Fellow coach, Aaliah Elnasseh, shares about the creative challenges she’s developed for both her own personal growth around deeply meaningful topics and for the collective benefit of others. With her numerous, self-directed  “100 days” projects, she’s explored important themes such as spirituality and healing through the creative lens of photography, writing, and community. Aaliah breaks down how accessible and effective these creative challenges can be in unlocking important truths, developing discipline, and connecting with others.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The illness and life evaluation that sparked Aaliah’s newfound commitment to creativity and the story behind why Aaliah wanted to pursue these creative explorations in the form of 100 day challenges
• How creative challenges can help you develop consistency and the confidence in being able to follow-through
• How these experiments can combat the overwhelming feeling of having too many possibilities and areas of interest
• Increasing the longevity and value of important memories and travel through creative expression
• Limitations and how they can be both restricting and freeing
• Releasing perfectionism through a realistic commitment around expectations and structure
• Starting where you are and building on that in order to grow and improve
• The importance of having a stopping point or a reflection point in an experiment
• Putting yourself in the posture of creativity to allow for inspiration to come, even if it’s not always profound
• The key components of a creative challenge that make it effective and meaningful
• Why Aaliah chose spirituality and healing as the themes of her last two creative projects and what she gained from them
• Striking a balance between sharing vulnerably and inviting others in that process and not making vulnerability a commodity

“Just showing up - that’s how inspiration comes. You don’t wait for inspiration. You create the conditions that inspiration can thrive in.” - Aaliah Elnasseh

“Being an artist or being a creative person or someone who is spontaneous doesn’t mean that I can’t also have structure and strategy in how I go about growing. It doesn’t have to be haphazard and random. I want to have a say and a real purpose and intention for where my life goes and the ways that I grow in. Why not decide how I want that to look like?” - Aaliah Elnasseh

“Instead of hoping that you will create these amazing ideas and find the right idea, it’s more about becoming the kind of person that ideas come to. It’s more about being than doing.” - Marissa Burdett

“The more authentic and the more honest and willing to be vulnerable, and uncomfortable as it may be, that’s the extent that we’ll receive love. The more courageous we are, the more ourselves we are, the more love reaches our core.” - Aaliah Elnasseh

“The shame we feel about having gone through difficult experiences is really costing us our own healing and our ability to be there for one another.” - Aaliah Elnasseh

Check out the show notes at https://permissiontopivot.com and join the private, free Facebook group: Permission to Pivot Community.