This month, my Vero Beach DeClutter Your Creativity Group will begin exploring the issue of money as it creates physical and emotional clutter and/or impedes our creativity. I'm excited to begin addressing an issue that affects almost all of us "creatives," yet is relatively rarely talked about in searching ways. In conjunction with the Group meetings, I'll be posting some thoughts on these issues here on this blog.
(If you're in the Treasure Coast area and this topic interests you, consider joining us at our next Group meeting on Tuesday, January 18 at 6:00. Rather than charge a fee, I ask for donations of whatever you wish to give--five bucks is fine. There is no official signup or membership; just email me for location and directions and to let me know to expect you!)
Let me kick off this new topic with a bit of personal confession, if you will. One of the things I've done, and done best, for others during my career is organizing complex systems: the admissions system of a graduate arts school, the editing and signoff system for a major New York City Mayor's Office biannual report. Yet my own money systems remain pretty disorganized year after year. I don't really have a place that bills or the financial process "lives," I don't consistently keep up with filing and paperwork, I often don't know exactly what's there. I don't even have a set time to handle bill paying, much less other financial work.
My memory of deposits, payment dates, and so on are good enough to keep my money management basically on track despite this. But as I began to realize late last year, I still pay a price for this inattention. I live with more physical clutter than I have to in terms of bills and papers. And, far more important, I live with more anxiety than necessary thanks to this approach. Feeling vague or foggy about my money isn't truly comfortable. I know, deep inside, that I'm not on top of this, and also that I'm not spending enough time on my money to get optimal results.
It's surprised how hard it was to write those words, and to contemplate posting them on the blog. Struggles with money just don't feel "normal" to talk about. That sense of fearfulness is one of the things I want to talk about at the Group. The biggest kind of clutter that money produces for me and most creatives, I suspect, is this feeling of secrecy and shame. I hope that entering into a dialogue about the fraught issue of finances will help many of us clear up some of the blockages those feelings create.
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