creative life Archives - Jessica Abel

Answer these 10 quick questions to uncover the real reasons why you’re not able to take control of your creative work.

creative life

Coping With Staying at Home: How to Survive—and Thrive—While Under Quarantine

The Growing Gills Book Club

Ready to dive deep into your creative work? Get Growing Gills on Amazon US (international store links at the bottom of this post) and then watch the book club videos below! Welcome to the Growing Gills Book Club Archive! Jump to meeting: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5/ 6/ 7/ 8/ 9/

Working From Home: Tools for Sanity in Isolation

Overcome procrastination and anxiety—follow through on your creative habit

Banish the endless self-critical monologue running in your head. Decide what you want to do, what you WILL do, and follow through on your creative habit.

6 ways to defeat the blank page 🔥✍️🔥

Recently, I wrote about how common it is to feel the impulse to undermine yourself and get derailed just when things are going well. It’s great if you can identify what’s happening in time, and pull back from the brink. But what if you’ve already managed to drive your project into a ditch, and you’re

Losing focus? There are reasons you derail your progress

It happens every time I get about two-thirds of the way through the Creative Focus Workshop with a group of students, and creaky, self-defeating patterns start breaking down. People start to take action on projects that have been back-burnered for ages. Stuff starts to happen. It was happening for Chris, who has wanted for years

If creativity is so freeing, why do I feel like I’m trapped?

You have a passion. You’re inspired and motivated. So why can’t you manage to do the thing? Feel trapped? Here’s some news: You are. Ready to get out?

Against grit: Why setting the bar low is the key to making real change in your life

You don’t need a will of iron or a massive supply of “grit” to make real changes in your life. Instead, you need to set the bar low. The secret to hitting those big creative goals is not about waiting for inspiration, it’s taking much smaller steps, much more often.

12 hard-won tools and strategies from navigating a 12-year project

The point of being human is to try things that are incredibly difficult, to reach for heaven, even if it exceeds your grasp. That’s who we are. That’s what makes it all worth it.

How to stop putting off that major project in 6 simple steps

There are projects on your list that have been there a very long time. Everybody has them. I have them. Here’s how to (finally) get them done.

Answer these 10 quick questions
to uncover the real reasons why you’re not able
to take control of your creative work.

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