Your creative roadmap Chapter 10

Set clear intentions and measure your progress

In the creative act, the artist goes from intention to realisation through a chain of totally subjective reactions. His struggle toward the realisation is a series of efforts, pains, satisfaction, refusals, decisions, which also cannot and must not be fully self-conscious, at least on the esthetic plane.

Marcel Duchamp Painter, sculptor, writer, and pioneer of the DADA movement

By now, you’ve likely learned that the journey through creativity is long, beautiful, and demanding. What you set out to do isn’t always where you end up—and no matter which direction you take your creativity, you can be certain you’ll face the struggle.

Creative struggle may be unavoidable, but, as we’ve discovered, it can be managed—and even harnessed as a powerful form of inspiration.

If you’ve worked your way through the previous chapters, you now have all the tools you need to move forward with your next creative endeavour. There is truly nothing that can stand in your way. In the next stage, you’ll work on identifying where you want to venture next—and begin!

But first, let’s review your creative journey and the toolbox you’ve developed using this book. Check off the exercises you completed—and feel proud of yourself! If you’ve missed out on any chapters, now is a great time to go back and fill in the gaps.

Here’s what you’ve learned so far:

Ch. 1: You created a unique definition of creativity—Creativity is You

Ch. 2: You got to know your motivations for creating—Why? Why not?

Ch. 3: You learned about accepting yourself for who and where you are today Start from where you are.

Ch. 4: You started to understand the environment around your creativity Context matters.

Ch. 5: You identified your imaginator type—Idea Generator, Idea Maker, Idea Implementer.

Ch. 6: You befriended your creative struggle(s)—Embracing the tension.

Ch. 7: You defined your creative practice to fit your life—Building creative habits.

Ch. 8: You designed your active creation space(s)—Exploring places and objects.

Ch. 9: You exercised your creative action points—Imagine. Make. Connect. Reflect. Well done!

Hopefully, you’re now feeling the momentum and understanding more about your creative potential and the impact you can make by committing yourself to making and sharing your creative contributions with the world. Let this momentum be the creative spark you’ve needed—or longed for. Use it to pull yourself out of procrastination mode and launch yourself into the creative life you envision.

What have you dreamed of doing but haven’t yet started? Do you have a wild idea that keeps you awake at night? Is there a wicked problem out there begging for you to solve it?

Now is the time to identify new projects—but also to be deliberate about how you want to spend your creative energy. Instead of tackling every creative goal or dream at once, set clear creative intentions and outline a roadmap to follow. Working with a creative outline will not only keep you on track, it will also help you observe and measure your progress along the way and guide you on when to make a U-turn, when to stop and course-correct, and when to push through your struggle and keep going.