Episode 137 - 3 Ways to Overcome Creative Blocks
Are you facing creative paralysis? In this episode, I share my experience transitioning from confusion to momentum in starting a YouTube channel. Discover practical solutions for 3 common obstacles hindering creative projects. If you've been procrastinating on launching your own venture, tune in for actionable insights to kickstart your journey towards success.
Topics
Common issues of getting stuck in the creative process.
Overcomplication and perfectionism.
Lack of structure and planning.
Time constraints and scheduling.
Knowing your Why.
Listening to all parts of you.
Positive experience and increased enjoyment with a new approach to creative goals.
Links
👉 If you are ready to have your most daring end-of-year so far, click here to join my intensive 1:1 Coaching program THE AUDACITY.
Resources
▶️ Watch my new YouTube video series "26 Weeks of Journaling Prompts for Self-Growth Nerds"
🔠 The Alphabet Superset challenge by Struthless (Campbell Walker)
Transcript
[AUTO-GENERATED]
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:00:06]:
Welcome to the Self-Growth Nerds podcast. I'm your host, Marie, a courage coach, creative soul, and adventure seeker. Since thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019. I'm on a mission to help you embrace your most confident self so you can achieve your dreams too. If you're eager for deep conversations, big questions, and meaningful connections, join me on the quest to discovering how we can create a more magical and memorable life. Hello. Hello, nerds. How are you? I'm doing good, at the end of my day, and I want to celebrate the fact that this afternoon, I went to hang out in a bookshop, and I managed to leave without buying anything.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:00:55]:
*applause sounds* Thank you. Thank you. And now I'm recording a podcast for you. And then afterwards, I'm gonna cook some dinner while listening to podcasts and then watch. Start watching the 2nd season of Ted Lasso. So I binge watched the 1st season last week.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:01:14]:
I know I'm late. I know I'm late at a party. I really loved it. It's funny, and, like, every single character has depth as well. It feels super wholesome, and the life coach in me was completely charmed by the scene where he buys books, Like, different books for every single player on his team. That is my dream, to be able to just send books to my clients that made me think of them whenever I want to. That is my dream. I've done similar things, like I've sent, notebooks that are my clients' favorite color and things like that or personalized notebooks.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:01:55]:
I just really love thoughtful details like this. Okay. So today, we are talking about the creative process and more specifically, How to get unstuck at the start of a creative project, how to overcome your creative blocks so that you can gain momentum again. Maybe you have an idea in mind that you have never turned into action or you started taking action, but you got Slow down. You slowed yourself down for some reason. That's what we're gonna talk about today. I think it's gonna be a super useful episode. I'm gonna tell you about my struggle with starting a YouTube channel.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:02:35]:
I'm gonna use that as an example that you can apply to anything, whether it is, a book you dream of writing. Maybe you wanna write blog articles and you've been telling yourself for years you're gonna start a blog, but it never really happens. Maybe it's a podcast. Maybe it's writing music. Basically, whatever creative dreams you have on the back burner that have been on the back burner for way too long and You're getting tired of yourself, tired of postponing the ideas, postponing, the the project, and you just wish you were all in going all in and it felt fun and easy. I'm going to give you 3 things to look for, 3 ways you might be getting in your own way and what to do instead. So let's start with a bit of a story time. I've been wanting to do a YouTube channel for a long time now, like, maybe 6 months to a year, and I was it was always in the back of my mind.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:03:35]:
I was watching YouTube videos about how to do that. And, earlier this summer, Few months ago, I announced on Instagram that I was going for it finally. I filmed a video. I fill filmed my first video. And I didn't wanna make things complicated. I didn't wanna go out and buy a camera, buy a mic, buy all this stuff. I just wanted to use my phone, and my my, initial goal was to go get myself more professional gear once I had more experience. The reality of it was that it was all very messy, and it felt Like, so much effort.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:04:18]:
I made a list of, like, 10 to 20 topic ideas. I was telling myself, Okay. I'm just gonna make 1 video per week on a a topic related to personal growth. So I made the list, lots of ideas, And then I downloaded a free template online to create a script. And so I scripted my first 2 videos with, like, intro and then the different key points. And then I sat down with, my phone. My phone was, like, on a tripod with a ring light, and I was using the front camera, like the selfie camera because I wanted to see the frame. I wanted to see if the frame worked, but also at the same time, like, when I sat in front of the camera, I couldn't look at myself because when you look at yourself.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:05:07]:
It looks like you're not looking at the person watching the video. So you have to look into the camera, but it's really hard because you also See yourself next to it. So I would put a Post it on the image and try to look into the camera, and I would I had my notes, like my outline on my laptop screen on a, a stool next to the camera. So I kept Looking at my notes, looking back at the camera, and recording took so long. I just redid every little sentence by a 1000000 times. And after, like, 3 hours of recording for, like, a 10 to 15 minute video, I was done, but I was exhausted. And then I will upload the video on my computer. I I didn't like the sound, so it was just my iPhone sound.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:05:57]:
I I didn't like how much I I looked I didn't look natural. It looked like I was forcing myself because I was. I was not natural, but I was like, okay. You know, Marie, let's not be a perfectionist. Let's get this done. And so I Downloaded Imovie, which is free with with, MacBook Pro, and, I started doing the editing, but I just hated every single part of it. Finished editing, and I was like, I hate this video. I don't like myself in it.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:06:29]:
I I just think it Feels heavy. I'm trying too hard. So I I couldn't bring myself to post it. I created 2 videos. Both of them felt like It was giving birth to a baby, but the baby would never come out or it came out and it looked like nothing, like a green blob. I didn't wanna be a perfectionist, but I also, you know, wanted to be at least a little proud of what I had created. So it stopped there, and I was like, we're gonna need to figure out a different way to go about this. Let's not think about it for a little while.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:07:07]:
And then what happened, what saved me, plot twist, is that this YouTuber I really love called Struthless Struthless. I'm not sure how you pronounce it. S t r u t h l e s s, created a creative challenge called alphabet superset. It's a 26 this week's challenge. 1 week for each letter of the alphabet, you create something that starts with a then b then c. You get the gist. The 1st 2 weeks of the challenge were all about getting ready for it. So gathering all the material you need and deciding how it's going to go, What you're gonna create, how long it's gonna last, what style it's gonna be, all of these things.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:07:48]:
And so I decided, okay. Let's let's, keep it super simple. Make 26 videos, that are journaling prompts. So I explain, a concept, simple concept In 5 minutes or less, give a journaling prompt. That's it. Simple. Easy. And I'm gonna go get a camera, a vlogging camera with a little screen that you can flip to make sure that I see the the frame.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:08:14]:
And I'm happy with the frame and the quality of the image. And then I can flip the, little screen so I don't see myself, and I can just Look straight into the lens. I found a nice little refurbished one in a store, Got a little tripod as well as a mic, and I outlined the video, in my notebook, like, 1 page, literally just 1 page of bullet points like I do for this podcast, and I just went from there. I just started talking at the camera using these notes and recording before another event so that I didn't have, like, 3, 4 hours ahead of me, but I had a limited amount of time, like an hour in front of me to record, and then I had to move on to go do something else. And so far, it's been working great. I am actually amazed at the difference. I have so much more fun. It feels easy.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:09:11]:
It feels joyful, and I'm gonna tell you why I think that is. I sat down and analyzed what I think happened, what the top 3 losing conditions were the first time I approached this, and the top 3 winning conditions this this time around and how they have made a world of difference. Are you ready? We're gonna start with the 1st losing condition, and then I'm gonna give you the solution to that. Okay? And then we're gonna go to number 2 and number 3 and end with a little wrap up. So the 1st losing condition was too much freedom. I thought that telling myself to do 1 video a week on personal growth was enough constraint because that's what I've been doing with this podcast since the very beginning, but for some reason, for this other project, it was not working. It was overwhelming me more than anything. Kind of like going to Cheesecake Factory.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:10:10]:
Too many cake choices. You're like, oh my god. What am I go going to eat instead of going to a restaurant where there's 3 cakes to choose from. There's the the cheesecake, there's the chocolate cake, and there's I don't know. What are the other types of cake? There's a key lime pie. It's just easier to choose, right, than if You have unlimited possibilities. So that leads you to my solution here is to create extremely clear parameters for your project or to comply to someone else's parameters. For me, it was a mix of both because the challenge gave us The theme, which is 26 weeks, letters of the alphabet, you can do whatever you want from there.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:10:54]:
