Creative Lift

Design Thinking starts with empathy. If we were making a widget or any solution to meet an external user's need, we'd want that empathy to begin with the people for whom our solution was designed. But what about art? Is it a solution? And if so, who is that solution designed for? The artist? The audience? I do think that art is a solution. For me, first, art is a solution to a question that will n...

The more original, the more interesting, the more important your creative work is, the harder you have to work to craft the bridge between what's in your mind and the person on the other side of the conversation. Too often we ask ourselves to do that work in the echo chamber of our own heads, thinking we're protecting our ideas. What if, instead, we're building bridges to nowhere, because we haven...

While it may be more obvious to play while brainstorming new ideas, play is also valuable throughout the other phases of the creative process. Play is the trap door into the creative process that plunges us into the hard things before we know they are hard, so that our natural courage shows up when we needed it, and so we could prove to ourselves what we are capable of doing. Ideating isn't the on...

How seriously do you take decisions? Do you hover on the edge of decisions like you're paused on a diving board, anticipating the cold impact of the water? Or do you plunge on in, but pop out again nearly immediately, letting yourself change your mind over and over again? What does decision making look like for you? And how does decision-making play into your creative practice? In this episode, we...

I know failure can sometimes be an unpopular subject. Before you decide to skip this episode, know this: failure is a key part of playing games. And play is our most valuable learning strategy. Play is how humans, throughout time, have learned to do things they don't yet know how to do. The way we level up is to experiment, fail, learn, and then find a new answer. No matter what kind of game you'r...

Whether you enjoy visualization, or it's a stretch for you, our exploration in this episode will help you see more clearly how to put this skill to use in your creative thinking. Whatever kind of writer or storytelling artist you are, being able to "see" the world of your story in your mind will multiply your effectiveness in many ways. Today, we'll focusing on how this skill will help you play ga...

Do you prefer to personalize your approach or stick exactly to prescribed guidelines? Either way, by starting with a simple recipe, you give your creativity a play space in which to innovate. In Season Two of Creative Lift , we're putting the discoveries from Season One's Hero's Journey to practical use. In today's episode, we'll explore how to use the simple recipes in improv and other similar ga...

As an improv teacher, one of my very first goals in a workshop is to unlock the power of "Yes, and..." in our classroom. "Yes, and..." is what allows players to actually have fun while improvising. Working with writers, I've discovered that developing this mindset is equally important. No matter what kind of storytelling artist we are, we need to say "Yes and..." to our own hunches, and also to ex...

Do you remember playing make-believe as a kid? Maybe you had an ongoing world you would step into, where the story was always waiting to sweep you away. Whether you played long-form make-believe or just popped into imaginary worlds now and then, I wonder: What was your doorway in? In Season Two of  Creative Lift , we're putting the discoveries from Season One's Hero's Journey to practical use. Kno...

In order to share our stories, we must  shape  them into stories. We find the unifying thread, choose the meaningful details, and let the extra questions and loose ends fade into the background. Just as when we write stories, when we live them the theme is more likely to be a question instead of an answer. The question is your call to adventure, and the story we live through is the nuanced answer....

What if we, as adults, celebrated milestones and transitions in the way we encourage kids to do? What might the equivalent of a 5-year-old holding an "I just graduated from kindergarten" sign be for an adult? While the moments of "graduation" might not be so tangible, so much growth and change happens in our adult years. How might we mark that growth in a meaningful way? In Season One of Creative...

Like developing our creativity, developing our inner strength is both a little bit harder and also a whole lot easier than we make it out to be. Harder because to meaningfully build inner strength, we need to intentionally practice. Strength does develop quietly in the background, but it can also atrophy. If we leave it up to chance, it's easy to find ourselves in need of strength that just isn't...

Do you ever find yourself with cheeks aflame, heart thumping, even shouting at someone who's only trying to help, "You don't understand! I can't do this!!" When I leave a conversation like that, completely unsatisfied, sometimes I'll realize ... I just fought fiercely on behalf of my limitations. And we—my limitations and I—we won. What if we could tap into this powerful strength of conviction, en...

When you start learning something new, there's often a phase where it's joyful to learn everything there is to know. Then, suddenly, overwhelm sets in. There is so much to know. What's the next step in a growth journey when we hit this realization? In Season One of Creative Lift , we've experienced a Hero's Journey. We answered the call to adventure and have been exploring how play works in our cr...

Do you consider the words experiment, design, and build as synonyms for the word play ? If so, then it's probably not too big of a leap to see play as a crucial part of the creative process. But, maybe you object: No. Experimenting, designing, building ... drafting ... these tasks are serious, important work especially when it comes to my writing and my career. In Season One of Creative Lift , we'...

When you think about consulting a wise advisor about your creative practice, what comes up for you? Do you think: "Yes, please! Please send someone to tell me what to do next!" Or, do you think, "No, thank you. I prefer to do things my own way." Whether you enjoy mentorship or resist it, there's a reason that mentors often show up near the beginning of a Hero's Journey. Often, the hero can't move...

When we try to draft and revise at the same time, our mind engages in a tug-of-war that makes getting our work out onto the page slow-going, if not impossible. What if, like in a Kindergarten classroom with a reading corner, a science corner, and an art corner, your mind contained well-equipped spaces for the varied kinds of thinking the creative process requires? What if that jumble of creative t...

In this first season of Creative Lift, we're setting out on a Hero's Journey.  If you listened in last week to episode three, Listen for the Call to Adventure, you likely have been collecting thoughts and ideas in a Listening Jar this week. Today, we'll talk about what to do with your collection, and you'll answer the question: Will you accept the call to adventure and cross into the unknown? Down...

Often, we ask ourselves big, nuanced questions as though we're vending machines into which we can drop a coin and expect an answer to immediately pop out. What if there were another way to engage with big questions, a way that allowed our slower, subconscious answers to bubble their way up to the surface? In this episode, we'll explore a listening tool that doesn't let us off the hook when it come...

What would you say if I asked you to name a creative strength or two? And if I asked you to name a creative shortcoming? In this episode, we explore thoughts about our gifts and limitations. You'll also identify a few specific strengths and consider how you might play to them, especially when facing your biggest challenges. Download the reflection guide here.

When was the last time you were swept up in the wonder, joy and thrill of a creative project? What if we didn't have to wish, hope, and long for flow? What if instead, like a hot air balloon tethered in our backyard, we knew exactly where to find it?