recent graduates have to say about it:
"The course had a profound affect on my life." - Michelle Cameron
"I got my mojo back and made huge amounts of progress." - Maribeth Raullerson
"It set me on a very positive course of making miracles happen." - Joan Apter
"I not only enjoyed the course, I made major headway" - Tucker Robbins
"Every time I attend a session, I walk away full of renewed courage, energy, and trust." - Tina Lindgreen
"A catalyst that provided the guidance, support, and structure I needed to transform my dream of starting a business into reality." - Doug Stuke
"This course has been like the opening of the clouds after a storm and the joy of letting the warm sun shine into my skin." - Mercedes Garcia
"Helped me clarify my vision of what I want to accomplish and create a road map to get it accomplished." - Mark Stephen Miller
"There is a lot of humor involved in the course. And one of the things I want in life right now is to laugh a lot." - Barbara Drausal
"Provided me with the emotional support I needed to free my inner artist." - Tina Lipson
"I was humbled by experiencing my own humanity." - Gretel Rogers
"A unique program that helps unleash human potential in a full-fledged way. - Nim Lal Bhandari
"A safe and fun meeting environment where there are no wrong answers, but perhaps better questions to ask ourselves." - Linda Hurst
"Helped me choose a project that really sparked my passion and go after it in a big and bold way." - Janet Cook
"A truly amazing learning experience." - Gilman Hanson
"The Year of Living Creatively helped me take my project three steps up, making it feel beyond a dream to a reality." - MaryJane Fahey
"I'm so delighted in my enlightened-up experience as a result of The Year of Living Creatively course, that I've just re-registered for the next one." - Ellen Goldberg
More about the course
Who is the course really for?
What is the real value of The Year of Living Creatively?
The Manifesto
More about the creator of the Year of Living Creatively
The underground we cover
Want to talk? Need more info? mitch@ideachampions.com
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2021THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY: The Big Picture
The Year of Living Creatively is a highly engaging, eight-week online course that helps aspiring innovators transform their inspired visions and ideas into new products, new services, new forms of expression, new businesses, and breakthrough ways of living.
Previous graduates describe the course in a variety of colorful ways:
-- A GPS for the creative process
-- An incubation chamber for bold, new possibilities
-- A chiropractic adjustment for creative mojo
-- A midwife for the miraculous
-- An all-you-can eat buffet of brilliance
If you are on fire with an exciting new possibility and want the kind of support that will help you turn theory into practice, this course is for you.
HOW IT WORKS: Dominoes delivers pizza. FedEx delivers packages. The Year of Living Creatively delivers provocative catalysts, community, and clarity to keep you on top of your game. The service includes six basic elements and three optional ones.
THE BASIC ELEMENTS
1. SELF-INQUIRY PRACTICE: Three times a week, you will receive, in your inbox, links to online self-inquiry pages (like this one) to help you navigate your way through your sometimes challenging creative process. You choose at least one that calls to you (though you can do all three if you have the time and interest). If you're stuck, the page will help get you unstuck. If you're already unstuck, the page will spark a quantum leap of insight and action. And you will get an emailed response from the course facilitator, each week, helping you take an even deeper dive. Each page takes 15-45 minutes.
2. ZOOM CALLS: Twice a month, you will be invited to participate in a 90-minute ZOOM session -- a virtual campfire around which all Year of Living Creatively participants gather. This is an opportunity to share your progress, receive valuable tips, brainstorm, learn, and enjoy support from other members of the YOLC community.
3. CREATIVE PROJECT PARTNERSHIPS: Each Year of Living Creatively participant will be paired with two other participants -- an opportunity for the three of you to exchange fresh perspectives, ideas, resources, encouragement, feedback, and be accountable to each other. Three heads are definitely better than one -- especially during these socially isolated days of the Coronavirus.
4. PRIVATE COACHING: Each course participant will receive one 60-minute coaching session from the course creator and facilitator. Additional coaching sessions are available for a fee (see below for more info).
5. PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: All participants are invited to join the Year of Living Creatively FB group -- a simple way to stay in touch with other participants, get inspired, ask for support, and keep your creative fires burning.
6. CREATIVITY-IN-ACTION STORIES: Part of what makes The Year of Living Creatively so effective is the way in which it keeps participants moving forward -- helping them stay conscious, inspired, and committed to their creative process. One engaging way we do this is our 5-minute Creativity-in-Action audio stories that spark insight, meaning, and informed action.