But the key idea is that you decide ahead of time. You make all The decisions ahead of time so that you don't have to lose energy, waste energy making decisions when it's time to create because this is just draining. There was too many decisions for me before. Whereas now, what I did is okay. In the 2 weeks before getting started, I was like, let let's get all of my material, 5 minute videos. It's gonna make it simple. Journaling prompt, and they're gonna come out every Saturday morning. That's it.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:11:27]:
Now now that that's decided, all that you have to do is get on with it. Get creating. It's just like people like Steve Jobs who wear the same thing every day. You wanna lower the number of decisions that you have to make in order to conserve your energy for what matters most. Well, that's number 1. Maybe You're getting stuck because you have too much freedom, and you need some clear parameters. Number 2, the second losing condition. The 1st time I approached YouTube was my attachment to the result.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:12:03]:
I was doing it for the wrong reasons. Sure. I was saying that I was doing it for fun, but I was not having fun. And I was wanting my channel to look and feel, like, the YouTube channels of the people that I love that have been doing it for at least 2 years. And it wasn't conscious. I knew intellectually that that was not possible, but there was still a part of me that was attached to being the best in class to, like, no. If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it well, and it's going to work. I was watching a bunch of videos about how to succeed on YouTube and how to, to grow your your channel, and there I was not even having started it.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:12:49]:
Hey. By the way, can you can I tell you a secret? I keep pausing the recording of this podcast because I'm drinking LaCroix, but, like, sparkling water, and it keeps making me burp. I need to burp, like, every 2 sentences. So I'm, like, recording 2 sentences, pausing the recording, burping, and then I keep going. I'm just thinking it's so funny. You should see me. Okay. So attachment to the result.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:13:16]:
Now In this new, approach 2 point o, I'm just completely detached from the outcome. I'm doing it for joy only. I just wanna learn new skills. Like, I'm learning how to be natural in front of the camera. I'm learning how to record something easily without too many takes. I'm learning to edit. I'm learning to create graphics, and that's just gonna be valuable In the long run, I'm also expressing my creativity, building a body of work, developing my voice. These are are my reasons.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:13:53]:
And to me, there are they are a lot more compelling, and there is no way to fail at them. Whereas with my 1st approach, it was like, okay. How do I make this quirk? Now it's like, well, it's not about making it work or not. I'm just learning and growing and having fun in the process. Eventually, I would love for my YouTube channel to be Super diverse, have all kinds of videos, challenges, yes, but also deeper videos on personal growth as well as book reviews, everything that I love, maybe even live coaching sessions. Who knows? Who knows? Interviews, My podcast interviews are on YouTube. I would love YouTube to be the way I attract clients that are like minded. Basically, YouTube would be my number 1 marketing channel or number 2 with this podcast.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:14:50]:
I love, getting clients from this podcast because I am 100% sure that they are on board with the way I approach life. They already know me. They all already know how I think, and so we're most likely going to be in alignment, and have a lot of fun working together. So it was it would YouTube would just be, an extension of that, a way to reach more people. Also, what's fun about YouTube compared to Instagram is that it's, It's, evergreen content, meaning that if people search, perfectionism, for example, a video that I made last year could come up and they find me this way. You can't really do this with Instagram. There's a bunch of content that I created over the years that, people are never going to see because it's not, present in the timeline right now, and so that's what I love about podcasts. So many of you found this podcast by searching, journaling, confidence, words like this.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:15:54]:
So same thing with YouTube. And that would allow me to leave Instagram because Instagram is so instant. Right? It's in the name. I I'm not a fan of that really anymore, So I feel like YouTube and podcast are a better investment of my time. It's gonna be more sustainable. That being said, though, this is my long term vision, and I had to get clear on why I'm doing it right now. Right now, I'm doing it to learn new skills, to have fun and express myself. And if it turns into that vision, great.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:16:31]:
