The Power of the Whim & Taking Risks

This contributor post was written by Tiffany Han.

As creatives, we are quite skilled at talking ourselves out of things.

Oh, that will never work. Oh, people will think that’s crazy. Oh, I have no idea how to do that. Sound familiar?

What if, instead of spending all of your time talking yourself out of these random wacky crazy-making ideas, you actually acted on them?

Our creative brilliance is found in our whims – those seemingly random ideas that we hear as whispers but hardly ever act on. In fact, we typically move in the opposite direction and dampen the spirit of those ideas until we get to the middle-of-the-road safe space where most of us live.

When was the last time you actually acted on one of your ideas? When was the last time you took a risk in your creative business without having a guaranteed outcome? When was the last time you reached beyond your comfort zone and delved into the unknown?

What if you were able to embrace your crazy and actually push an idea forward? It could be the game-changer for you.

Challenge for this week: Act on your whims. All of them.

If you get the idea to knit with copper tubing, do it. If you get the nudge to write a blog post about Justin Timberlake, do it. If you get the crazy idea to reach out to a famous blogger because something tells you that she would LOVE your idea and want to be a part of your new project, by all means, do it!!

In the comments: I’d love to hear what whims you have (or haven’t!) followed. Any whim-following success stories out there?

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image credit: You Know More by Anthony Burrill

Tiffany Han, CPCC is a life & business coach for highly-creative people who arent living the highly-creative lives they want. Just yet. With provocative questions & hard-edged encouragement, Tiffany helps skittish someday-ers become fiercely focused creators “” and proves that dreams do come true. But only when you demand it.

I can’t tell you what rabbit hole of the internet if fell down to find this but I could not be more grateful for finding it. I’ve been pushing off a lot of whims and risks because of fear of failure, or judgement, or (possibly worse) not judgement…which to me says no one was paying attention anyway.

Time to jump into the deep end of the pool… 🙂 Thanks for pushing me off the high dive
XO

Katie

The Power of the Whim & Taking Risks
http://t.co/1H4LTOCBPd

Fanchimp (@fanchimp)

I just signed up to sell my work on Instacanvas and entered one of my photographs in their contest to be a featured artist. Not exactly a crazy idea, but normally I would think about it for days and analyze the positives and negatives. Instead I just did it and shared it on social media.

Melissa Lund

Are you taking enough risks? http://t.co/BCohd9I20M

IndieMade (@IndieMade)

The Power of the Whim & Taking Risks http://t.co/UxdULQ99qD via @sharethis

@BotanicalBox

Acting on a whim – brilliant advice! Will try to do it more often. 🙂

Kaisa

My latest whim has been to take up circular knitting… even though I have like ZERO knitting experience. Turns out that not only am I kinda okay/good at it… it’s cheaper and more effective than therapy for my anxiety issues. HUZZAH!

Aubri

I could tell you about my whims, but really it’s much better to see a visual depiction of the madness.

https://www.vizify.com/melanie-biehle/locations

Melanie

I will! I ABSOLUTELY WILL. thank you <3

malin {kodiakbird}

Thanks for the inspiration.

cheers,
Janika

janika R

Brilliant reminder. Thank you 🙂

Debie Grace

RT @papernstitch: The Power of the Whim & Taking Risks: This contributor post was written by Tiffany Han. http://t.co/xrbWcP9MG1

Create Hype (@CreateHype)

My latest whim… flying in the face of all my (many) fears? Actually getting my knitted hat pattern edited and tested… I have sat on it for months and months. Then within a week – bam. Did it before I could think about it 🙂

Truly Myrtle

Sounds daring! I like this idea and it’s so true. Creatives are the first folks to beat themselves up for pretty much anything!

Christiana

This is a great post. I am just starting the blog for my work (Shipwreck Beads) and am struggling with the direction I want to take it. Its been a challenge to create for my job while staying true to myself as an artist. Everyone on my team is supportive, so I think I just need to go for it! Creating is my passion and I know I am really lucky to have a job that embraces that.

Kelsy

I love this post! And it is so true. I find myself talking myself out of things all the time. xx. McKenna Lou
www.lynnandlou.com
P.S. Have you entered into our giveaway’s yet? Enter into our Octavia Bloom Giveaway for some lovely jewelry, and/or our Perfect Shirt giveaway (2 winners total)!

McKenna Ryan

Very cool Kristen. When I was in college, I started off as a business major because I didn’t know how I could make money as an artist. So I thought I would get a basic degree and go from there. As I started taking the core classes I realized even though I was scared, I needed to switch gears and go after my passion. So I changed my major to studio art and that’s what I ultimately received my degree in. If I hadn’t made that change in majors, I don’t think I would be doing what I am doing today, career-wise, and I can’t imagine doing anything else at this point. Love my job.

Hope your new adventure has a similar result. Good luck Kristen!

-Brittni

papernstitch

The Power of the Whim & Taking Risks http://t.co/yhIf7QSvsg

@EtsyBlogs

Thanks so much for this blog post. Its so perfect. I’ve been wanting to pursue law for a while, but finally realized I would be miserable if I were to be a lawyer. Two things I love: food and writing. Sounds crazy because it’s such a change, but I’m trying to become a journalist now. I want to try getting an editorial or journalism internship this summer, and I’m writing some articles to send to a local newspaper.

Thanks again!

Kristen Yang

Love that you started a new blog series to help motivate you Aimee. It also helps with accountability, since you’re letting your readers know what you’re up to now. And they’ll check in on you.
-Brittni

papernstitch

I just wrote about this on my blog today! There are a TON of things that I have dreams to do in my home but haven’t gotten around to doing it. Part of it is laziness but part of it (I know) is fear of failure. I started a new series on my blog to motivate me to get things done. Finally. Thanks for the encouragement!

aimee bee

Good for you! Acting on something that makes you a little nervous. Good luck at the art fair Casey.
-Brittni

papernstitch

This post came at the perfect time for me…yesterday I decided on a whim to do my first ever art fair.

This. Weekend.

I am so under-prepared but I knew I had to get my feet wet and stop just saying I was “gonna” do one some day (and the truth? I’m really nervous to watch people interact with my art…). I’ll never feel 100% ready! Hoping this weekend is at least a learning experience 🙂

Love these posts, thanks!

Casey

The Power of the Whim & Taking Risks

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