THE OPTIONAL ELEMENTS:
1. APPLIED CREATIVITY: A PDF download of a 200-page guidebook for aspiring innovators. A treasure trove of articles, tips, tools, and techniques to help you increase your odds of getting out of the box, staying out of the box, and enjoying the process of manifesting your heart's desire.
2. BREAKTHROUGH BUDDY: While the creative process requires a healthy dose of solitude, it also requires a healthy dose of support from others -- but not just any others -- people you trust, have chemistry with, and know how to fan the flames of your creative mojo. Which is why The Year of Living Creatively will be enrolling (with your permission) the person of your choice (living within ten miles of your home) to serve as your very own Breakthrough Buddy -- someone who is committed to supporting you, in fun ways, for the duration of the course. HOW we get this person up-to-speed to play their catalytic role is our little secret. Suffice it to say, we will provide them with everything they need to help you on your way.
3. MORE COACHING: Above and beyond the one private coaching session included in the course, additional coaching sessions are are also available. $150/hr.
TUITION: $479 US
MAX NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 16
PAY VIA PAYPAL: products@ideachampions.com
QUESTIONS? Email Mitch (mitch@ideachampions.com)
Testimonials
Who is the course really for?
What is the real value of The Year of Living Creatively?
The Manifesto
More about the creator of the Year of Living Creatively
MitchDitkoff.com
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2021THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY: 26 Self-Inquiry Pages for Review
Dear Ellen, Fran, Prentiss, Hugo, Patti, Greg, Patricia, Anita, Gera, Tucker, Sameer, Esra, Jawwad, Mehreen, Corrine, and Lana:
Greetings from the International Headquarters of the YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY -- my kitchen. What follows are the self-inquiry pages you had the option to reflect on during the two months of the course. Some of them you've worked with. Some you haven't. NOW, here they are all in one place in case you want to revisit ones you've already done or explore ones you never got to. And, at the bottom of the page are five BONUS pages -- ones you've never seen before. Oh boy!
NOTE: These self-inquiry pages are for your eyes only! Please do not forward this page to anyone. Thank you!
SELF INQUIRY PAGES
Frame Your Real Question
The Art of Self-Reflection
Follow Your Calling
Clarify Your Vision
You Are on a Hero's Journey
Make More Time to Create
The Practice of Creativity Is Like Gardening
The Wisdom of Beethoven
The Art of Asking for Help
Dreaming Big: Blue Sky Thinking
Four Great Videos on Creativity
On Giving and Receiving Feedback
Rumination: The Effects of Rumi's Poetry on the Creative Process
Putting the Moment Back in Momentum
The Wisdom of Frida Kahlo
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
Nurture or Fracture: The Dance of Creativity in a Relationship
Steve Jobs on What It Really Takes to Be Creative
Just Say Know: It's OK to Be Ignorant, But Only for a Little While
The Wisdom of Leonardo daVinci
The Wisdom of Elon Musk
BONUS PAGES
How to Change the Old Story You Keep Telling Yourself
The Wisdom of Albert Einstein
Take Some Risks
Overcoming Obstacles: Trick the Trickster
Get Out of the Box
ABOUT THE COURSE
Overview of The Year of Living Creativity course
More about the course
Big thanks to Hugo Hanson for the idea to put these all in one place!
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2021People's Three Biggest Concerns About Enrolling in THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY
Here they are: 1) Time; 2) Money; 3) Identifying a specific project.
That's it, folks. Those are the three most common reasons why people hesitate to enroll in The Year of Living Creatively, even if they understand the value of the course and have been referred by a trusted friend.
Let's take a look at each of these concerns, one at a time, so you have all the info you need to decide whether to proceed or not:
1. TIME: Yes, I know you are busy. Yes, I know you have a lot on your plate. And yes, I know you sometimes over-commit or underestimate how much time it will take to accomplish a worthy goal. Welcome to the human race.
Will participating in The Year of Living Creatively take some time? Of course it will. Just like it takes time to tend a garden if you want a harvest at the end of the growing season. (By the way, it took JRR Tolkien 16 years to write The Lord of the Rings). All things of value take time.
So lets get specific. How much time will The Year of Living Creatively take you? Here's the breakdown, ladies and gentlemen -- the discreet elements of the course and how much time each element will require.
ZOOM CALLS: Every other week for 75 minutes. A total of 5.
