Writing Tools: Mindsets

Use these fixed dispositions that determine your response to creative situations.
Click below on "taxonomies" to learn types of mindsets, or scroll and search all 68 tools!

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# 303

I add value to the team but nobody appreciates my effort

Gifting
Framing our creative work as a gift of generosity, not an obligation of labor
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# 306

I wish I had more time to write, but there are only so many hours in the day

Compressing
Solving the problem of time through reducing, condensing or combining
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# 309

I feel stuck in my writing career and need to make a big change

Contexting
A filter for relating to reality that determines your creative responses to situations that are different, not just better
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# 282

I’m a new writer on a team, and want to make a difference and be here long term

Resale Value
Thinking of your organization as an asset that appreciates in economic value every day that you show up
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# 298

I don’t want my company to innovate for innovation’s sake

Trajectory
The positive downstream effects of the innovation process, regardless of the outcome
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# 299

I am doing really well right now, and have nothing to complain about

Greed Mode
Aggressively exploiting opportunities and expanding assets when you're already in a position of strength
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# 296

I am tired of having integrity, it’s counterproductive

Compartmentalization
Make concessions about undesirable work to develop a sustainable relationship with ourselves
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# 275

I can’t start new habits, and reading books or attending events doesn’t help

Lubrication
Making personal change easier to swallow by tailoring interventions to your unique context
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# 265

I don’t want to be different, it makes something wrong with me, and I’m not safe

Permissionless Posture
The enabling of regular expressions of individual personality
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# 274

I get obsessed with gathering inspiration and other tasks, and can’t do my actual work

Upshifting
Making an intentional transition from peripheral creation to principal creation
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# 277

I just got bad news or had a shitty performance, and it’s depressing me

Zooming Out
Widening your lens to get perspective on the complete picture of your situation
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# 271

I want a new career, and it’s frustrating and taking forever

Nexting
Updating the story we tell ourselves about failure and rejection
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# 249

I sometimes get anxiety and it comes out of nowhere and I can’t write

Early Warning System
A personal seismograph that helps us take preemptive action against impending inner turmoil and anxiety
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# 230

I keep writing the same things over and over, and need to branch out

Spiraling
Growing your creative life in an open ended, upward curve of new possibilities
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# 227

I had this shitty thing happen, and it’s hard to deal with

Misfortunation
Reframing aspects of our circumstances that we can view as gifts to be treasured
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# 233

I think the universe is against me, and my writing projects keep getting derailed

Positivity Filter
Increasing your field of vision to allow you to better notice the opportunities that lead to success
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# 238

I am living through a public crisis right no, and everyone around me is freaking out

Shitstorming
Reorienting ourselves in our pain so that we aren't a victim of it
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# 236

I feel bad when my mind distorts events from the past

Fictioning
Treating memory as an art form for the purposes of nourishing yourself
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# 228

I want to know how to proceed in this writing project, even without a lot of information

Tracking
Monitoring our machinery of intuitive thought to figure out the next steps in our tasks
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# 220

I am feeling apathetic and foolish, since ideas get ignored, shelved or barely supported

Long Gaming
The willing to initiate risky projects and be misunderstood for extended periods of time
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# 211

I don’t know if this is a good idea or a great one

Offspringing
Filtering the quality of new ideas by their ability to breed other ideas
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# 208

I know I’m a good writer, but I need to communicate it a way that compels people and organizations to hire me

Reappraisal
Pinpointing the vehicle of your creative uniqueness through reflective inquiry
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# 193

I work in a high stress environment, and everyone around me is having a breakdown

Downstreaming
Treating energy as the measurement of how much change might occur in a system
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# 189

I keep messing up when I’m trying to produce a final version of something

Red Lighting
Making a different choice about how we experience our creative failures
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# 198

I just got screwed by reality, and it’s forcing me to change creatively

Repackaging
Forcing yourself to appraise negative circumstances in a forward thinking way
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# 185

I can’t follow my passion and make money, but I can’t do things that don’t excite me

Passion Inversion
The intention of not following your passion, but finding ways to bring it with you everywhere you go
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# 170

I can’t write with all these distractions my workplace

Downheading
Using the placebo power of a focus filter in the face of distractions to get your work done
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# 171

I want to motivate myself and my team to work towards the same end goal

End Framing
Paint a compelling, detailed picture of the desired future so you can make meaningful strides toward it
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# 167

I am thinking of taking a day job to support myself, but I’m afraid I won’t have time or energy to write

Dual Citizenship
Securing a professional work opportunity that finances the rest of your artistic projects
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# 177

I want to reinvent myself and change the world, but it feels overwhelming

Designating
Going out of your way to announce to yourself that something mundane is actually paramoun
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# 180

I feel foolish because I’m not wired for this task, and wish I was better at it

Limitation Language
Building a narrative about your weaknesses that gives you perspective and power
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# 164

I don’t have anything left to say, and I’m spending all my time working not living

Subordination
Make living a normal life job number one, so your art gets done as a matter of course
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# 173

I am always proving myself, and it’s exhausting

Upgrading
Loving our creative work without relying on interpersonal or organizational approval
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# 143

I don’t have enough time to work on these creative projects

Unrushing
Building a narrative around your priorities that supports and enhances an overall experience of fulfillment and calm
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# 144

I have team members who keep dragging and missing deadlines

Temporal Abundance
Building a narrative around time that supports and enhances your overall experience of fulfillment and calm
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# 145

I never have enough energy or time to do things I need to

Attentional Abundance
Building a narrative around mindfulness that supports and enhances your overall experience of fulfillment and calm
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# 154

I want to start a new project that actually helps people

Zooming In
Elevating the power of a small solution by creating an extreme version of it
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# 158

I don’t know which format this project should be in

Medium Agnostic
Allow patterns to emerge and open our work to becoming more dimensionalized, in whatever form it needs to live.
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# 155

I need inspiration for a new idea, and I want to help people

Disproportioning
Scaling one person's excessive moment of emotion and bring it to the world
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# 156

I want new ideas that nobody has ever thought of, but totally make sense

Animalism
Invert the innovation process by leveraging the nonhuman world
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# 157

I feel guilty about fantasizing and daydreaming instead of writing

Excursioning
Taking a short mental journey of creative fantasy
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# 131

I’m good at creating things, but they don’t move the needle at the company

Knowledge Lever
Embracing and exploiting the economic potential of your team's intellectual capital
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# 135

I am hesitant to share my writing because I’m paranoid someone will steal it

Storehousing
Exponentially increasing your overall asset of creativity by giving more of it away
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# 112

I can’t make my idea into a reality

Hyperactive Listening
Tuning into your creative flow with humility, curiosity and trust to discover what wants to be written
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# 114

I wish there was a place where I could do my best work as a writer

Opportunity Agenda
The inherent enterprise to notice and manufacture creative opportunities, apply force and propel them into interesting directions.
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# 088

I have a fear of repeating myself in my writing

Redundansee
Telling yourself a more productive story about your originality
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# 086

I want a job that fits my purpose and engages me

Meaning Making Filter
Conceptualize creative work through psychological and existential construct of meaning
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# 099

I am stuck in bad creative habits

Tridentity
Going back to ground zero of your unique motivational system to start or stop behaviors
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# 075

I’m not motivated to write this thing

Motivational Economics
Either shifting our relationship with pain, or shifting our definition of gain.
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# 068

I wish all of my ideas were great

Pump Up The Volume
Using the power and practice of persistence to amplify creative performance
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