So many things conspire to keep you from achieving your creative goals. Self-doubt, lack of discipline, time management, writer’s block, creative solitude, fear of rejection, procrastination … the list goes on and on.

But just because you’ve been struggling with one or more of these challenges doesn’t mean you have to abandon your creativity. Grant Faulkner, executive director of National Novel Writing Month and author of “Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo,” will show you ways to banish your inner editor, dive into your work with creative abandon, and develop your creative self-confidence.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Take creative risks.

• Create what you love, not what you should.

• Find and nourish your muse.

• Use the power of a creative midwife: set an audacious goal and a deadline.

• Be accountable by tracking your daily progress.

• Use games and challenges to overcome creative blocks.

• Deal with feedback and rejection.

Everyone participates and explores their creative selves so that they can return to the office invigorated by their creative drive and moxie.

According to a study by Microsoft, the average human being now has an attention span of eight seconds. This is a sharp decrease from the average attention span of 12 seconds in the year 2000.

Brevity is more important than ever, whether you're writing an email or explaining a new product or service, whether you're the CEO or an administrative assistant. Short-form storytelling expert Grant Faulkner will train your group in the power of creative constraint through a tool that they can apply to their work in countless ways: the 100-word story.

Grant has been a pioneer in the art of short, sharp storytelling, and in this session he uses interactive exercises to help employees clarify their personal and professional brands, mottoes, and missions—to improve internal communication and enhance external marketing. Grant’s inspirational talk will help attendees figure out just who they want to be as individuals and as an organization as a whole while having fun writing simple stories to forge better connections with teammates and customers.

Many of the people we most revere were nearly shut down by rejection. Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because his editor said he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Oprah Winfrey lost her job as a newscaster because she couldn’t sever her emotions from her stories. After a performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, Elvis was told by the concert hall manager that he was better off returning to Memphis and driving trucks (his former career).

While most of us don't go on to become an Elvis, we all face a minefield of possible rejections in our daily lives, whether it's an idea that gets shot down in a meeting or an idea that goes unexpressed because of our own self-rejection.

Based on his upcoming book, Rejection's Gift, Grant will discuss how our most admired creators and innovators faced rejection and creative crisis, yet continued to believe in the value of their work and kept trying. He'll show how a person's rejection journey can be an essential creative tool, whether it's by doubling down and being even more bold or simply mustering the resilience and belief in oneself to keep going, a la Sylvia Plath's statement, “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.”

Grant weaves in psychological research about how rejection affects our brains—how it can resemble physical pain, lower self-esteem, and spark aggression. But in the end, rejection is at the heart of becoming and the way we deal with rejection shapes who we are as individuals and teammates. The more your team develops a "rejection mindset," the more innovative your team will be.

Many people say they're not a "creative type," but the definition of being human is to be a creator. We are makers by design, and the way we make meaning in the world is through the stories we tell.

Companies large and small have tapped into the power of storytelling and deepened teams' connections by inviting Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of National Novel Writing month (aka NaNoWriMo), to lead employees through a fun, engaging, interactive presentation that ignites people's powers of creativity.

After sharing the background on NaNoWriMo and the reasons why it is so creatively successful, Faulkner leads the audience through personal creative exercises and games. Everyone participates, explores different creative processes, gains a better understanding of the collective strength of their team, and leaves armed with ways to keep building team culture when they return to the office. This session will definitely lead to a lift in creativity, commitment, and collaboration.