SELF-INQUIRY PAGES: 15-30 minutes per week
CREATIVE PROCESS CALLS with PARTNERS: 30-45 minutes per week
AUDIO STORIES: 10-15 minutes per week
COACHING CALL with MITCH: One 60-minute call, sometime during the eight weeks of the course
-- PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: Maybe 1-5 minutes each time to you log on. Optional
So, if you add everything up, you're looking at an average of one and a half to two hours per week. That's it. About the time to watch one Netflix video or 1/5 of your binge-watching time.
Is worth it? According to past graduates, the answer is a resounding YES.
2. MONEY: The tuition for the course is $479. That works out to $8.55 per day for 56 days or about the cost of two cappuccinos per day (though the buzz of the course lasts a lot longer). The creator and facilitator of the course, Mitch Ditkoff, will earn approximately $5,000 every time he delivers the course (or $2,500 per month). Payment plans are available. Scholarships are also available.
3. IDENTIFYING A SPECIFIC PROJECT: Some people who want to enroll in The Year of Living Creatively know exactly what kind of project they want to focus on in the course -- an idea, vision, venture, aspiration, or goal they have identified as their "passion project." Other people who want to enroll are not yet clear about their project. Perhaps they have two or three projects that are calling them. Or perhaps committing to any one of them will push some buttons -- as in "what happens if I fail"?
This is all normal stuff. No big deal. Please don't let it get in your way. If you see the value of the course, but are not yet clear about which project to take on, relax. You will receive some self-inquiry pages before the course begins to help you get clear.
POSSIBLE NEXT STEPS:
-- If you already know you want to enroll in The Year of Living Creatively, there's no time like the present. As in RIGHT NOW. All you need to do is pay your $479 tuition via PayPal (projects@ideachampions.
-- If you know you want to enroll, but need to work out some kind of payment plan, contact Mitch (mitch@ideachampions.com)
-- If your enrollment in the course depends on you receiving a scholarship of some kind, click here to apply.
-- If you still have questions or concerns and want to set up a time to talk with Mitch, simple email him (mitch@ideachampions.com) and he will get back to you ASAP.
"You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it." - Charles Buxton
50 awesome quotes on possibility
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2021The Year of Living Creatively Begins on April 17th
If you are a reader of this blog, you most definitely are committed to becoming more innovative and creative. As the Founder and President of Idea Champions (and author of this blog), that has been my focus since 1987 -- providing innovation-sparking services to a wide range of forward thinking organizations around the world.
Covid-19, however, changed everything. My clients were no longer bringing in outside consultants or facilitators, as everything quickly went virtual. That's when I had the realization that the FORM of my work needed to change, as well as the AUDIENCE. Corporations were out. Individuals were in (even if those individuals worked in corporations).
And so I created The Year of Living Creatively -- a two-month online course -- a kind of greenhouse for grand possibilities... a GPS for the creative process... a chiropractic adjustment for creative mojo.
What follows are testimonials from recent graduates of the course.
If YOU want to enroll or would like more information before you decide, simply email me and I will respond ASAP (mitch@ideachampions.com)
"Mitch Ditkoff, the Founder of The Year of Living Creatively, has the ability to awaken the creative spark in others -- an ability he has honed and refined to a fine elixir over decades of teaching and writing. Be prepared to have your mind blown, your funny bone tickled, and your lights turned on. Mitch's insights, empathetic listening, and presence have had a profound effect on my life." - Michelle Cameron
"Mitch is part creativity shaman, Muse whisperer, writing coach, and mad poet. He employs all of these characters in the service of helping participants launch and bring to fruition their cherished projects." - Mira Rubenstein
"The Year of Living Creatively is a wonderful course. It's helped me clarify my vision of what I want to accomplish and create a roadmap to get it accomplished." - Mark Stephen Miller
"I am ever so grateful for the Year of Living Creatively experience and for the expansion that I perceive in my consciousness and in my everyday life! This is truly one of the most wonderful gifts I have received from the universe and have given myself in a long time, especially after this outrageous pandemic experience. This course has been like the opening of the clouds after a storm and the joy of letting the warm sun shine into my skin." - Mercedes Garcia
"The Year of Living Creatively program was a catalyst that provided the guidance, support, and structure I needed to transform my dream of starting a business into reality. It prompted breakthrough thinking on obstacles that anchored me from progress and motivated me to act using innovative ideas and new partnerships." - Doug Stuke
"Mitch has designed a course that has helped me confront my negative beliefs about my creativity and set me on a very positive course of making miracles happen. His theme of synchronicity and teamwork were real ground breakers for me. Thank you, Mitch, for all the love and care you heaped into the course, and into me." - Joan Apter
