it’s sunday – which means it’s creating dreams come true day. creating dreams come true is a free ongoing e-course and creative community to support you in living your dreams. if you are new, please feel free to join right in. the more creative dreamers the better!

this week’s topic is inspired by makeup.  i mentioned in my new art room post that i take my eyeshadow very seriously, so having a large and well-lit makeup station is really important.  i don’t take eyeshadow seriously in a i-have-to-put-a-mask-on-to-look-a-certain-way way, i take it seriously in a makeup-is-so-fun-because-its-like-art-supplies-for-my-face-and-i-want-to-play-with-it way.  so, playing away, i tried something new with my eyeliner.  (buxom lashliner in sequin – black with silver glitter – love it!)

but i didn’t like the way it looked. it was awkward and weird and not how i thought it would be.

glitter eyeliner

i studied it and thought – i bet it will look better once i have mascara on.  so i carried on and once i put the mascara on i saw that the eyeliner really worked with the mascara and i was happy with it and glad i’d tried something new.

there’s that little awkward stage where you’ve tried something new and it didn’t turn out like you had hoped it would.  in those times, there is that temptation to wash it off, to jump back into the safety zone, to stay where everything is not so awkward and strange.

but the path to your dream is so filled with unknowns that there are bound to be times when things don’t work out the way you wanted.  if we give up and go back to square one each time something doesn’t go our way we are not going to get very far.

if you can stay with it anyway, if you can move forward anyway, if you can believe in yourself and your dreams anyway – then you can win.

we don’t control the outside world.  we don’t decide how our work will be received by the world.  we don’t get to choose what the outcomes of our actions will be.

we can control our inner world.  we can decide to honour, cherish and respect our own work.  we can choose our reactions to whatever comes our way.  and when we are doing this we are building the inner strength that leads to true success.  we are building ourselves up to be strong enough for the journey.  we’re looking at the long haul.  we’re learning from each step, making adjustments, accepting the gifts as we go along and we are making slow and steady progress towards success, however we have defined that for ourselves.

when things don’t go as we planned it’s a gift.  it’s an opportunity to grow.  it’s an opportunity to feel.  mostly though it’s an opportunity to learn.  when we try something and it doesn’t go as we wanted it go to – this is valuable information. it’s actually pointing us in the direction of where we do want to go.  finding out what doesn’t work leads you to what does work.

do you see the beauty in that?

i learned that trying to smudge a gel eyeliner with my finger looks weird.  the colour gets too washed out and it looks like just a little bit of badly applied grey eyeshadow.  and i learned that with enough mascara, my eyelashes camouflage this and it just looks kind of smoky and smudgy, which is what i wanted.  even if i hadn’t found a way to make the eyeliner work, i’d still haven’t that valuable lesson to not try to smudge if with my finger.  that information can lead me in other directions – like looking at eyeliner brushes or different kinds of eyeliner.  that experience can then guide me in the direction of success.

the eyeliner is a good story to look at because there is no emotional reaction in the way of learning from the “mistake” and moving on.

but what if i worked really hard at my art, and got a solo exhibition in a gallery, and got great feedback on my work but didn’t sell any of it the whole month it was on display?  that’s another true story from my life, it happened about 10 years ago.

and in a case like that the temptation to feel like a failure becomes a lot stronger.  the temptation to not believe in the saleability of my work becomes a lot stronger.  the temptation to just give up becomes a lot stronger.  frustration abounds.

but once i’d worked through the emotional reaction (i like to use meditation and creative journaling for this) i was able to find the gifts, learn the lessons and point myself in a new direction.  understanding what it was that happened in that situation helped me to find a market for that work by bringing it online.  i even ended up in a magazine!

2001 magazine article with my hand painted bedding - OMG i look so young!

(it’s kind of embarrassing to share this photo now – because i have grown so much as a person and as an artist and if i painted bedding now it would be a lot better than this.  but that’s where i was and i really really loved doing that.)

so ultimately what this is about is being willing to stay with our dreams even when everything is awkward and/or falling apart.  we do this by building up our inner strength, and choosing to believe in ourselves and our dreams no matter what.

creative dream assignment: believe in yourself

this week we’re going to work with a mantra:  i believe in myself.  i believe in my dreams. we’re going to think it to ourselves, or journal about it, or blog about it, or make art about it, or write a song about it, or make up a dance about it, or write it down and put it where we’re going to see it every day.

creative dream check-in

please join the comments below and let us know where your dreams are growing and flowing and where they’re stuck. also share any questions or ideas about this week’s topic, or just say hello.  everyone’s dreams grow more fully and beautifully when we grow them together in creative community.

did you do last week’s assignment? where have you given yourself permission to change your mind, to strike old dreams off your list and/or add new dreams?  i want to hear about it!

also – please note there’s still stuff happening on the creating dreams come true creative brainstorm session!   join in, share your situation and give and receive inspiration, ideas and support.

my check-in:

big changes around here.  i changed my house around! come on in for a video tour of my new art room if you missed it earlier this week.  i am so happy in here!  so much more room to play and dream and get things done.  i feel so much more organised and able to do more good stuff.

i’ve also done a little re-decorating here on my website, including a new welcome video – it’s up at the top left corner.

i have created some unleash your creative magic programs that i am super-duper-over-the-moon happy with.  i realised i didn’t want to do *just* coaching, i want to create whole programs that really fully support people in unleashing their creative genius to create anything they want to create.  so the programs start with some one-on-one coaching and then take what we discover in that session and work with it over the course of the next few months, or year, depending on the package chosen. (because i don’t believe change usually happens in just one session, the insights gained there need to be integrated, and that takes some time.  this feels so juicy and powerful and exciting.  (these will be offered first to people on my creative adventure email list, at a special prices, before i put them on my website)

progress on my creative with money kit has slowed down as i’ve been giving more attention to the unleash your creative magic programs but it’s still incubating and growing.  overall i am feeling really good about growing my business – i have so many ideas it’s hard to know what to do first but i am finding as long as i do *something* i do keep moving forward.

and i am looking forward to hearing your updates!

andrea schroeder creates creativity workshops, downloadable creativity kits, art and guided meditations to support you in knowing and remembering that you are a creative being and you can create anything.

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Tagged as: awkward, dreams, growing, success