Creative Solutions and Inspirations from the Modern Day Muses

The Just-Get-Started Muse

By Jill Badonsky, M.Ed.

PLUS: Meet the Muse Marge

“Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers

Last in the line-up of Modern Day Muse introductions is Marge. She is the Muse of “Okay-Now-Let’s-Get-Started.” As her name implies, she is all about beginning the creative process — often the hardest part. Marge is named after the sheriff in the movie Fargo. Marge’s no nonsense mid-western attitude gets the job started, and without moodiness, complaints or drama, gets the job done. The Muse Marge says (in a mid-western accent long on o’s): “Ya know, if you haven’t finished anything, maybe it’s because you haven’t started anything.”

Did you know reading about the creative process is another way of avoiding it? If my column usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes to read, what if instead of reading another article right now you took that 5 to 10 minutes and used it to take one small step on your writing, art or living-an-artful life endeavor? You would be experiencing the creative principle behind Marge: breaking the process down to the smallest step possible to avoid the fear/overwhelm/resistance that leads to procrastination or the leap toward success that triggers self sabotage. Small steps repeated over and over create the mental circuitry that makes creativity a habit even after the enthusiasm that fuel initial action wanes.

“Creativity is an organ that improves with use
and when fully engaged is difficult to wear out ...”
— Robert Genn, Painter’s Keys

So I’ll stop now, so that you can start — and remember: daydreaming for 2 minutes about what you might do next in your creative world is creative foreplay and anything that can get you more excited about starting, counts. Next month I’ll give you Part 2: Marge Reloaded so if you end up not starting today, you’ll have some more tools to make beginning easier. •

“It does not matter how slowly you go,
so long as you do not stop.”
— Confucius

Copyright © Jill Badonsky, 2007. All rights reserved.

About the Author | More by Jill Badonsky
Jill Badonsky, M.Ed. is a nationally recognized workshop leader, artist, performer, humorist, and author of the book, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers and Other Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence. She teaches creativity lovers to facilitate classes and workshops based on her book and along with UCLA psychologist, Robert Maurer, she trains people to be Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaches. She can be found lurking at www.themuseisin.com.

07/17/07