How Can You Live Your Dream In A Small Way Pt.1: Questions for Creative Focus

[EDIT: This was originally written during the pandemic & edited November 2023}.

A good question can make the impossible possible; a bad one can make the possible impossible. Good questions feel good & open up possibilities. Bad questions close you & limit potential.

The pandemic has made so much of our already largely precarious sector even more so, & with people leaving the profession, organisations folding, & it seeming harder to get ahead than ever before, I guess there’s never been a better time to ask a good question!

Here are some more things I ask myself (& my students) when things look bleak & I want to throw the towel in:

• Whatever is happening, what is this an opportunity for?

• Assuming there is compassion in this situation, where and what could it be?

• What are the positives in this situation, however small?

• What are the negatives, however un-facably large?

•What have I been putting my energy & focus on, which, truthfully, hasn’t been working for me?

•Where can I place it instead?

• What technique/idea/person have I left behind that I should’ve brought along? Could I invite it, or similar, in?

• What technique/idea/person have I brought along that I should’ve left behind? How can I gently, respectfully, let it go?

• “When fishermen cannot go to sea they mend their nets”  - What nets in my creative life need mending?

And my two evergreen all-time favourites:

• How can I live my dream in a big way?

• How can I live my dream in a small way?

There have been many times where asking myself these questions & journalling on them has enabled me to pick something out of the wreckage to move forward with, however small, & carry on. Let me know if you use any of these & how things pan out for you!