"Creativity, I've discovered, comes from a limitless space within me. When I fully open up to it, creativity flows through me. Mitch Ditkoff's Year of Living Creatively course has made it clear to me what a vital part of my life creativity can play. It helped me discover that it is a power that works for me to make my mission in life come true. Mitch has a wealth of inner strength and ability to evoke brilliance in others. Every time I attend his sessions I walk away full of renewed courage, energy, and trust that I am able to fulfill my very ambitious project. Obstacles are removed and I make progress right away." - Tina Lindgreen
"I received a lot of inspiration to continue with my project from The Year of Living Creatively program. Every time I read something new, it was always pointing to the strengtts and the many possibilities a project can have and the many possibilities I have to get to a successful end. I had lots of fun reading the stories. There is a lot of humor involved in the course. And one of the things I want in life right now is to laugh a lot." - Barbara Drausal
"Being part of the Year of Living Creatively provided me with the emotional support I needed to free my inner artist. I became less judgmental about my work and started to embrace and enjoy looking at my work. I feel like I took my work out of the dark and brought it to life again with fresh eyes and less criticism. I am learning to listen to myself and play with the process of giving myself permission to enjoy what I am expressing." - Tina Lipson
"The course is inspiring and practical enough that I am taking it again. During the course, I was able to write about a third part of my life, and design part of a self-sustainable cabin. I was humbled by experiencing my own humanity." - Gretel Rogers
"The Year of Living Creatively helped me take my project a step up -- maybe 3 steps up, making it feel beyond a dream to reality." - MaryJane Fahey
"The Year of Living Creatively is a unique program that helps unleash human potential in a full-fledged way. Before enrolling in the course, I didn't have the faintest idea of the power and enjoyment of writing. Now I have experienced it. The program has sparked a lot of hope in me." - Nim Lal Bhandari
"Mitch led us through a series of workshops, each thematically different but the goal was the same: to help us get clear and take action towards what really matters to us, bypassing all the usual resistances and excuses. He does this in a safe and fun meeting environment where there are no wrong answers, but perhaps better questions to ask ourselves. He has plenty of visual and video clips from other creative leaders/artists to stimulate us to ask more relevant questions and the courage to take new actions in new territories. Highly recommended." - Linda Hurst
"I want you to know how much I appreciated participating in The Year of Living Creatively. The entire process was very supportive. The self-inquiry pages helped me examine some of the things that were holding me back. Along with your feedback, they helped me go from thinking my biggest goal was just to boost my writing to realizing that my overarching desire is to let go of my Aspergian fear of being visible and to live big and bold as my own true self in all my autistic glory! This helped me choose a project that really sparked my passion and go after it in a big and bold way. I loved having a creative process partner and we plan to continue doing weekly support calls. The group Zoom calls were also helpful. It was good to see how other people were overcoming challenges and blocks to their creativity. I had a hunch when I signed up for the program that it would stretch me in some very positive ways, while forcing me to face some very old and deep fears. I'm glad I trusted my intuition, even though, at times, facing down those fears was terrifying! I had all the support I needed to 'face that fire and walk right through it.'" - Janet Cook
"I highly recommend The Year of Living Creatively. Before I started, I was stuck on a plateau in my venture of writing my memoirs. Very soon after taking the class, I got my mojo back and made huge amounts of progress in so many different ways related to my project. Mitch is an amazing coach who is an incredible listener and knows when to "kick your butt" and when to offer words of encouragement. Try it! You'll like it." - Maribeth Raullerson
"Travel within, face demons and overcome them with loving support of Mitch and team members. I not only enjoyed the course, I made major headway" - Tucker Robbins
"The Year of Living Creatively is a truly amazing learning experience. Mitch's explanations, stories, and examples were very helpful in opening up my creative channel while at the same time pushing me to focus on the details. Mitch is a caring mentor, motivator, and smart coach. I highly recommend the YOLC program to anyone who always wanted to succeed in a new and creative project." - Gilman Hanson
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2021Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey and the Creative Process
"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
During the past 50 years, quite a few researchers, social scientists, and psychologists have written about the creative process, positing a number of models to help clarify its stages. All of their models are deeply considered and relatively easy to understand. The model I prefer, however, is one that was never conceived to explain the creative process, but the archetypal human adventure we are all on -- a model conceived by the mythologist Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth.
