Set up your life to accomplish your creative projects instead of the other way around! Nothing gives you more vital energy than creating something. Exercise does not give you the mental boost creativity can. Creating something makes you feel empowered. When you can step back from a project and really take a look and appraise your efforts, you feel stronger, more substantial. After time spent fashioning a new piece, you walk with your head held higher and maybe with a little swagger in your step.
The process of creating something new can seem so frightening if we anticipate the finished product before we ever begin the initial outline. The blank page or canvas can often be the most frightening thing out there. Wanting to “just get to the end” is like expecting our baby to skip childhood so we can see what they will be like after they graduate from college. The creative process can be difficult and time-consuming, but it will never be without rewards.
Growth is an inspirational thing to follow. Go through the changes and development of your ideas like you help and support your child through the difficult journey they must take towards maturity. It’s an amazing adventure. You will likely discover you are far more capable than you ever imagined. As the tangible product emerges from our minds into the world it transforms like a seedling into a tree. No time is wasted.
However, it often falls upon us to first discover what we were meant to create. What are you trying to convey? Do you believe it is relevant? Can you appreciate how your project evolves? Once realized, the creative process can become a series of excursions towards understanding our own consciousness. We learn our strengths and weaknesses. We find out what we do to sabotage the very thing we claim we want and then we have to learn to trust our strength to put down distractions. How are we using our time here? Can we commit ourselves to the challenges that arise when we dare to share the artistic experience in the creation of things yet unseen?
I wanted to be a writer when I was little and write about the Oregon Trail and girls like myself. I don’t think I was very good. To some degree it takes me a while to believe that I could be a good writer. It would be very hard to believe me ever a great writer. My greatest fear about my writing is that I am absolutely awful. I have written many beginnings of things and haven’t finished much. I started writing a dystopian novel since that’s my favorite fiction genre. I’m about halfway through and I’m waiting to hear from my sister’s friend who is in publishing. I fear she hates it. As for time, I am so exhausted from my regular job that I usually can’t write until I have rested up enough. I’d like to believe what you say that if I did try to be creative that I would have the energy to be creative and actually write on weekends. And then I have to also ask myself, why do I write? I enjoy it to some degree, but the bigger reason is so that (presuming I’m good enough) I wouldn’t have to work so much and could actually do it as a career. We’ll see.
It’s that fear that robs us of energy. We waste time in fear. Exhaustion is just part of a life of productivity. If I could make money with my creative endeavors, I too would be thrilled. Pet portraits made me some money. But our fulfillment is not about making money as much as its about pursuing what you really believe in. What you think you were born to do.
I love what you say about organizing our day so that we begin with our creative endeavor and all the other tasks follow that. I love to write, but I usually convince myself I don’t have time. If I write first thing in the morning, I feel good all day, with a feeling of accomplishment. I know tapping into my creativity is energizing!
A healthy respect goes out to those who climb, whether corporately or in creativity. It takes work and a bit of grit to cultivate oneself and accomplish something, anything. Just do it and take our breath away. Good encouraging words. Healthy reminders against stagnation. Thank you.