But I'm not so attached to the the way to, like, a way it has to be. When my video comes out on Saturday, first, I schedule it ahead of time, and it comes out on Saturday. I don't even look at YouTube. I don't really care about the amount of views I have. I had comments on my 1st video, and I was like, oh, that's cool. But I took, like, a a whole week to answer the comments. I'm very detached from where where it's going to go. And, of course, I'm gonna be happy if it grows and if it reaches a lot of people and if it makes people think and grow, but that's a bonus, and I'm doing it for myself first and foremost.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:17:11]:
I was thinking I'm almost too detached because, I mean, I should promote it more so that more people see it, but I don't. Like, I should schedule some emails on the Saturday, and I should tell people about it on Instagram all week long, but I just forget. I just forget. Yeah. It's a good sign to me. Same thing with this podcast. The only reason why I've been doing it for so long that I've managed to do it for so long is because I enjoy recording it so much. And I'm so happy that it's grown naturally and that so many of you benefit from it, but I would not keep doing it Just for you, I have to be the main enjoyer of the process.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:17:53]:
Think about what you were doing when you were a kid or a teenager with your friends, like Like, when I don't know about you, but when I had a sleepover with friends, we would record radio shows, we would make videos, And we didn't have any, like, intention in mind other than having a blast. It's the same thing here. So if you're feeling stuck, if you're creatively blocked. Ask yourself, why are you doing what you're doing? Maybe there's too much attachment To the outcome, maybe you're not doing it for reasons that aren't compelling enough to your soul, and that's why it's hard to keep going. That was number 2. Now number 3 is your relationship with yourself. I always talk about this. In my 1st approach to YouTube, I had an oppressive relationship with myself.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:18:43]:
I was like, Okay, Marie. You've got to do this. You're not gonna be a perfectionist about it. You're gonna record with your phone because you don't deserve to buy a camera yet. Okay? You're gonna record with your phone. You're gonna do it this way. It makes more sense. Go.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:18:59]:
And there was resistance in me that I was ignoring. I was like, nope. No. That's how we're doing it. Kind of a like a kid that doesn't wanna go to school. Maybe they feel silly in their school uniform. I don't know. And as a parent, you're like, well, I don't care.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:19:16]:
That's the way things are. That's the uniform everyone is gonna be wearing, and we gotta go. We're late. Come on. But, obviously, that was not working, So I had to change how I related to myself. And if we keep going with the, example of the kid that feels silly in their uniform, As a parent, you could ask them like, okay. You know, tell me what's going wrong. Maybe they're gonna tell you, well, my, skirt is itchy.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:19:44]:
I don't know. My skirt is itchy. I'm not it's not comfortable. So maybe you help them think of a way to Make it more comfortable. Well, maybe we get you the pants instead of the skirt. Or maybe they're gonna tell you, actually, I don't feel like myself. I would like something like a a little something that's funky, that makes me feel like me. And so maybe they go to school in their uniform, but they have a set of colorful bracelets.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:20:13]:
It's just a random example to to tell you that you need to listen to the part of you that's resistant and figure out what's going on. I asked yourself, what's wrong, honey? How can we make this easy for you? How can we work together and make a compromise to be able to reach the goal, but still have all the parts of you aligned with the pursuit of the goal. For me, what that looked like was getting that camera. Because doing it on my phone, not only was it not aligned with the fact that I value quality. So I wanted good sound, and I wanted a good image. But even more important than that, it was making the experience so clunky because I was sat there in front of my phone, and and I had like I was telling you earlier, I had to look into the camera and not at myself, and, you know, it was like it was too much to think about. I just wanted it to be easy, like, to Be able to put the camera there, pick the the the frame, flip it around, and press record. Have good sound, have good image, and not have to worry about that stuff.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:21:27]:
And sure, you might not have, the budget to buy what what you need. Of course, if I had unlimited budget, I wouldn't I I would, like, get myself a studio. I would get myself an assistant, da da da. But you can make a list of your pain points, like where where is there friction in your project, and how can you make it easier for yourself? Try to be creative about the ways you could approach it differently. Sometimes we We just have tunnel vision. Like, this is how it has to be done. Like, we we gotta get you to school, and that's it. Shush.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:22:01]:
We shush parts of ourselves that have something important to say. So we have to sit with ourselves and be like, let's brainstorm a way to make this frictionless or at least diminish the amount of friction that is present so that the experience flows better. The other part of that for me was instead of filling out a whole template on Notion with my whole outline, I wrote I wrote down key points in my notebook. The first way to do it was just taking too much time, and it was making me feel like, oh, here's all the things I have to talk about in that specific order with these specific words. Again, it's too Many variables to think about, whereas with the the notebook and the key points, oh, is just be yourself and move through those different topics in a way that feels good. I did the same thing with, my last group program, the courage to start new, where I was teaching every week, teaching a class. And before before that program, when I taught classes, I used to create slides. So creating slides and because I I used to be a designer.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:23:15]:
I want my slides to look good. I it would take me so long to create my slides, and it would be exhausting. And then in the last program and the courage to start new. I decided to instead, use a flip chart so I would draw on paper. And I loved that because I was not spending more time on my computer. When I was preparing my my classes, I would, like, sit in the kitchen or sit on the floor of my living room with my pens of all kinds of colors. And I would have my big flip chart, and I would draw and write words, and it would the the process was so Much more, aligned with me and what's fun for me. And I was happy to spend less time on the computer.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:24:02]:
Same thing now with, like, taking, outlining the videos in my notebook. I can do it in the coffee shop instead of having to be on my computer again. So you have to find your own way. What's gonna be fun for you? What's gonna make it enjoyable? Okay? Now let's do a little recap before we go. So when you notice you're feeling overwhelmed and you're stagnating, you're procrastinating on a project creative project that's important to you. Ask yourself, what do I need to gain momentum again? It's one of these 3 things or maybe a combination of the 3. Do I need more specific parameters? Maybe that it's too vague. There's too much freedom, or do I need a more meaningful reason why am I doing this? Am I too attached to the outcome? Am I forgetting to have joy along the way? Or do you need a better relationship with yourself where You listen to all the parts of you, what they have to say, and hear hear them out on how they want to do this instead of forcing them to do it in a way that doesn't feel aligned with who you are at your core.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:25:18]:
If there's resistance, it's probably because there's a part of you that you have locked in the basement. And they're trying to tell you something you're not listening and that's slowing you down, so pay attention. Okay. That's it for this week, my friends. I hope my analysis of what went wrong for me the first time and What helped me get unstuck the 2nd time was useful for you? Please reach out and let me know your insights. I am on Instagram at self growth nerds. And, of course, if you wanna join me on my YouTube adventure, just look for self growth nerds in the search bar on YouTube, and you should find me, you should find me there. Now it's, time for you to go, be creative and for me to go watch Ted Lasso.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:26:05]:
By the way, don't forget to also take time to rest. I think it's, good to have a a balance between input and output. Like, right now, I am creating for you guys, and then I'm gonna go watch someone else's creation. Same thing with you. Yes. You can input information like this podcast, but then you also have to to Express yourself. Put your voice out into the world. If you need help with that, come talk to me.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:26:33]:
Okay? I still have 1 spot for coaching unless when this comes out, the spot might be gone. Who knows? You can always contact me if you want us to chat. I'll be really happy to meet you, and we might work together in the future. Maybe not now, but in the future. Okay? Have a beautiful week. Sending you lots of love, and I hope you're enjoying the fall weather. I love a good hoodie. Okay.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:27:04]:
Bye. Hey. If you love what you're hearing on the self growth nerds podcast. And you want individual help finding a new direction for your life and developing the courage to make your dreams a reality, you have to check out, how we can work together on self growth nerds.com or message me on Instagram at self growth nerds. My clients say they would have needed that support years ago. So if you're tired of feeling like you're wasting your life, don't Wait. Get in touch now, and I cannot wait to meet you.