Campbell's original Hero's Journey model consisted of 17 stages. At the risk of oversimplifying Campbell's construct I offer, below, a modified version of it as conceived by Dr. Beverly Nelson and Joseph Dispenza -- a model that captures the essence of Campbell's wisdom and is easier to remember. (A link to Campbell's original 17-step monomyth is noted at the end of this post).
What I like about the Hero's Journey model is that it very accurately describes the process a human being goes through when attempting to create anything truly meaningful to them. In my experience, the creative process is very much a classical hero's journey. The more we understand the nature of that journey, the better our chances of actually embracing, enjoying, and completing it. Are you ready?
1. THE CALL TO JOURNEY: Have you ever felt called -- like the universe itself, was tapping you on the shoulder to get your attention -- that there was something for you to DO that absolutely HAD to be done and that if you DIDN'T do it you would end up feeling like you had chickened out? This calling is always preceded, according to Campbell, by some kind of disruption -- the end of the status quo and the recognition, as Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ so memorably stated that, "Toto, we're not in Kansas any more."
This disruption can take many forms. It can show up as a traumatic event, like a near death experience, the end of a marriage, the loss of a job, your home burning down, or Covid-19. Or, it might show up in a more intoxicating way -- like a dream, epiphany, or visitation from your muse.
Most commonly, human beings resist The Call to Journey. Where letting go would, ultimately, be the right move, we hold on. We tighten, clench, dig in our heels, cling to the past, and procrastinate.
If YOU are thinking of enrolling in The Year of Living Creatively (or have already enrolled) it is likely that you are feeling called -- that something deep within you has gotten your attention and you are now at the intersection of "Life As I Know It" and "I Have No Fucking Clue." Welcome to the fun house. Let the games begin!
2. THE PREPARATION: In order to transform nothing into something, you will need to prepare for the transformation. There is no way around it. Farmers do this every season. Committed to having a harvest, they roll up their sleeves, plough their fields, fertilize the soil, and do whatever is needed to help nature take her course. You, too, will need to roll up your sleeves. You, too, will need to prepare for your creative journey. What, specifically, this preparation looks like is completely up to you. By the way, The Year of Living Creatively can help.
3. THE ENCOUNTER: Every aspiring creator eventually runs into obstacles. Every fairy tale has its Big Bad Wolf. Luke Skywalker had Darth Vader. Cinderella had evil stepsisters. And Jesus had Judas. That's just the way it is. Or as the Buddhists like to say, "No mud, no lotus."
The obstacle is not the problem. The problem is how you relate to the obstacle. Do you freeze, procrastinate, stick your head in the sand, and eat another quart of ice cream -- or do you summon your courage and proceed?
The good news? In the Hero's Journey, allies and mentors show up all along the way to offer their help, bearing all kinds of gifts -- winged sandals, mirrored shields, magic beans, and maybe a foot massage. For the moment, think of The Year of Living Creatively as an ally of yours -- the assistance you need to help you navigate the creative process with as much power, resilience, and confidence as possible.
4. THE HOMECOMING: All major rites of passage have some kind of "honeymoon period" associated with them -- the intoxication phase when everything is new and our lives are animated by the energy of "anything is possible." That's a good thing. It keeps us in the game. It provides the fuel we need to keep on trucking. Eventually, however, this phase comes to an end. The buzz wears off. Holy Grail having been discovered, head of the Minotaur having been decapitated, we need to integrate what we've learned. We need to sustain the effort on a daily basis -- the "chopping wood and carrying water" phase of life when we practice what we've preached (or what's been preached to us).
In Joseph Campbell's taxonomy of life, this is known as the Homecoming -- the part of the process when the hero, after all kinds of adventures, gets the chance to LIVE their wisdom. The mountain has been climbed. Now it's time to do the laundry with the same consciousness that received the Ten Commandments the week before.
5. THE TELLING OF THE TALE: Storytelling is our species' most powerful way of sharing what it knows -- a form of communication that has been going on forever. Indeed, neuroscientists tell us that human beings are hard-wired for storytelling. It's what we do and how we do it -- translating our life experiences into a form that not only attracts attention, but delivers our message in the most memorable way possible -- the message of what we've learned... and what we know... and what will be useful for other people to consider as they continue on their journey -- or, perhaps, return from one.
