My Recipe for Getting Started on a Magnificent Creative Project

I have a Magnificent Project in the works. This project is big and demands my devotion and commitment. I started six weeks ago, and know that this will take me the rest of the year to complete.

It will shape my days and weeks through its demands and requirements. But I also know that it will return buckets of expansion, delight and satisfaction in exchange for my dedication to it.

Because of this project, I’ve been asking around to see how many other people have an Inspired Idea or Magnificent Project. Sadly, way too many say something like this, “Yes, but I don’t have time for it right now.” Or, “I don’t know how to get started. Maybe when I retire, or when the kids leave home, I’ll do my thing.”

This makes me sad. Yes, my Magnificent Project is taking some doing, but it’s already enriching my life in ways I never would have imagined. I believe the world, especially now, needs more of us engaged in things that thrill, delight and excite us. I believe that personal projects like this (unique to you, of course!) is part of what will heal the global stress epidemic.

I thought it might be helpful if I shared my recipe for getting started — just in case your own Inspired Idea has been flapping in circles around your head just waiting for you to embark on something similarly spectacular.

My Recipe for Starting a Magnificent Creative Project.

Ingredients

  • 1 Inspired Idea

  • Conscious Time in the Schedule

  • 2 parts Awareness

  • 4 parts Awe

  • 5 parts Trust

  • Daily Practice

  • 1 Stupendous Coach (or Mentorship Group)

  • Good snacks

  • A place for lovely walks

  • 1 Box of Nervous System Nourishment

  • Time for a System Check In

Method

  1. Allow for 1 Inspired Idea to land. This is your seedling.

  2. Shake your schedule, just a little. Make space for this project. Even if it’s only 10 or 15 minutes a day. This is your pot.

  3. Mix 2 parts Awareness, 4 parts Awe and 5 parts Trust. This is your soil

  4. Water your seedling through your daily practice.

  5. Hire a stupendous coach, or find a mentorship group, to guide you and keep you from setting off in the wrong direction, wasting your energy, or falling into any pitfalls of procrastination or despair. You will want a coach or mentor, especially if you have never before undertaken a project like this. Your coach holds the fertiliser you need to grow robustly strong and healthy.

  6. Make a good snack drawer. Have this on hand for when the going gets rough or the body gets hungry.

  7. Know where you will go for lovely walks to stretch your mind, loosen your body and set your imagination free.

  8. Fill a box with lots of different nervous system nourishment. Use something from it every day. Stepping into the Land of Never Before (which you always do when you do something you have never before done!) will stretch your system. You want to be able to hold that stretch with ease by feeding your nervous system as regularly as you do your Inspired Idea.

  9. Shake up your schedule again. Make time for a regular system check in. At the moment, I’m doing this weekly. Eventually, I think this will happen monthly.

    This is what I ask myself during a check in: What’s working? What’s not? Do I need a different time of day to work on my project? Do I need more walks or more snacks? Or more sleep? How about the admin? After a few weeks of creation, is my workspace getting a bit messy? Do I need to stop for an hour to organise everything so that it all has a home? I don’t want to worry about where to put things, or how to find the thing I created last Saturday.

Progress Update

For the most part, things have been moving along. Yes, as with everything human, some days are smoother than others. Some feel very flow-y. Others like sludge. But I’m making progress and am more excited than ever to share this creation with you, once it starts to take shape.

I won’t tell you exactly what my project is until after this initial gestation period. For right now, I think it’s important that I honour some quiet time for just My Idea and me. Eventually, I’ll let in the rest of the world. But not just yet.

I triggered a systems check this morning. I found I needed to spend an hour on admin and organisation. I’m creating this Magnificent Thing in various ways and through various mediums. I have a couple of journals, and my laptop. I have lists and photographs and sticky notes. Things were starting to feel like a very messy war room with one too many flow charts. As my project grows, it needs more support and structure. I gave it that this morning.

And now, I get to return to the creating, set free by my new system, supported and fertilised by my coach, and even more deeply rooted in awe, trust and inspiration.

This is as much of a recipe as I have now. I’m sure I’ll be updating it as the year goes on.

I wish you much happy creating.