Transcripts auto-generated! Excuse errors!
Hello Merideth Hite Estevez the creator of artists for joy podcast here. If you are new around these parts, you have tuned in to one of our very special bonus episodes that go live on the opposite weeks from the core full length ones. In each of these I give you a little pep talk, offer you some self-coaching questions to help you go deeper with the topic from the episode prior.
Last Friday’s show was all about celebration, how cultivating celebration as a core value in the creative life helps deepen your capacity for goodness. It helps you enjoy the process and long game that is being a creator or artist. If you haven’t heard that episode, pause this one and jump back one in the feed.
Today’s music features the piano stylings of Sam Chan playing Mendelssohn Faure and Grieg. While you listen, consider the following:
First question, how are you benefiting from not celebrating? I know that sounds crazy, but have a look at your current mindset–if it is one of pushing forward at whatever cost, of denying yourself the ability to celebrate until you are perfect/ a NY times best seller/ prove your frenemies wrong? And hey, maybe this mindset does serve you…mine did for years…it keeps you singularly focused, it helps you achieve at a really high level…but…
And here’s question two…what other benefits do a different mindset have? For example, if you celebrate every small step along the long journey of your creative work, I know for a fact that you will be less likely to burn out, to feel like you are able to rest without that pesky voice chatting about how much there is still to do…
The celebration mindset is one of joy and delight. It was one that will deepen your capacity for goodness in your life. So first, look at the ways that your current mindset is serving you or not, look at what you currently believe about pausing to turn around at the top of a climb and check out the view. I can tell you all day to celebrate, but for you to really shift the way you think you have to first recognize the way you currently think.
Now, as you are listening to this music, I want you to make a list of as many things as you can that are cause for celebration today this minute. Not, once I climb that hill I can celebrate this or that, no, what can you cheers to right this very minute without lifting a finger.
Here are a few of mine: Nothing is too frivolous by the way
–I am celebrating how much I have grown since this time last year
–I’m celebrating that I thought we were out of coffee but I found one of those little single serving grounds from a hotel stay in the back of the cabinet
–I managed to get this recording done a whole day before it goes live
–I got clarity around a creatie problem I’ve been facing, even if it means there is a lot of hard work ahead
–I watched my son add another word to his rapidly expanding vocabulary, this one: apple
There are lots more, but see, celebration is just gratitude, it’s outloud joy, its choosing to notice all the goodness that’s right there in front of you. It doesn’t mean that all the hard, annoying, frustrating stuff goes away, it just means you are choosing to call out of the goodness. To accept it, to be proud of yourself even if you still have a very long way to go.
Celebration is a powerful tool for creatives because it allows us to find joy in the journey, even in the hardest moments. Shifting your mindset means digging out of the current rut your wheels are stuck in, it means building a new path by consciously choosing joy each and every moment. Notice how your outside circumstances don’t need to change for you to celebrate. There are things to savor and delight in right here. It isn’t always easy especially if the current rut is deep, but during this music I hope you’ll make your list of all you have to celebrate, and let it start to shift, even just a tiny bit, the way you approach yourself and your creative output.
I will be back next week with another full length episode. Until then, take good care.