Know Your Phase ! 

EP.013

Welcome to the creative presence, a show that’s dedicated to expanding your creative self expression. And at the same time getting your projects done. And I’m your host, Joshua Townshend.

It is so important for us artists to actually know to recognize to feel to sense, what phase, what phase of growth, we’re in what phase of development you are in, it is actually critical to your success and, and working with any kind of creative development really, you have a generating, organizing and delivery phase, that’s, that would be the largest context that I could offer up.

But if we’re going to work with the nature based world, which is something that I always like to run parallels with our creative processes that we run, and look to the creative world and look to the nature world, for hints of our creativity, we have seasons, we have seasons in the sun. We have the four seasons.   And within those seasons, if you’re looking at crops, or the natural world in terms of planting, yeah, there’s, there’s a time to plant. Yeah, so there’s a time to plant and that’s when you dig up the soil, right, you dig up the soil, you put the seeds in, and you water it and you tended, and then there’s a time for nurturing the soil and nurturing the plants letting it you know, letting it grow to a certain place, you can see you can transplant it into something larger into the field, that’s another phase of development. And then after it’s nurtured for a little bit and it’s grown, you know, taking roots, then maybe at a certain part, you’d have a time to prune. So you’d be cutting back. And then there’s another growth cycle. And then maybe at that point, you’re going to be harvesting.

It is the exact same thing with our creative development with any of our projects, we have, we have a phase of development, where you’re going to be generating and I want you to be generating and, and and what I call throwing clay on the table and just putting out the material that you’re going to sculpt from that you’re going to mold into your project, then there’s going to be a phase where you’re going to be organizing, you’re going to be adding in more clay or taking away clay or sculpting the clay or adding things to the clay, the nurturing, and the growing and then the pruning and all of that, yeah. And then there comes a time to harvest and that would be delivery. And so before you deliver something, you have to make sure that it’s fully riped, it’s gone all the way through the maturation process, that you’ve picked it at the right time that you go through your final edits, you look at all those things that need to be looked at in order to make sure it’s just, you know, you sweeten it just to the maximum maximum that you can, and then hit delivery. And of course, every project has its own cycle. And of course, you know, you don’t want to like gild the lily, as they say. So depending upon what kind of project it is, you know, maybe that that delivery phase is relatively short, it’s important to own the phase of development, the urine, and that you properly prepare yourself for entering into that creative phase. So for me, when I’m generating material, I need a certain kind of energy for me, for me, you know, I tend towards air and I hope by now you’ve you’ve done the creative quiz. And if not, it’s free, it’s on my website, you can find out if your air fire, earth or water. So find out where you are so that you, you know, in essence, how you’re going to be showing up to this generation face. So you’re generating you’re throwing the words, you’re throwing the clay, you’re throwing the visuals, whatever medium you work in, you’re throwing it down. And when I’m throwing it down, I’m working for a certain kind of energy or with a certain kind of energy. And that takes a certain kind of mindset, and, and state of being and relaxation. And certain things need to be in place for me in order to do that, that kind of generative work. Then when I move into the organizational phase, and if you don’t like these words, you can use other words, I’m not attached to that. One, I’m moving to the next phase of development where I’m starting to pull it all together, I’m starting to shape I’m starting to, you know, take some stuff away, put some other stuff in. Shaping, developing all those things.

Then I need to come to those kinds of creative phases, those creative jam sessions with a different state of being with a different kind of energy. It’s more focused, it’s more refined. I’m checking in myself with my sense and sensibilities. I’m gathering from lots of different points of view of life, the character’s point of view, the director’s point of view the other character’s point of view, the audience’s point of view. So I’m really like, you know, really taking into a lot of different accounts, I’m not just throwing the clay on the table anymore, you know, Sense and Sensibility starts to come in. And then the third and final phase, which is the delivery phase, which is basically preparing for delivery and delivery. And that’s when the final final comes in. And each one of these has its own play, it has its own fun, it has its own energy. And so with that energy is has a whole nother state of being for me. And then I’m looking for checking in with myself, getting really grounded, making sure that all the transitions are what I want, do I exit and enter from every scene as I wish are the nuances of every moment carved just the way I want, is there anything else I could add or subtract, that would make this a more complete, compelling, visceral experience that takes me out of out of time and space. So I’m really working from that point of view. And again, that point of view, that kind of energy requires a different kind of state of being for me to enter into, from my creative self, I ask of myself different things of myself, again, I’m going to ask you to first be aware of what phase of development are you in? What kind of creative session Are you about to go into, and so really have awareness around it and then own it. Right, really own that session for what it is, recognize it as such. And with that, what state of being do I need to be in in order to do my best possible work. So that could look like altering certain things in your life showing up in first thing in the morning showing up? You know, in the evening, having a workout before or after not eating, eating, you know, everyone’s built differently. Also look to your creative element to see how that can support you. And then to actually execute on that phase, and work through that phase all the way so that you can have completion. Hope you enjoyed this one. It was fantastic. sharing with you. This is very powerful, very potent and very practical, owning each phase of the work that you’re in in terms of your creative project. Please like, please subscribe, and please share, and we’ll be back in a few more days with another amazing episode. Thank you for listening. If you love what you’re listening to please subscribe and then share with fellow creatives. For more, go to JoshuaTownshend.com

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

phase, creative, work, nurturing, delivery, development, clay, project, energy, order, generating, seasons, throwing, creative self expression, share, enter, final edits, state, starting, view