Hello creatives,
While I know this blog is set up to inspire our creative spirits, I thought tax season might be a good time to provide a few practical pathways for bringing your life passion to fulfillment. This article provides some great tax and income advice for artists and probably musicians as well.
Cheers! and Happy Tax Season 
Meg
http://talentdevelop.com/articles/7TTFA.html
The energy level of the creative young people in the counseling laboratory was so high that the room seemed to be electically charged. Eight juniors and seniors from a suburban school were laughing while building a double helix out of the Lincoln Logs, tapping out percussion riffs on the chair arms, and doing impressions of psychologists (us). We passed out donuts - and the donuts quickly became spectacles and building materials as well as fodder. When six young people from a rural school showed up, counselors worried for an instant that the shyer, quieter group might be overwhelmed. Instead, the earlier group shouted greetings, engaged them in the helix construction, and threw them donuts.
Soon the kids in 4-H jackets and normal haircuts were enveloped, and all were conversing as if they had always known each other.
This is a typical beginning of the day at the Counseling Laboratory for the Exploration of Optimal States (CLEOS) at The University of Kansas School of Education. Housed in the Center for Psychoeducational Services, CLEOS is a new research-through-service program established by Barbara Kerr, the Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology and Robyn McKay, Kerr’s colleague in counseling psychology.
High school students are identified by their teachers as “creatives” according to a new profiling technique that compares their achievements, personality characteristics, and behaviors to the profiles of what eminent creative adults looked like as adolescents. Students are selected from a broad variety of creative domains including writing, art, music, dance and athletics, math, science, and a new category - interpersonal - which is designed to identify potential intuitive, empathetic healers and teachers.
In the CLEOS workshop, teams of 10 to 14 students from several schools devote the entire day to reflecting upon their near and distant future. Personality and vocational tests designed specifically for talented young people, group exercises featuring a “Perfect Future Day Fantasy,” and individual counseling and mentoring are the core activities, with campus tours and lunch at the Kansas Union for educational breaks. The volunteer counselors who guide them through the day are master’s and doctoral students in KU’s counseling psychology program. After the activities with their counselors, students leave with a “Personal Map of the Future,” a mentor’s e-mail address and blogspace, and often, new friends and new dreams.
Kerr and McKay began this project out of concern for the “kids on the edge” - those young people whose interests, abilities, and goals are often out of sync with their peers.
“For creatively gifted young people, the path to the fulfillment of their talents is often a mystery,” Kerr explains. “Unlike more traditional careers, vocations in fields such as the fine and performing arts, invention, and creative entrepreneurship don’t have clear career ladders.”
The CLEOS Project helps young people not only to clarify their career and academic goals, but also to understand the next steps necessary - whether that be building a portfolio, preparing for auditions, or finding the right mentor or coach.
One student who dreams of being a musician recently wrote to Kerr, “There are so many creative, different, and courageous students out there that deviate from the norm and sometimes a little reassurance can go a long way in that regard. It’s nice to hear someone say that you’re on the right track when the whole world seems to be saying that you are not.”
The CLEOS project may be on the right track, as well, because within two weeks of advertising the 100 spaces available for the spring semester, 290 students were nominated. The demand for the services at CLEOS has been so high that the project will be continued into next year and further years. Counselors are already fielding calls from parents and teachers who have specific questions about how to help creatively gifted students who are underachieving, having difficulty with peers, or are just in need of direction.
The research-based activities of the workshop are among those that have been found to be effective in career guidance of talented students in Kerr’s previous projects. These include those at The University of Nebraska Guidance Laboratory for Gifted, the Iowa Counseling Laboratory, and National Science Foundation-sponsored projects for mathematically and scientifically talented young women at Arizona State University.