The Telling of the Tale is the final stage of the Hero's Journey and, for those of us attempting to unleash our creativity -- a way to clarify our wisdom and be of service to others at the same time. YOU, as someone on the journey will not only be on the receiving end of many tales, you will also be the teller of tales -- the deep expression of what you've learned along the way. Your insights. Your moments of truth. And, ultimately, your wisdom. And all in service to the greater good.
"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." - Joseph Campbell
Campbell's 17 stage monomyth
Year of Living Creatively content
Testimonials
The creator of the course
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:18 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2021Who is THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY Really For?
Well, let's start at the beginning. There is something calling you -- a deep impulse to create, express, or manifest. This something has been calling you for quite a while and you know it, even if you have delayed, denied, or deflected it.
Maybe you thought you were too busy, or didn't have the skills, resources, or credentials. Maybe you thought it would be indulgent of you to take on this project or had other responsibilities you needed to attend to. Or maybe you feel none of the above and simply understand, NOW, that it's time to go for it and you want as much support as humanly possible to increase your odds of succeeding.
That's precisely why The Year of Living Creatively was created. It's an online learning (and doing) experience for anyone with a big idea, dream, vision, wish, aspiration, project, goal, or desire -- people who want to enter into a conscious process of transforming what's calling them into reality. With intention, enjoyment, and love.
If you are a fan of bullet points, here you go -- ten descriptions of the kinds of people The Year of Living Creatively has been designed for.
-- Dreamers
-- Visionaries
-- Entrepreneurs
-- Creative thinkers
-- Social activists
-- Aspiring authors
-- Artists, composers, musicians, actors, and dancers
-- Forward-thinking educators
-- Anyone with a juicy idea, calling, or aspiration
-- Anyone stuck, procrastinating, or spinning their wheels
If you are still not sure if The Year of Living Creatively is right for you, click this link or email the creator of the course, Mitch Ditkoff, and he will get back to you.
What is the real value of The Year of Living Creatively?
How to identify the project you want to work on
An invitation for you to dive deeper into your creative process
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2021How to Identify Your YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY Project
The Year of Living Creatively is a project-driven course. Each participant, before the course begins, identifies a meaningful goal, opportunity, or vision they want to breathe life into for the two months of the program. We're talking "skin in the game," "stake in the ground," and "chips on the table" -- a project you are committed to -- or, at the very least, a project you want to be committed to.
The project you will be saying YES to for the two months of The Year of Living Creatively program might be one you have recently conjured up or, perhaps, it's one you've been thinking about for many years, but have been, shall we say, "spinning your wheels".
To help you tune further into the project you want address in the course, please be mindful of the following five criteria:
1. PASSION: The project you will be focusing on in The Year of Living Creatively needs to be one you have great enthusiasm for -- a venture you are psyched about -- one you will likely end up dreaming about or, at the very least, be thinking about in the shower. We're talking major intrinsic motivation.
2. STRETCH: The Year of Living Creatively project you take on needs to be one that is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h for you -- not something necessarily easy to accomplish. By "stretch", however, I am not referring to stress, struggle, or drama. I am referring to an inspired goal or vision of yours that will require stepping outside your comfort zone.
3. SHAREABLE: The project you choose to develop in The Year of Living Creatively needs to be one you are willing to explore, from time to time, with other people in the course. You get to decide what specific aspects of your project to share, but you will need to share something. Two heads are not only better than one, it will help you get out of your own head.
4. COMMITMENT: Your Year of Living Creatively project will be more like a marriage than a fling. In other words, it needs to be something you're willing to be in an ongoing, intimate relationship with -- not something you will avoid the first time you experience discomfort, doubt, or difficulty.
5. TIMELINESS: In the best of all worlds, the project you choose to work on in The Year of Living Creatively will be the right project at the right time -- something for you to get your arms around, specifically, at this time in your life -- a project that is calling you. No more procrastinating. No more self-denial. No more chicken-shittedness. And, by the way, The Year of Living Creatively is designed to help you succeed with this project AND enjoy the process. Whoo hoo!
Interested in identifying your Year of Living Creatively project? If so, click the two self-inquiry pages below. All you need to do is reflect on the questions and fill in the blanks.
Follow Your Calling
Discover Your Real Question
Want to enroll? $449. PayPal: products@ideachampions.com
What is the real value of The Year of Living Creatively?
An invitation to dive deeper into your creative process
Who created The Year of Living Creatively?
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2021What Is the Real Value of THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY?
