6 questions for creative reflection

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!

creative_reflection

New Year is often a time when we want to close one chapter of our lives and start fresh – with new ideas, with new energy and determination to fulfill our goals.

What usually happens, we do set new goals but as the months progress, so does our goals whittle along with autumn yellow leaves – until they become forgotten, unfulfilled and replaced by random events called life.

Instead of making a New Year’s resolution list, I have a different proposition for you. Why ‘hit your head against the wall’, and think of what and how you can accomplish when you are looking for the answers in the wrong place?

Here are 6 questions for your creative reflection exercise that can help you evaluate what you have accomplished in the previous period/year and maybe start from there? You might have a project that you could finish or idea that didn’t have enough time and space to mature – maybe now it’s the moment to give it a try?

6 questions for creative reflection:

1.What creative/writing projects did you accomplish in the previous year?

2.What you have learned from that?

3.Are there any projects you didn’t start and why?

4.What would you like to do the most in the next year – is there any room for unfinished projects?

5.What is the obstacle, what is holding you back?

6.Describe your most creative moments in the previous year and think of ways how you can integrate more of that in your current life situation?

Use this as a starting point for designing more creative life in the next year. It is important for us to make an objective estimate and work from there: building a realistic foundation for inviting more creativity into our lives. Instead of setting, sometimes lofty goals that quickly escape our reach like deflating balloon – making little changes and adjustments in our current schedule can seem less daunting and scary – and more likely achievable.

To get in more depth in planning your projects consult these additional 9 questions that can help you clearing any doubts about your creative ideas, offerings, opportunities..

Do you have any exciting writing or creative ideas for the next year? Do you have a firm plan how to achieve it? Please, share with us in the comments below.

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.   
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,   
transparent scarlet paper, 
sizzle like moth wings, 
marry the air. 
So much of any year is flammable,   
lists of vegetables, partial poems.   
Orange swirling flame of days,   
so little is a stone. 
Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,   
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.   
I begin again with the smallest numbers. 
Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,   
only the things I didn’t do   
crackle after the blazing dies. 

Naomi Shihab Nye

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41 thoughts on “6 questions for creative reflection”

  3. Excellent questions, Maja, that I want to work through in the days ahead. Also, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones – wishing you peace, joy, health, love, and blessings – over the holidays and in the coming year.

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  5. Ideas for next year? At the end of August I left my profession with enough resources to concentrate fully for a year and an idea for a book. The last four months have been spent working out, in practical terms, how to achieve success. (By success I mean writing something meaningful.) One of the first things that hit me between the eyes was it will take considerably longer than one year. Having said that a plan is in place which, by answering the questions, above can only be improved and that is the primary task for the remainder of this year.

    Sincerely enjoy what you are doing here, have a good break and success in the coming years.

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  6. Another great post that generates a lot of personal reflection Maja. I read some time ago about research in the US stating 40% of people cannot relate to goals and goal setting. I think it is more about creating the next small steps and the questions you have posed will help with that. Have a great Christmas and New Year and thank you for your excellent inspirational blog which has provided plenty of focus during 2016.

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    1. Hi Davy! Well thank you for being my faithful reader and I’m glad if my blogging has somehow contributed to your creativity. I know about that research and I did have that in mind while writing this post. Sometimes is better to take look around, see where we are and work from there instead of pressuring ourselves with too much obligations.
      I hope you will continue your great writing in the next year and I wish you prosperous and creative holiday season 🙂

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    2. I agree with DavyD!! A great post Maja! 6 Questions for Creative Reflection is just what I need. Just making a small start towards a goal is the hardest and most important step! Baby Steps (reminds me of the movie – What about Bob!)

      I have to get out and dust off the quote I saved and loved but haven’t taken to heart as much as I should – “What Have You Done Today, To Make Your Dreams Come True? Not enough!

      Thanks Maja for this post!

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  7. Reblogged this on Write Through It and commented:
    The only New Year’s resolution I made in my adult life was when I was working on my first novel, The Mud of the Place, and was desperately afraid I was going to choke and not finish it. I resolved to work on it every day until it was done. Note that I did not resolve to write X number of words every day or for X number of hours. Sometimes I was so panicky that I opened the file at 10 minutes to midnight — and every single time I found something that needed doing.

    Pretty much my only resolution is “Keep going,” and I make it every day. Nevertheless, I do like this list of non-resolutions and think I will give them a try. Maybe you will too.

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  11. Thank you maja, it’s always good to be reminded of this, not just in the new year.

    For me, I’ve been seeing a theme running through my poems, and I’ve taken one of my longer ones to rework. I’m intending to incorporate my theme, and the ideas around it, that I have so far only expressed separately, and work them together into a more cohesive whole. Hm, kind of like what I’m indenting with my Self. Lol

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  13. Pingback: What I’m Writing – Ditrie Marie Bowie

  15. The BIG answer this New Year is not to have a big answer, but to keep doing exactly what I’m doing, without doubts sapping my precious time and energy. We on the right road folks, just keep on going, it might take a while but we’ll get there soon enough.

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