1st Edition
The Coach's Guide to Completing Creative Work Top Tips for Working with Procrastination, Perfectionism and More
This book brings together 38 creativity coaches from around the world to offer coaches, therapists, creatives and clients accessible and practical tools to get their creative work done.
Curated by two leading creativity coaches, these chapters seek to help coaches and clients alike tackle common challenges that all creatives face when finishing a project. Chapters cover topics such as procrastination, failure, accountability, perfectionism, mindfulness, the importance of support, perseverance and more, with each section finishing with tips for both clients and coaches that can be used in sessions. Filled with rich case studies and true stories from creativity coaches throughout, this book addresses the current issues of our times, such as the distractions of social media, remote working and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Applicable to a range of creative disciplines, this book is essential reading for coaches, therapists and their creative clients looking to complete their creative work efficiently and effectively.
Co-Editor's Introduction
Lynda Monk
1. Why Completing Creative Work is So Darn Hard
Eric Maisel
2. The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Clare Bunting
3. Failure Is an Option
Dianne Ochiltree
4. How Creative Rituals Help Get Things Done
LA Bourgeois
5. The Joy of Completion
Clare Thorbes
6. Spotlight Your Intentions
Cari Griffo
7. How an Accountability Partner Helped Me Finish My Book
Shannon Borg
8. Completion: Journey or Destination?
Alia Thabit
9. Three Steps to Perseverance
Nick Lazaris
10. A Mindful Approach to Completing Creative Work
Thomas Deneuville
11. Planting Your Work
Midori Evans
12. Use Performance to Encourage Completion
B. Morey Stockwell
13. How Community Can Help Solitary Creatives Finish
Jana Van der Veer
14.The Value of Support
Lisa Tener
15. Shaping Routines That Work
Anne Carley
16. Moving from Self-Doubt into Self-Leadership
Sharon Stratford
17. How Grace, Gratitude, and Generosity Can Help Us Find the Path Forward
Michele Blackwell
18. The Power of a Secular Shabbat Practice
Helen L. Conway
19. When the End is Near: Creative Finishing
Jacqui Beck
20. Three Steps to Permanently Stop Procrastination
Steve Davit
21. Actually, You Do Have Time for Completing Your Creative Projects
Sheila Bender
22. Finding a Kinder Way to Let Go
Ahava Shira
23. A Creative Structure for Completing
Cindy Yantis
24. The Quest(ions) to Completion: Lessons in Following Your Bliss
Erin Hallagan Clare
25. How Pietro Used Discipline and Self-imposed Contraints to Complete His Artistic Project
Coleen Chandler
26. Working From the Inside Out
Jackie Beaver
27. Finishing Paintings
Anni Barsoum
28. How to Get from There to Here: Using Task Blocks to Complete Your Book
Jude Walsh Whelley
29. Finishing by Design
Jamie Palmer
30. Factoring In the Impact of Your Creative Work
Danielle Langin
31. Timely Completing via Right Thinking
Eric Maisel
32. Mind Yourself
Nicky Peters
33. The Show Must Go On: So Must the Process
Nicolle Nattrass
34. How to Stay When You Feel Like Bailing
Marcy Nelson-Garrison
35. Neuronal Energy Shot: Using Guided Imagery to Activate Performance Energy
Denise Wonnerth
36. Timely Completing Using Your Existential Intelligence
Eric Maisel
37. Encouraging Motivation During the Final Stages
Aneesah Wilhelmstätter
38. Creative Mental Fitness
Nefeli Soteriou
39. Sylvia and Her One Thing
Pragati Chaudhry
40. Journaling for Completion
Lynda Monk
Co-Editor's Conclusion: 12 Tips for Completing Your Creative Projects
Eric Maisel
Biography
Eric Maisel is the author of 50+ books, among them being Inside Creativity Coaching: 40+ Inspiring Case Studies from Around the World, The Creativity Workbook for Coaches and Creatives: 50+ Inspiring Exercises from Creativity Coaches Worldwide and Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists and Clients: A Complete Guide to the Benefits of Personal Writing, all published by Routledge.
Lynda Monk is the director of the International Association for Journal Writing (IAJW.org) and co-editor of Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists and Clients: A Complete Guide to the Benefits of Personal Writing. She is co-author of Writing Alone Together: Journaling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection. She is passionate about the transformational and healing power of writing.
"This great resource offers the wisdom of experts on the creative process, who share their own challenges in completing creative projects. With clarity and kindness, they explore the characteristic challenges that creatives face and present individualized strategies for completion. This guidance on how to remove blocks and fuel creativity is a major contribution to the coaching field."
Leia Francisco, author of Writing Through Transitions
"This book is a treasure-trove! Packed with ideas and strategies to help creatives with the never-ending challenges of being creative, it provides great tips on how to stay the course, experience the flow, and complete your projects."
Sandra Marinella, author of The Story You Need to Tell
"What creative person has not struggled with seeing a creative project through to completion? Roadblocks, detours, distractions, and psychological upheavals are all par for the course. This book serves as a candle in the dark for those who dare to create and can use the support, insight, and wisdom of fellow travelers on the path."
Eric Teplitz, writer, musician, coach, and host of "The Person You Want to Be" podcast
"If you are someone who starts things but has a hard time finishing them, you are not alone. Don’t let your creative dreams go unfulfilled! Let this book inspire and guide you with what it takes to complete your creative work! You will find practical ideas, tips and strategies from others who know how to get things done. If you are a creativity coach, you will find many tools and approaches for helping your clients complete their creative pursuits. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get what matters done."
Rebecca Kochenderfer, founder, Journaling.com
"The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work provides readers with excellent suggestions and approaches to meeting one’s creative goals. Discussed are commitment, organization, routines, motivation, and much more. I highly recommend this book to anyone needing that extra push to get to the finish line."
Merle R. Saferstein, author of Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vol. 1
"In the midst of a writing project, this book has helped me more firmly grasp the slippery and ornery nature of the creative process. Wherever you are in your creative journey, Maisel, Monk, and colleagues offer practical insights for meeting the challenges of completion. I promise that this book will fortify your creative practice!"
Ruth Folit, writer
"The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work demystifies the difficulty of finishing creative work. Both obstructions and solutions are laid out clearly, simply, personally, and usefully. In an organized and enjoyable manner, a variety of articulate creative people help all of us in the fight against the inner and outer blockages to creative success."
Beth Jacobs, author of A Buddhist Journal
"I've long struggled to make the shift into structure and organization that completion requires. But thanks to this beautifully crafted and emotionally nourishing collection of wisdom coaching, I have strategies galore for my upcoming end stage."
Kathleen Adams, Center for Journal Therapy, author of Journal to the Self and Expressive Writing: Foundations of Practice
"The collaborative writing and editing team of Eric Maisel and Lynda Monk has done it again! If you’re an artist or writer who’s bumped into the stumbling blocks of procrastination, perfectionism, or other such limiting practices, The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work is a creative lifesaver. With more than forty chapters written by coaches, artists and writers, this guide is a cornucopia of ideas, suggestions, advice, and encouragement for creatives of all stripes. This is a book that I need, that I’ll use, and that I can’t wait to share with others on the creative path."
Judy Reeves, author of A Writer’s Book of Days and Wild Women, Wild Voices
