Active stints of creating last for just a certain amount of time. Creators work and then they come to a stopping point—and how they choose that stopping point may prove the most important decision they make all day!
Some creators like to stop “in the middle of things” so as to continue actively chewing on and mulling over their material. Others like the sense of completion that comes with arriving at a natural stopping point, like the end of a painting or a section of a painting, and stopping there.
Some stop when they don’t know what to do next, others stop because they do know what to do next and want to use that knowledge as the jumping off point for their next day’s creating. Other just flee the encounter! They stop because the work got too hard!
What about you?
For the next week or two every time you work on your painting or your poem make a point of noticing—and evaluating—your reasons for stopping. Remember: the way you stop influences whether or not you will start tomorrow!
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Enjoy Eric Maisel’s Secrets of a Creativity Coach: