This category lists the blog posts that tell more about creativity, how to keep in flow, what’s blocking artists in their creativity and how to unblock.
Have you ever had a mentor or a coach, asking you where you want to be in five or ten or twenty years? I had a coach shortly after I became partner in the company. She asked me that question, and I didn’t know. I do my work, I know what I like and what I’m doing it for, without having a goal or a picture of where I want to be in five years. I felt like I was […]
It’s amazing, how serious we take business. Some like it if you lighten the burden with humor, others don’t. Still, I’m convinced that humor is the best way to lighten up a tense situation, to disarm a conflict and to treat yourself not too seriously. And that being said by someone who grew up in Germany 😉 Today I got a mail from a friend and colleague, he’s a booking agent too. He was offering a combination of three different […]
It could all be so easy, if we had all the information we need, and more. We could anticipate on what’s coming, what will happen now, in a minute, tomorrow, next year. While we don’t have the information, we make it up. We assume certain things to be in a certain way. One fish: How is the water? Other fish: What’s the hack is water? (ofilisketches.com) Do you know what I mean? When I come to the office, I assume […]
Power comes in all shapes and sizes. Here some examples: on the bicycle this morning I saw a crocus with fragile flowers breaking through the dirt, this afternoon the Dutch speed-skaters (10 km) got gold-silver-bronze again at the Olympics , Lemmy and his music at Motorhead. Last night I watched this documentary about Lemmy. It felt like I was on speed during the entire 2 hours! And this morning I still had “Ace of Spades” in my head. Yesterday I […]
Some years ago I was member of an association, believed with passion in the goals, and thought the whole time that I had to fight against the board to protect the goals. From one of my coaching clients I heard a similar story. He told me that they all agreed on doing a certain show for a low fee, and suddenly the drummer refused to play. And how harder they tried to convince him, how more stubborn he got. In […]
Happy 2014! Every new year feels like a fresh start again. We think about the past year, about the lessons we’ve learned, and have good intentions for the new year. It’s often a switch of habits, like now I’m starting to eat healthy, to quit smoking, to be kind to my colleagues, to start sporting, etc. I’ve often started the new year with celebrations, fireworks and hugging everyone. And some hours later I woke up with a hangover! The freshness […]
Everyone is looking forward to celebrate christmas again. You see the joyfulness at the pictures on facebook, the happy faces, the happy families, in a cozy living room decorated for the celebration. You enjoy to listen to christmas carols, thinking of the great days that are ahead. That’s also the picture we see in all the advertisements. We don’t celebrate yet, we look forward to it and expect it to be perfect, just like our imagination. The other side is […]
It has been quiet on this blog for quite a while. I had lots of ideas to write about, make notes, and didn’t write. How come? There is this sudden doubt about what I want with this blog. How do I want to continue? I’m a booking agent, the relationship with my artist is very different than the relationship I have with coach clients. Do I have to choose, or can I do both? What is it I really want? […]
After a quite serious storm last Monday, the trees have lost many leaves. Suddenly I can see the structure of the tree, the branches that are usually hidden by the leaves. Makes me think of structure in general. Structure is often seen as the opposite of freedom. Structure can work as a coffin, as a prison. That’s how I experienced the structure of the village life in my youth. The only way out was another structure, the structure of religious […]
I just finished reading the book “Dag vriend!” (Hi/bye, friend!) from Stine Jensen. It’s very inspiring! She looks at the concept of friendships from various perspectives. One of the perspectives is social media and Facebook. At Facebook, we share with dozens (and potentially millions) of people what we used to share with our best friend only. All the stuff that you don’t want others to know about you, that’s your intimate capital or your intimate treasure. And how more famous […]
Traditionally, many artists think that you can’t have both, creative success and commercial success. You can only be really creative, if you don’t give a damn about commerce. And if you do want to become rich, you make so many compromises that you can’t call yourself creative anymore. A thought that is doing quite well recently in business theories, is that if you show your true self and if you discover your unique talents, that commercial success will come to […]
Yesterday I had this urge to start something new. And I didn’t. I went on with the day-daily stuff and felt quite unsatisfied at the end of the day. And it started so well: I was aware of the urge to start something new, and I had already some great things in mind that I could do. So why didn’t I? As always, I had plenty to do. There is always more to do than there are hours in a […]
Many artists still believe that they can only be creative when suffering. Many years ago I saw a film that explored this very topic. The manager was doing his upper best to let the artist suffer. It started with getting him away from his parents at a very early age. The manager also made sure that the first girlfriend disappeared shortly after. The challenge was, that the artists wasn’t allowed to see that it’s the manager that made him suffer. […]
I will not start a new church, certainly not! Faith means, that we don’t have control about our creativity and art. And yet, we have to trust our creativity and art, believe that it’s good and necessary to be creative. There are many obstacles on our way towards more creativity. And if you have read all the previous 11 leads to un-block your creativity you are probably aware by now, that we are very good in creating the major blocks […]
What’s your association with autonomy? My thoughts always go back to my first morning after moving to Frankfurt a.M. I was 19, moved there from a small village on the country side and had just registered at the city council. Walking in the morning at Eiserner Steg towards the city center, I felt like the whole world was mine! It was an enormously outburst of freedom, independence and love. Does this sound extravagant and braking-loose-from-social-obligations? Oh yes, that was exactly […]