What is the key to creative accountability? YOU.
In order to commit to your new creative habit or any creative goal it’s good to have accountability. While having an inner voice and innate motivation is something we all would like to have and strive for it is also about creating accountability in your life to reach and achieve your creative dreams. So today, here are some strategies to help you reflect and decide which ways of creating accountability will best suit you!
Is anyone helping you hold yourself accountable to your creative goals and dreams?
Create a blog
Blogging is a great tool. A conversation with a friend made me realize this tool is probably best suited for introverts. Blogging is an awesome tool for reflection, which is why I think it suits introverts, since they have a predisposition to reflect. A blog is a wonderful way to build a digital portfolio of your work and get feedback from peers, friends, and family. People you don’t even know may discover you and share in your inspiration. All of a sudden you have a small or large fanbase you are excited to post for and you begin to worry about their disappointment or lack of interest if you don’t post regularly. Blog your way to Accountability!
Social Media Post
Perhaps a blog is a larger commitment than you like, or you are more extroverted in nature and like sharing but you aren’t a reflective type. Then social media may provide a means of accountability for you. Make a commitment to post every step in your project or creative goal via Facebook or Twitter. The people already following you and in your life will see this and know about you and work and their “likes,” comments, and sharing of your posts will be a wonderful motivation and reward to keep at it. Social media can create Accountability!
Create a Calendar
Calendars can actually feel punitive to me. In fact, making a list of tasks I must complete makes me feel like a failure when I don’t and discourages me from my creative goal. But, a dear yogi friend of mine shared her technique of using a calendar and it is anything but punitive! She wanted to increase the number of days she practiced yoga. So, every day she practiced yoga she placed a mark in her calendar noting her success. She could look at the calendar after a few days, a few weeks and even months later and see positive marks that noted what she DID do, not what she aimed to… which has motivated her to practice yoga almost every day since she has started! Sounds like accountability to me!
Note your successes on the calendar, it may prove a strong incentive to keep going!
Team up with Like Minded People
Writers have been using writers’ group for ages as a means to discuss and share progress and motivate each other. A creative support group can be a great way to build your motivation and follow through. First, you need to be in a group of people you trust to give you positive, constructive, feedback. If you have people who are creatively insecure in the group they could bring destructive energies into the fold, which obviously hinder creative success. Second, you need people willing to commit to the group. It is the shared effort and commitment of the teamwork that brings you to your accountability!
Shout your Goal from Rooftops!
Tell everyone you know about your creative goal: your Mom, your grandmother, your nephew, your best friend, the checkout clerk at the grocery store, the stranger you meet at the coffee shop, etc. etc. If you tell everyone, you are going to feel pretty foolish if you don’t follow through. Especially when that grocery clerk remembers you and asks you about the next time you are checking out. Choose Accountability!
What rewards do you give yourself for reaching your goals? It certainly does not have to be monetary!
Build in Rewards
As you work towards your goal have smaller steps that act as achievements and when you achieve that smaller step, reward yourself! Celebrate by doing something that makes you feel good and happy and encouraged to continue. This reward can be that of relaxation, a day off from projects, your favorite baked good, a nice dinner with friends, a long run, you decide for yourself. Create a list of rewards so you have an easy reminder of the things you are working towards. And keep a bigger list of your real creative dream easily visible to remind yourself of all that you work towards.
BE COURAGEOUSLY CREATIVE: Which strategy best suits your personality and goal? Choose one (or two) to help you follow through on your dream.
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A timely post for me, Carrie. In some ways, if you’ve done the “create a blog” step, the “shout it to the world” step becomes much easier!
Glad to hear that the timing is right 🙂 And I agree, blogs are such a great format to begin the process. And once you know you have readers, you want to continue to bring them content that engages them. I feel I owe it to them! This feeling helps me try to continue through assorted projects.
I’m late to the party.
As a Creative, it can be a solitary journey when doing the work. You have to keep revisiting methods to keep from stagnation that may creep up.
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of experiencing productivity on a higher level by hooking up with another artist (different medium then myself which was a plus) to converse on challenges and victories. Our virtual weekly meetings led us both to complete our projects with feedback and ideas along the way.
I would certainly recommend this approach to other creatives. I’m now beginning a much larger project and am on the hunt for an accountability comrad. I have put request out on reddit and such with no luck so far. Not easy to find creatives who are committed to putting in the small weekly steps that produce a goal.
In any event, to create the work we must find accountability, even if it is ourselves. Great post!
Definitely not late, right on time!! 🙂 Happy to have you here Bee.
I am in LOVE with how you’ve set up accountability measures like this in the past for yourself. This is exactly why I created my program The Circle because I know so many artists thrive when they have other artists to work alongside and hold each other accountable. The power of artists working side by side is really amazing.
I don’t know if you are on FB but you might find someone in my free FB group called Becoming Artist Strong? Wouldn’t hurt to ask!
Warmest of wishes to you.