I’m a big advocate for regularly taking time to reflect on how things are going, especially in your creative practice. Taking stock of where you are now, and how you got here, is vital for the resilience of your practice.
January is the natural time to look ahead. Unlike the rest of the year, when it can be hard to carve out time to reflect once we are caught up in work and projects, this quiet month is perfect for slowing things right down. We can benefit from the end of another year, another decade, as the memories of all those experiences feed into the plans we will naturally be making.
This year I’d like you to consider doing things a little bit differently. This transition from one decade to another is an opportunity for some deep consideration of the journey you’ve been on over the past 10 years. You will be in such a different place now than you were then. You will have learnt so much about yourself – who you are, who you would like to be – and how your creative practice is tied up in this. Not taking some time to pause and really consider this feels like a shame.
So, this year, rather than just repeat my regular programme of new year reflecting – the Creative Practice MOT – I thought I’d expand on that to include all my newest ideas and thinking around the ideas of reflecting and planning. This year I have created a mega review and plan guide – the Holistic Creative Practice Review – which will hopefully be unlike any other guide you’ve used before. It asks you to abandon the tried-and-tested models of evaluating your practice through one lens and to open up to what happens when you consider everything in your life and the impact all that has on your creativity.
I’m really excited to share with you ideas I’ve been developing over the past few years of seasonal reflection and more recent research into sustainable practice: My new guide will ask you to choose ways to understand your practice that mean something to you (whether that’s to consider the energy that flows in and out of your work, or the values that drive it). Identifying how these things have an impact on what work you enjoy, what work you need to do, what work you should say no to, feels paramount when deciding what to do next. I’ll also ask you to consider how sustainable your practice is – in the literal sense of how you can sustain it/how much it sustains you, and the wider sense of how it has an effect on other people and the planet. I’ve developed a sustainability audit which I hope will start the process of identifying what your needs are and balancing those with the responsibility we have to those around us.
I’d love it if you’d join me in this process. Some of these ideas are brand new and I desperately need some feedback on whether they work for you. Some are well-liked examples from my regular resources (no point reinventing the wheel!)
So, if you feel like you’re ready to invest some time into understanding yourself and your practice better, so that the plans you make are based on exactly what you need right now, then sign up right away!
The Holistic Creative Practice Review is a brand new guide made up of 8 sessions delivered via email over 2 weeks. It starts on Wednesday 15th January and ends on Friday 31st January.
Each session will take approximately 1-2 hours to complete.
Cost £10
Sign up before 10pm Tuesday 14th January to secure your place.
Timetable
15th Jan Look back (5-10 years)
17th Jan Look back (last year)
20th Jan Understand what happened
22nd Jan Be curious about why
24th Jan How sustainable is your practice – for you?
26th Jan What impact does your practice have on others & the planet?
28th Jan Plan ahead
31st Jan Final thoughts & recommendations