Hello my love
Over the past couple of years I have spent several thousand on trainings and classes (going into tens of thousands if you add in coaching programs too) on and around the area of resistance, so wanted to share with you the three main lessons I have learnt from this experience, without you having to fork out that amount of cash. I am hoping that with the release of my newest workshop
Creative Resistance Remedy, which is all about allowing your creativity to outshine your fear and learning how to get on with your projects, it will also answer some of the questions I have had coming up around the workshop.
So as I say the thousands spent in question that I am referring to here are on and around the area of resistance, but one workshop sticks out in my mind that we shall use as an example, due to it being on the exact topic of resistance. It was several times the price of Creative Resistance Remedy I hastened to add - into the hundreds, and it turned out to be just a single audio and a worksheet! I have taken so many trainings not to be put off by how something is delivered however, while I like to create classrooms that look good and contain all the bells and whistles for my students, I know that is it not the norm to do that online. Plus I have gotten tons of value out of similarly delivered content so I diligently went on with this workshop.
Within twenty minutes however I remembered thinking ‘this woman clearly has never struggled with the issue of resistance sincerely if she thinks this namby-pamby wishy washy stuff will work’. But again from all of my workshops taken I know that the value of a workshop is always in the application not simply in the listening to, or thinking on, it. So I cleared my head of preconceived notions and applied. After several attempts over a few weeks to ‘feel my way through the resistance’, as per the teachings however, I had to conclude this was not lifting one iota of my resistance. Either the workshop was simply a nice idea that the teacher thought would make a good workshop rather than something she actually used, her resistance was not so dreadfully deep set in as mine or this super soft approach really did work for her. Whichever it was though, it was not the concrete strategy for dealing with my resistance I was looking, or frankly desperate, for.
When we do not receive exactly what we expect (or even want) from courses, materials or even life however, there is always still some invaluable knowledge to be gleamed somewhere. For instance this and similar experiences taught me the first lesson I which to share and something that I passed on in my last class,
Rock Your Online Shop, which is all about how to create a successful online art or handmade goods shop:
to always seek to learn from someone who really HAVE been there and done what you want to. In RYOS that lesson was given in reference to money, meaning if you wish to make money from your creativity learn from those that have already done so, hence I passed on this lesson as I gave a behind the scenes look at my own shop finances. No matter what its context however, this first lesson to learn from someone who has already been there should be applied to everything you ever wish to know more about. This is because everyone has a voice, and everyone has an opinion. A lot of people use that voice and those opinions to bluster on about things which frankly, they have no clue about! Ignore noise, people who shout the loudest and armchair critics. If you wish to learn something then do so from those that have REALLY been there, and done that & got the t-shirt.
So looking at this lesson from the angle of being a teacher, as well as a student, I created Creative Resistance Remedy because I also wish to teach from that place of having been there - to share that which I have lived, learnt or developed myself and therefore know the true value of. And BOY did I pay my dues of having lived it for Creative Resistance Remedy, in 2016 I was about to shut 'Jennibellie' down due to living under the crushing weight of constant resistance. I was so close to closing Journal Workshops. Cutting my Social Media. Deleting my Blog and removing myself from entirely the internet. I was ready to SHUT. IT. DOWN. But from all of that ‘ta da’ is a workshop with the genuine stuff it takes to release resistance, which I discovered through the hard way of travelling out of that darkness back into the light of enjoying creativity again.
Second lesson that spending several thousand on trainings and classes taught me is to learn from those that you feel a natural kinship with. There are several reasons for this, many of which I think may be self-explanatory but I want to share one benefit that may not be so obvious. Someone that you feel an affinity to will most likely think like you do, therefore whatever lessons they have found useful for their own lives/art/business/relationships or whatever else it is you are looking to learn about, will therefore be of most value to you too. But beyond that you have to learn from those that inspire you, because if you do not then not only are you likely not to apply the teachings, but you may not even finish them in the first place. Lord I can think through many a history lecture I basically slept through due to the professor droning on in monolithic tones, and history was my favourite subject (it’s even what I went on to do my masters in). In hindsight the teacher of the example workshop was not someone I felt an affinity for, which therefore means the lack of usefulness I gauged from it is entirely my own fault. Her ‘feel through it’ method may have worked for many a student, ones that felt a like mindedness to her …I was just suckered in by the sales page because I so desperately wanted out of my devastating resistance and was looking for anything, and everything, to try.
Third lesson I want to pass on is: quality over quantity. I mentioned that the example workshop was one in a long line, and I don’t regret purchasing it (or the several others like it) because it taught me this third lesson - it means I now know how to be more diligent in the trainings I will invest in in the future. Knowing how to be diligent and what you are actually looking for is SO insanely beneficial. When people have asked me if they can have a discount or when my next sale will be because they really, really want to take a particular class I have to say ‘choosing things via discounts rather than content is a false economy. It’s better to buy one or two classes you will actually find valuable rather than five or six times as much simply because they were cheaper. If you want to do/take something my advice, taking this class out of the scenario, is to choose what is right for you. Make it being right for you the only criteria.’ People know this, including myself, but I think we all too easily forget. We live in a society of more, more, more…but let’s be honest, when you’ve got craploads of stuff do you value it all as much as something else that you consider to be scarce or precious?
Though deciding on a workshop solely via price is completely the wrong way to go about it, as it happens
Creative Resistance Remedy is currently at a discount. Trying not to be biased (though obviously I know I am a little lol) for the amount of content given in any of my classes the full price could easily be twice as much. I know from all of the workshops I’ve taken that I provide TONS of value so my regular prices ARE discounted...but you still need to make it being right for you the criteria for why you buy, not discounts or bonuses.
So there we are, my three main (and a few other scattered throughout) lessons from spending thousands on trainings and classes. A final one I want to address is how crazily important it is to NEVER STOP LEARNING….because well, you actually never will stop learning. It is something that will happen to the day you die, but you have a choice to learn by default (which I have to admit I think the majority of the populous does with very little benefit to the mind or improvement of circumstances) or learn through consideration, intention and purpose.
Choose your path, and choose it wisely…because either way you will be walking one.
Creative Resistance Remedy starts on Saturday but right now there is an early bird discount. The cost right now is only £40 (which as you've read my own pocket knows is next to nothing for this kind of teaching).
This workshop is for those that are ready to make their creativity more important than their resistance, their comparison, their overwhelm, their procrastination, their perfectionism, their analysis paralysis and all their critics and create their projects already….meaning it’s really for everyone.
Much love
Jennibellie
PS Can those of you who have already taken the plunge (whoop! well done) and are in Creative Resistance Remedy please send me a private message on Journal Workshops (top button on my profile page here: http://journalworkshops.ning.com/profile/Jennibellie) with your address, I have a secret something I wish to send you through the post!
