Like developing our creativity, developing our inner strength is both a little bit harder and also a whole lot easier than we make it out to be.

Harder because to meaningfully build inner strength, we need to intentionally practice. Strength does develop quietly in the background, but it can also atrophy. If we leave it up to chance, it’s easy to find ourselves in need of strength that just isn’t there. Maybe you’re wondering: How might we practice strength? It’s a great question. Practicing strength isn’t as tangible as practicing a one-handed cartwheel.

When a skill is hard to see or measure, that’s when story becomes such a valuable tool. In fact, the story we’ve been playing through in this first season of Creative Lift has been designed for this very purpose—to build our creative strength.

In Season One of Creative Lift, we’ve experienced a Hero’s Journey. We answered the call to adventure and have been exploring how play works in our creative process, and how it might not be working quite the way we hope. In today’s episode, it’s time for the climax of the story, when we face off with our dragon and see where the moment takes us. Sometimes a dragon is vanquished in one encounter, but often the result of standing face to face with them is that we renegotiate our relationship and find a more workable relationship for our ongoing creative health.

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Do you ever find yourself with cheeks aflame, heart thumping, even shouting at someone who’s only trying to help, “You don’t understand! I can’t do this!!”

When I leave a conversation like that, completely unsatisfied, sometimes I’ll realize … I just fought fiercely on behalf of my limitations. And we—my limitations and I—we won. What if we could tap into this powerful strength of conviction, energy, and passion, but use it on behalf of throwing doors open rather than slamming them shut?

In Season One of Creative Lift, we’ve experienced a Hero’s Journey. We answered the call to adventure and have been exploring how play works in our creative process, and how it might not be working quite the way we hope. In today’s episode, we enter the third trial which focuses on naming the obstacle that we’ve begun to see as we’ve been playing our way to the page. If we were to envision our fear, memory, expectation, belief, or emotion as a dragon, what would that dragon look and feel like? What is its essence? What if that dragon is actually trying to help us … and if so, how might we rework our relationship with it so that we can coexist more effectively?

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When you start learning something new, there’s often a phase where it’s joyful to learn everything there is to know.

Then, suddenly, overwhelm sets in. There is so much to know.

What’s the next step in a growth journey when we hit this realization?

In Season One of Creative Lift, we’ve experienced a Hero’s Journey. We answered the call to adventure and have been exploring how play works in our creative process, and how it might not be working quite the way we hope. In today’s episode, we enter the second trial which focuses on gaining traction through intentional practice. What might we observe about the next right step with our creative flow if we start with what we know and follow our curiosity onward?

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Do you consider the words experiment, design, and build as synonyms for the word play? If so, then it’s probably not too big of a leap to see play as a crucial part of the creative process.

But, maybe you object: No. Experimenting, designing, building … drafting … these tasks are serious, important work especially when it comes to my writing and my career.

In Season One of Creative Lift, we’ve experienced a Hero’s Journey. We answered the call to adventure and have been exploring how play works in our creative process, and how it might not be working quite the way we hope. In today’s episode, we enter the first trial which focuses on gaining perspective. When we take a clear look at the landscape of play in our work and our lives, what do we observe?

What’s at stake if we let go and let ourselves play? What’s at stake if we don’t?

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When you think about consulting a wise advisor about your creative practice, what comes up for you? Do you think: “Yes, please! Please send someone to tell me what to do next!”

Or, do you think, “No, thank you. I prefer to do things my own way.”

Whether you enjoy mentorship or resist it, there’s a reason that mentors often show up near the beginning of a Hero’s Journey. Often, the hero can’t move beyond where they are without a shift in mindset. Listen in and explore who might ask just the right question or help you learn the just-right new skill as you take your next creative steps.

In this episode, I include quotes from the following authors:

C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Madeleine L’Engle, Herself

Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

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If you listened in last week to episode three, Listen for the Call to Adventure, you likely have been collecting thoughts and ideas in a Listening Jar this week. Today, we’ll talk about what to do with your collection, and you’ll answer the question: Will you accept the call to adventure and cross into the unknown?

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Often, we ask ourselves big, nuanced questions as though we’re vending machines into which we can drop a coin and expect an answer to immediately pop out. What if there were another way to engage with big questions, a way that allowed our slower, subconscious answers to bubble their way up to the surface?

In this episode, we’ll explore a listening tool that doesn’t let us off the hook when it comes to big questions, but that also offers space and time for an answer to emerge.

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Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults

Anne Ursu

Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey

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What would you say if I asked you to name a creative strength or two? And if I asked you to name a creative shortcoming? In this episode, we explore thoughts about our gifts and limitations. You’ll also identify a few specific strengths and consider how you might play to them, especially when facing your biggest challenges.

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Quiz: What’s Your Creative Style?

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