How do you manage high creativity?

Posted: December 8, 2011 | Author: janetconner | Filed under: 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women, Creativity, Gail McMeekin | Tags: 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, Creativity, Gail McMeekin, managing creativity | Leave a comment

Today, I am honored to share an excerpt from Gail McMeekin’s new book, 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women. Gail has been a guest expert for four seasons now on my creativity course, Plug In for Writers. This past summer, she was also the guest expert on creativity on the brand new course, Plug In for Expressive Souls. Gail is a true expert in the field of creativity. No one has interviewed more successful creative women. I rely on Gail for wisdom and practical, practical, practical steps.

When she asked me to be a part of the blog tour, I jumped in. She gave me several excerpts to choose from, but this one yelled, “Choose Me!” I laughed. I’m one highly creative soul juggling a wild array of new books, courses, articles, and marketing programs. So I NEED this article!

Excerpt from 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women
By Gail McMeekin

MANAGING HIGH CREATIVITY

Highly creative women often have special aptitudes that give rise to creative

intelligence, a superior ability for innovative thinking and application. In today’s

marketplace, our ability to think differently about problems and solve them with

original and novel solutions is a key to success. Highly creative women can have

problems if they don’t see themselves or their abilities clearly. In my experience,

some of the strengths and necessary talents of highly creative women can also be

their downfall if not managed well. This book is meant to be a guide to help you to

leverage your abilities and counter these potential pitfalls. These would include:

Being overly sensitive and therefore too thin-skinned to be out in the world much
Ambivalence about money and therefore being afraid or uncomfortable charging what they deserve
Intuitive—getting wrapped up too much in other people’s life decisions, which distract the highly creative woman from her own life
Divergent thinking—going from project to project—too many ideas at the same time can be overwhelming and make it difficult to focus
Independence—being afraid/disinclined to ask for emotional support and business help when they need it
Severely critical—perfectionism can be paralyzing and prevent highly creative women from ever releasing their completed work into the world or finishing projects at all

CHALLENGE

Spend some time this month “remembering” what captivates you about your work

and renew your vows.

Non-conforming—being scapegoated by others for being too far “out there” and not following enough protocol to successfully do business in this world—can lead to isolation and loneliness
Not completely confident—having damaged self-esteem or lack of expertise in certain skill areas that they may need to learn or to delegate to others
Can be workaholics and ignore their own needs for self—nurturance, serenity and relaxation
Need for solitude—the highly successful woman must honor this and negotiate with partners and family
Can make simple things complex due to a long list of internal comfort criteria
Sad—often feel that they haven’t met their potential or realized their dreams for this life
Fear of being who they really are and telling the truth about it and risking disapproval
Feeling guilty about not having chosen a traditional career path with job security, a pension, and securing people’s understanding of what they do
Feeling confused by having too many interests and not knowing what to specialize in
Fear of rejection as being unbearable and something from which they won’t recover
Fear that pursuing their creative work will hurt the ones they love
Being labeled by others as a risk taker or being hesitant to take the necessary risks to succeed

Fortunately, there are remedies for all of these issues, and this book is your guide

to creative success and peace of mind. Most of these creative liabilities are also

strengths, but you must learn how to capitalize on them and redesign your strategies

of being in the world.

Thank you, Gail for your research, your wisdom, your creativity, and your excerpt. We are blessed to be a part of your world. Janet Conner

Readers: You can visit Gail at Creative Success and get a signed copy of her book. Or ask for it at your favorite bookstore. You can also get Gail’s newest book at Amazon.

Want more? Here’s Gail’s whole blog tour.

November 29th – Better Yet Bookshelf http://betteryetbooks.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/honoring-inspiration-gail-mcmeekin/

December 1st – Gut Truster’s Blog http://lynnrobinson.com/gut-trusters-blog/managing-ideaphoria-by-gail-mcmeekin-of-creative-success/ (Lynn Robinson)

December 2nd – Jenna Avery http://jennaavery.com/creativesuccess (Jenna Avery)

December 3rd – Tranquility du Jour http://blog.kimberlywilson.com/2011/12/blog-tour-la-fave-author.html (Kimberly Wilson)

December 4th – Jamie Ridler Studios http://jamieridlerstudios.ca/creative-successful-women (Jamie Ridler)

December 5th – Penguin Tales http://penguinart.com/blog/ (Kate Garchinsky)

December 6th – Life Work Transitions http://www.lifeworktransitions.com/blog/ (Deborah Knox)

December 7th – Beth Tunis http://www.bethtunistherapy.com/ (Beth Tunis)

December 8th – Writing Down Your Soul https://janetconner.wordpress.com/ (Janet Conner)

December 9th – I Am Fully Alive http://www.iamfullyalive.com/ (Olga Aura)

December 10th – Marilyn Tam http://www.marilyntam.com/gift.aspx (Marilyn Tam)