There are two kinds of benefits you will receive from participating in The Year of Living Creatively. First, you'll make major progress on a passionate project of yours that needs a benevolent jolt. And second, you'll develop the kind of skills, mindset, and mojo you'll need to succeed with any creative project of yours in the future.
What follows are the ten qualities you will develop during your two-month participation in The Year of Living Creatively.
1. CURIOSITY: Curiosity is the driving force behind all human development. When a person is on fire with a desire to learn, discover, and explore, whole new worlds open up to them -- especially the inner world of creativity. Simply put, The Year of Living Creatively has been designed to fan the flames of curiosity -- providing participants with the kind of wake up call that animates the deep-seated quest for knowledge, know how, and understanding.
2. CLARITY: The creative process is often an unsettling experience. Doubt, ambiguity, and confusion come with the territory and often, in such degrees, that aspiring innovators can easily lose their way. The Year of Living Creatively program not only helps participants see the light at the end of their tunnel, it illuminates the path that leads to the end of the tunnel. Eyes open. Minds open. Hearts open.
3. COURAGE: It's what the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz needed and it's what all aspiring innovators need, as well -- the inner strength to venture, persevere, and go beyond fear. The root of the word courage comes from the Latin "cor", which translates as "heart". Year of Living Creatively participants are encouraged, in many different ways, to not only come from the heart, but also get to "the heart of the matter" -- the essence of who they are and why they want to create in the first place.
4. CONFIDENCE: One of Big Bad Wolves on the path of creative expression is doubt -- the feeling of uncertainty and lack of conviction that robs a person of their precious life force. Everyone, at some time in their life, feels doubt. Everyone. But doubt increases a thousandfold when we attempt to go beyond the status quo and create something extraordinary. That's when confidence is especially needed -- the recognition that not only do we have the potential to succeed, we have the right. The Year of Living Creatively is designed to radically increase confidence -- not by pep talks, hype, and hustle, but by helping participants access the part of themselves that knows that anything is possible.
5. CREATIVITY: If you google "definitions of creativity" you will get 49,900,000 references. Here are 15 of them in case you're interested. But it really doesn't matter how you define creativity. What matters is that you live it -- that your thoughts, actions, and intentions are infused with it. The Year of Living Creatively is all about what it takes to create. Every process, exercise, conversation, Facebook post, Zoom call, brainstorm, and reading is designed to unleash creativity. We don't teach it. We don't need to. You already have it. We just make it infinitely more accessible to you.
6. COMMITMENT: Michelangelo may have said it best when he uttered these four words: "Genius is infinite painstaking." It took this extraordinary artist four years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It took J.K Rowling seven years to go from her idea of Harry Potter to the published book. It took Tolkien 16 years to write the Lord of the Rings. What did all these people have in common? Commitment. Major Commitment. And this is one of great gifts of The Year of Living Creatively. It increases commitment.
7. COMMUNITY: The creative process is full of paradoxes, contradictions, and polarities. For example, on one end of the spectrum, creative people need lots of solitude. On the other end, especially during these isolating days of the Coronavirus, they need community -- opportunities to connect with other like-minded souls for encouragement, feedback, comradery, and fresh perspectives. The Year of Living Creatively is designed with this in mind -- establishing a community of practice that is welcoming, authentic, and inspiring.
8. CONNECTION: Here's one of the little-known secrets of creativity. It is often a function of how human beings connect seemingly unrelated elements -- their willingness and ability to synthesize new combinations between this, that, and the other thing. When we are "in the box", constrained by old assumptions and beliefs, we don't always see the inter-relatedness of things. When we are "out of the box", whole new worlds open up. Bottom line, The Year of Living Creatively increases the odds of people making new connections -- not just with each other, but to the many seemingly unrelated elements of their life.
9. COLLABORATION: Jobs had Wozniak. Lennon had McCartney. Crick had Watson. And Laurel had Hardy. Yes, it's true that the creative process is sometimes a solitary pursuit, but it is also a collaborative pursuit. Which is precisely why The Year of Living Creatively is designed to spark collaboration -- two or more people joining forces, in a soulful way, to radically increase the odds of magic happening.
10. CONTINUITY: The creative process, like bowling balls, bicycles, and skateboards, is subject to Newton's First Law of Motion -- what most of us have come to know as "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion." For anyone trying to create something new in their life, maintaining positive momentum is essential. Flow, forward movement, and continuity matter, big time. The Year of Living Creatively is designed with Newton's First Law of Motion in mind -- doing everything it can to poke, jiggle, jolt, jog, prod, tickle, goose, and nudge people beyond inertia into the state of "its' getting better all the time."
