Hi! Lyle Lachmuth here. I’m a Life/Career/Business Coach, Freelance Writer, and aspiring Novelist. I specialize in coaching creative, eclectic, and multitalented professionals … who are stuck! You can learn more about me here.
I’m going to be blogging 3 times a month here at the New Coach Connection blog:
- The first Tuesday of the month I’ll be reviewing (mostly) new and noteworthy books – well, at least books I think are noteworthy
- The fourth Wednesday of the month I’ll be blogging about Change and Transition Management – how to survive and thrive amidst all the chaos of change, and
- The, oh-so-rare, fifth Monday of the month I’ll be blogging about UnstickingTM Strategies – tips, tricks, and tactics to help you get unstuck when you’re blocked, frustrated, and getting nowhere fast!
So, let’s get started with this month’s Book Reviews.
First, let me warn you that not many of the books I review will be about coaching. Instead, I’ll bring you reviews from books in the fields of neuroscience, healing, self-help, and whatever captivates my eclectic attention. This month’s first book is a rare exception: a book from a noted Creativity Coach.
The Book:
The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path through Depression, Eric Maisel PhD, New World Library, Novato, California, 2002, 258 pp
From The Book Jacket:
In this groundbreaking book, Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process. Using examples both from the lives of famous creators such as Van Gogh and from his own creativity coaching practice, Maisel explains that despite their inevitable difficulties, creative people possess the ability to forge relationships, repair themselves, and find meaning in their work and lives.
What I Liked About This Book:
I resonate with Maisel’s notion of “making meaning” as being the core driver for creative people. I was struck by this statement by Maisel, “I believe that depression in creative individuals is best thought of as a meaning crisis caused by chronic, persistent uneasiness, irritation, anger, and sadness about the facts of existence and life’s apparent lack of meaning. Anyone who examines the facts of existence and strives to find personal meaning, as creative people do, opens herself up to this depression.
Bravo! I completely agree. Many of the creative professionals I coach struggle to express their unique view of the world. And, it is this attempt to create meaning, to fully express themselves that brings frustration – and, the risk of discouragement and depression.
In chapters like “Opting to Matter” … “Braving Anxiety” … and “Repairing The Self” Maisel examines typical reactions to the creative person’s compelling need for expression of self and lays out strategies for overcoming the world and the self’s natural resistance to the risk associated with expression.
I found particularly useful advice in the second to last chapter, “Taking Action”. I’ve found too often that creative professionals, because we thrive on ideas, much too easily get caught up in ideation and forget to or resist taking action. Moving my clients to action and giving them action strategies is a big part of my work as a coach.
Why Career & Life Coaches Ought To Read This Book:
If you coach creative professionals this is a must read book. It gives remarkable insight into the artist’s struggle to “make meaning” and provides tactics for assisting the creative professional to recapture the courage they need to fully express themselves.
You can find more of my book reviews here.
