Coach's Guide to Completing Creative Work

Eric Maisel is the author of 50+ books, among them being Inside Creativity Coaching: 40+ Inspiring Case Studies from Around the World, The Creativity Workbook for Coaches and Creatives: 50+ Inspiring Exercises from Creativity Coaches Worldwide and Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists and Clients: A Complete Guide to the Benefits of Personal Writing, all published by Routledge.Lynda Monk is the director of the International Association for Journal Writing (IAJW.org) and co-editor of Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists and Clients: A Complete Guide to the Benefits of Personal Writing. She is co-author of Writing Alone Together: Journaling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection. She is passionate about the transformational and healing power of writing.

• Co-Editor's Introduction  1. Why Completing Creative Work is So Darn Hard  2. The Stories We Tell Ourselves  3. Failure Is an Option  4. How Creative Rituals Help Get Things Done  5. The Joy of Completion  6. Spotlight Your Intentions  7. How an Accountability Partner Helped Me Finish My Book  8. Completion: Journey or Destination?  9. Three Steps to Perseverance  10. A Mindful Approach to Completing Creative Work  11. Planting Your Work  12. Use Performance to Encourage Completion  13. How Community Can Help Solitary Creatives Finish  14.The Value of Support  15. Shaping Routines That Work  16. Moving from Self-Doubt into Self-Leadership  17. How Grace, Gratitude, and Generosity Can Help Us Find the Path Forward  18. The Power of a Secular Shabbat Practice  19. When the End is Near: Creative Finishing  20. 3 Steps to Permanently Stop Procrastination  21. Actually, You Do Have Time for Completing Your Creative Projects  22. Finding a Kinder Way to Let Go  23. A Creative Structure for Completing  24. The Quest(ions) to Completion: Lessons in Following Your Bliss  25. How Pietro Used Discipline and Self-imposed Contraints to Complete His Artistic Project  26. Working From the Inside Out  27. Finishing Paintings  28. How to Get from There to Here: Using Task Blocks to Complete Your Book  29. Finishing by Design  30. Factoring In the Impact of Your Creative Work  31. Timely Completing via Right Thinking  32. Mind Yourself  33. The Show Must Go On: So Must the Process  34. How to Stay When You Feel Like Bailing  35. Neuronal Energy Shot: Using Guided Imagery to Activate Performance Energy  36. Timely Completing Using Your Existential Intelligence  37. Encouraging Motivation During the Final Stages  38. Creative Mental Fitness  39. Sylvia and Her One Thing  40. Journaling for Completion  Co-Editor's Conclusion: 12 Tips for Completing Your Creative Projects

"This great resource offers the wisdom of experts on the creative process, who share their own challenges in completing creative projects. With clarity and kindness, they explore the characteristic challenges that creatives face and present individualized strategies for completion. This guidance on how to remove blocks and fuel creativity is a major contribution to the coaching field."Leia Francisco, author of Writing Through Transitions"This book is a treasure-trove! Packed with ideas and strategies to help creatives with the never-ending challenges of being creative, it provides great tips on how to stay the course, experience the flow, and complete your projects." Sandra Marinella, author of The Story You Need to Tell "What creative person has not struggled with seeing a creative project through to completion? Roadblocks, detours, distractions, and psychological upheavals are all par for the course. This book serves as a candle in the dark for those who dare to create and can use the support, insight, and wisdom of fellow travelers on the path."Eric Teplitz, writer, musician, coach, and host of "The Person You Want to Be" podcast"If you are someone who starts things but has a hard time finishing them, you are not alone. Don’t let your creative dreams go unfulfilled! Let this book inspire and guide you with what it takes to complete your creative work! You will find practical ideas, tips and strategies from others who know how to get things done. If you are a creativity coach, you will find many tools and approaches for helping your clients complete their creative pursuits. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get what matters done."Rebecca Kochenderfer, founder, Journaling.com"The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work provides readers with excellent suggestions and approaches to meeting one’s creative goals. Discussed are commitment, organization, routines, motivation, and much more. I highly recommend this book to anyone needing that extra push to get to the finish line."Merle R. Saferstein, author of Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vol. 1 "In the midst of a writing project, this book has helped me more firmly grasp the slippery and ornery nature of the creative process. Wherever you are in your creative journey, Maisel, Monk, and colleagues offer practical insights for meeting the challenges of completion. I promise that this book will fortify your creative practice!"Ruth Folit, writer "The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work demystifies the difficulty of finishing creative work. Both obstructions and solutions are laid out clearly, simply, personally, and usefully. In an organized and enjoyable manner, a variety of articulate creative people help all of us in the fight against the inner and outer blockages to creative success." Beth Jacobs, author of A Buddhist Journal"I've long struggled to make the shift into structure and organization that completion requires. But thanks to this beautifully crafted and emotionally nourishing collection of wisdom coaching, I have strategies galore for my upcoming end stage."Kathleen Adams, Center for Journal Therapy, author of Journal to the Self and Expressive Writing: Foundations of Practice"The collaborative writing and editing team of Eric Maisel and Lynda Monk has done it again! If you’re an artist or writer who’s bumped into the stumbling blocks of procrastination, perfectionism, or other such limiting practices, The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work is a creative lifesaver. With more than forty chapters written by coaches, artists and writers, this guide is a cornucopia of ideas, suggestions, advice, and encouragement for creatives of all stripes. This is a book that I need, that I’ll use, and that I can’t wait to share with others on the creative path."Judy Reeves, author of A Writer’s Book of Days and Wild Women, Wild Voices