An invitation to deep deeper in your creative process
Who created the Year of Living Creatively?
YOLC's previously unknown back story
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2021THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY: The Previously Unknown Back Story
Every story has a back story. And every back story has a back story -- the mysterious plot without which the story about to be told would not be a story. And so, in the spirit of full disclosure, here's the back story of The Year of Living Creatively -- a bold, new online service of mine with the potential to make a profound difference in your life.
In 1987, along with my best friend, Steven McHugh, I started Idea Champions, a training and consulting company whose mission it was to spark creativity and innovation in organizations around the world.
In the beginning of our start-up efforts, we had no money. Zippo. Nada. Zilch. But we had something way more valuable. An idea. An inspired idea. A big idea. An idea SO big and so inspiring that we could not stop thinking about it. It kept us up at night. We thought about it in the shower. While we slept. And though it would be fair to say we had a monumental idea, the real truth was that the monumental idea had us.
Our first client made $600,000 with a single idea they generated in the first brainstorming session we ran for them. Our third client, AT&T, licensed our Get Out of the Box creative thinking training -- the first creative training AT&T had ever purchased. Then came GE, Merck, General Mills, Pfizer, MTV, Lucent, Allianz, Goodyear, and 100 other companies in 11 different countries -- all wanting to unlock and unleash the creative brainpower of their workforce.
For two counter-culture guys in their late 30's, this was quite an adventure, especially since we had always considered corporations to be "the bad guys."
Not everything we did worked. Like most entrepreneurs, we had plenty of false starts, flops, and failures. But no matter what happened -- or didn't happen -- we kept on adapting, inventing, and learning. What, specifically, were we learning? How to catalyze creativity and innovation in others. How to help all kinds of people navigate their way through the long and often winding road of their own creative process.
Fast forward to 2020.
When Covid-19 hit the fan, I was in Australia, working with an Islamic school. Overnight, I had to transform everything I did into an online experience. Oof! Ouch! Ugh! The resistance lasted for a week. Then I started noodling on a very provocative question: "How can I distill down everything I've learned in the past 33 years and make it available -- online -- to as many people as possible around the world?"
Badaboom! Badabing! That's when the idea for The Year of Living Creatively hit me upside the head -- a simple, inexpensive, user-friendly way for people to get the support they need to increase their odds of manifesting their most inspired ideas, dreams, and ventures.
You want the elevator speech? The Year of Living Creatively is a chiropractic adjustment for your creative process -- an engaging way to unlock and unleash your brilliance -- an intentional, time-efficient approach to help you go over, under, around, and through whatever obstacles are preventing you from manifesting your heart's desire. Bottom line, it's a cool way to neutralize the Big Bad Wolf on your way to grandma's house.
And while it's not a magic pill, it CAN work magic.
It's not a class. It's not a workshop. And it's not a training. It's an ongoing, catalytic process to awaken your innate creativity, insight, wisdom, and commitment.
HOW IT WORKS: There are five, interconnected elements to The Year of Living Creatively.
1. SELF-ASSESSMENT: To make sure YOLC is a good fit for you, all you need to do is click this link and respond to the "Are You Ready for The Year of Living Creatively" self-inquiry page. In ten minutes, you'll know if this program is worth your time.
2. SELF-INQUIRY: Once a week, you'll receive a link to an online self-inquiry page (like this one) that will help you reflect on a specific aspect of your creative process. If you're stuck, the page will help you get unstuck. If you're already unstuck, the page will spark a quantum leap of thought, insight, and action. Each page will require 15-30 minutes of your time.
3. CREATIVE COMMUNITY: Once a month, you'll be invited to participate in a 90-minute ZOOM session -- a virtual campfire around which all Year of Living Creatively subscribers will gather. This will be an opportunity to pause, dive deeper into your creative process, and get the support you need from other members of the community. PS: Even though the creative process requires lots of solitude, it also requires connection, community, and collaboration.
4. CREATIVE PROCESS PARTNERSHIP: Each member of the Year of Living Creatively community will be paired up with another member -- someone to connect with, periodically, for support, feedback, fresh perspectives, and accountability. Two heads are better than one.
5. PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: All subscribers will be invited to join the Year of Living Creatively FB group -- an asynchronous way to stay in touch with each other, share progress, ask questions, share resources, get inspired, and otherwise keep your creative fires burning.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