The students and also the teachers who chaperone them leave with a plan for the future. Teachers receive free copies of Kerr’s National Science Foundation counseling guides, as well as advice on sustaining and nourishing the creative talents of their young people. “On the way home, it was so much fun to listen to the students talking about their visualizations, their personalities, and their futures,” says a teacher of her recent journey from Lawrence. “This is a wonderful project, and we hope to be involved for many years!”
Hi everyone,
I’m here in Kansas through Tuesday, March 10. And I have **FREE** 30 minute coaching appointments available for the CLEOS team! Email me and we’ll set up your time. Looking forward to seeing you again!
love and happy thoughts,
Robyn
Hi again - just wrote another post over at Song + Dance for your Soul - this time about the future perfect day guided imagery, a key exercise that we use in the CLEOS project.
Here’s the link: http://robynmckay.typepad.com/song_dance/2009/02/imagine-more-imagine-better-imagine.html
Happy thoughts for a happy day,
Robyn
Hi Everyone, I just posted a new entry on the intuitives over at: www.robynmckay.typepad.com
Here’s the permalink: http://robynmckay.typepad.com/song_dance/2009/02/the-intuitive-ones-feeling-the-worlds-pain.html
Happy thoughts for a happy day,
Robyn
Tracy Morgan is one of my favorite characters on TV. I love “30 Rock” and I love his over the top, clueless star persona. I often wonder what he is like in person. Turns out he’s had all kinds of struggles from a crappy childhood, being a young parent on welfare, to substance abuse. His resilience in the face of all of that is inspiring.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/arts/television/02itzk.html?ex=1383368400&en=9a94fa259e8ab2e2&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook
Here is a great article from Psychology today on the living a life of creativity….and where creative insights come from. I especially love Ally Sheedy’s quote at the end, which I’ve pasted below. I am constantly having dejavu…how about you?
Meg
Ally Sheedy, actor
“For me, the creative moment almost always occurs during a dream state. I wake up certain that I have created something but I am unaware of what it is at the time. The creation becomes realized during a later conscious state in its entirety. But I recognize it as the memory of an earlier idea.”
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/PTO-19920301-000031.html
Hi everyone,
I’m Dr. Robyn McKay, co-founder of the CLEOS project, and contributor to the CLEOS Creativity Blog. In August, I began working at Arizona State University.
This week, I’m flying out of the desert to and back home to Lawrence!
I’ll be at KU on Thursday, December 4 and
Friday, December 5.
On Thursday, I’ll be available all day to consult with the CLEOS counselors on their cases.
Also (and this is really important…and FREE!!)
CLEOS counselors (and other CPY students) can take advantage of ***FREE*** 30 minute creativity consultations with me! We’ll talk about your vision, your flow, and what holds you back. We’ll bust down the barriers to your own creativity!
Email me at robyn.mckay@mac.com to set up your appointment time. I have appointments available on Thursday night and all day Friday. If you want to make the drive out to Captain’s Creek, I’ll have some time on the weekend, too.
Look: I know finals are coming up. And your intellect will most likely resist adding anything to your plate. BUT… this consultation will be totally worth it. We’ll get you re-energized, re-focused, and enliven your creative spirit so that you can fly through finals.
Musician Jason Mraz says, “don’t let your mind get in your way of having a good time!” I agree with him. Take a study break and hang out with me for 1/2 an hour. The only thing you have to lose is a tight, scared mind. there is so much to gain!
Remember to email me (robyn.mckay@mac.com) to set up your creativity consultation time.
Also, check out my blog Song + Dance {for your soul} - I update it a few times every week with the latest positive psychology research (most recently on Gratitude), and my own ideas about living a creative + fulfilled life. Check it out!
Can’t wait to see you!
(and email me! did I say that already??!)
Happy thoughts,
Robyn
Hey guys, wanted to let you know that over at my blog (Song + Dance for your soul), I’ve written about how food blocks creativity. My suggestion: reach for your pen or your paintbursh instead of reaching for a donut!
Check it out: http://robynmckay.typepad.com/song_dance/2008/11/creativity-food.html
Doc Robyn