Life works out for us #perception #selfefficacy #selfexploration #selfbelief

Does it? Really?

Well, maybe not the way we expect or demand at certain times in our lives.  However, we can look back and say the ‘not so good’ things that happened to us prompted reflection and learning. Perhaps our disappointments encouraged us to reach for a new way to do something, to search for better feeling thoughts, or to know what we don’t like and understand what we do want to change about our life.  I would say that is working out for you, us, we, each other, them.  Each day I use my perception, my immediate intuitive understanding to bring a positive quality to my thoughts and guide myself forward. After all, we are the masters of our lives. We get to choose how we will perceive the good and the bad in our lives.

As writers, artists or simply individuals, we search for our voices, our way to express our willingness to see a particular object, situation, our own story or feelings about something. The success of our creative expression does not always work out for us straight away, but should that be viewed as failing or feathering our nest with learning, experience or knowledge? Are we adding to our creative or individual experiences in the best possible way?

Let’s look at self-efficacy — our ability to believe that we can achieve our goals. We could include here that the quality of our belief to accomplish our goals may depend on our motivation. Below is an example of my motivation to create an #8wordstory.  I believed in my ability to achieve something unique.  However, it took 37 stories for this one to make it into the selection. 37! But I  kept writing each day, believing that I would achieve my goal. 

The #8WordStory was exploring the relationship between siblings. My motivation was to encourage the reader to think. Reread the story. Did his sister turn into a zombie, become one of the walking dead? Or were they playing an imaginary game of zombies? Did the brother in this story become annoyed with his sister when she moaned about being the zombie? Or, did his sister have a habit of moaning about EVERYTHING, and therefore,  moaning was second nature to her, even while playing zombies.  So here, my motivation was to create avenues into different types of backstories that might arise from just eight words? My motivation was to achieve a unique story with various meanings. I did this using self-efficacy.

This opportunity worked out for me.

In March of this year, I received a special commendation from the British Independent Film Festival for a script titled, Grandfathers. The motivation behind this script was to write a film that highlighted our older generation as having more to offer than just aged care or growing old with systemic aches and pains. I wanted this to be a feature film where the Grandfathers, escape, explore and involve themselves in something bigger while wrapping it all in a hilarious comedy.  To do this required some serious self-exploration.

 My motivation  and steps through this process.

1. Exploring things about myself through my art. What did I want to achieve here? Awareness. Explore the value of our older generation and their contribution to the world. A message?
   
2. Exploring what makes me laugh. What I believe makes other people laugh?
3. The idea of documenting what is really important to me. Laughter. Friendship. Right from wrong.  The value in growing older.
4. Taking a risk. Explore the challenge of creating something different with characters.
5. Be comfortable with interfering with status-quo. Our older generation has something to say, values and opinions.
6. Speak the truth through my art and don’t apologise for doing that. 

My reward for doing all this was a special commendation, a sound achievement. I created something new to build on as I move quietly forward in my pursuit to write something I can be very, very proud of in the future. 

This opportunity worked out for me.

This year I had two poems published in an art and literature journal. This is where I talk about self-belief. Are we worthy to create?  Of course, we are.  Both of these poems had a motivation behind them. Out of Frame was about a friend who chatted to me about being adopted, sometimes feeling out of the family frame. I set out to understand her words and feelings. Without her, there would be no poem.  It is fair to say that I appreciate my friend for trusting me with her story.  Inspiration received. 

Another great belief of mine is aligning with our own creative guidance. This guidance connects us with our willingness to receive inspiration.  A Theory of Youth was written from my experiences as a support worker working with young people. Exploring growth, experience, individuality and truth in the movement through adolescence. If I was to explore my own motivation for writing this poem, it would be to create a poem that helped others to see the joy and normality of the phases of growth into becoming an individual.

While these achievements helped me to feel that my creative life is working out for me it doesn’t always need to be goals in the writing world. Supporting others is a huge part of my life and providing skills and exploring different subjects on wellbeing is also another motivation for me.

This year I facilitated a panel of artists to talk about happiness.  An Artist’s Guide to Creative Happiness. This is my second facilitation of an artist’s guide being showcased at Comic-Con.

What can your mind achieve if you free yourself from fear? 

We can decide what we will do with our lives.  Our perception of what that might look like can steer our way forward. Our ability to believe we can achieve our goals delivers with it a creative guidance. Be open to those spurts of inspiration and be fearless.

“Be brave and bold in your chosen field of creativity. And never be afraid to explore new techniques.”