This week’s posting is all about developing confidence in the work. We are reaching the end of a season and I hope that it has been productive for everyone. We will be shifting gears in a few weeks, once autumn rolls around. We will enter a more reflective place in regard to our work. It might be tempting right now to allow one’s attention to lag. This week is all about confidence. We may feel a bit tattered at this point, heeding the internal call to produce, while the sun still shines brightly over us all.

I recently read a book about making positive changes in our lives. The book is titled “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Katy Milkman. It doesn’t address the creative process directly, but so many of the lessons contained within the book are readily applicable to our relationship to the creative endeavor.

Once we reach this stage of creative production, we are working on caffeine and adrenaline. Confidence can feel a bit lagging here, for you just want the thing out of your system, onto the page or on the stage or up on the canvas. We want it out of us. This is the period of time in which the whole labor process breaks down. We imagined floating in a warm pool of water and scented candles placed liberally around the room, but our imagination doesn’t measure up to the effort it takes to make this project manifest.

Confidence may be fading, as we question some of our choices earlier on in the endeavor. But don’t be discouraged. Press on! This book’s insights into confidence may help us all at this critical juncture.

Here are some of the book’s most resonant take aways when it comes to confidence:

• Self-doubt can keep you from making progress on your goals or prevent you from setting goals in the first place.
• Ask yourself for advice on how to best achieve your goals. This process builds confidence, as you wrestle with yourself. Contemplate just what may be the best psychological approach to accomplishing your task
• Consider forming advice clubs with a group of like-minded individuals or even consider becoming a mentor. This advice might be surprising given the context of our work, but you are already far enough along to help someone else who is just now dipping their toe in the water of creativity.
• Your expectations shape your reality. I have had the opportunity of connecting with every one of you over the past year in one form or another, whether in person or online. I believe in your potential. Spend a few moments with yourself in a quiet space and remind yourself of why you began this project in the first place. Remember how exciting it was when you first captured its essence in your mind’s eye.
• Here’s a more practical call to action – Set ambitious goals for yourself but build into those goals escape clauses, that you can deploy whenever the muse is not circling around your mind. Use them sparingly but know that they are there at your disposal. You can bow out for a day or two every week if you so choose. This approach will keep you on track. It is a nice balance between striving and nurturing your inner self.
• “Focus on personal experiences that make you feel successful or proud.” Use these recollections to fuel your confidence when it comes to finishing this creative endeavor.

Execute these strategies to forge ahead with self-assuredness. Your creative endeavor may need a little boost right about now. Find the determination to accomplish your goals. You will be so richly rewarded once the first iteration has been birthed. You have almost reached the vista point atop the artistic mountain.