Make Time for Your Creativity
When I was young, I loved to create and make stuff. Drawing and woodworking were my go-to activities. The lightbulb moment, if you can call it that, with regard to drawing is when my father showed me how to roughly sketch something. I remember feeling like a switch had been thrown and away I went. I think I drew Mickey Mouse and it looked just like the reference picture! I was hooked. How does the woodworking fit in here? My father is the handyman type, so I grew up around power tools, wood, screws, nails, and every other tool and material you could use to make, fix, or rig something. That was my environment.
The older I got the more I wanted to pursue art and writing — whatever would satisfy my wandering imagination, nagging urge to create, and tendency to let whatever creative notions emerge when thinking through problems.
For me, creativity is everything. It is a realm of untethered expression and pure possibility. Creativity is everything that is weird, unbelievable, awesome, surreal, abstract, funny, happy, sad, obnoxious, irrational, mean, and real in the world. But I sure as hell don’t live as if this is something I believed. My external reality does not reflect my internalized ideal.
I was conditioned to believe that art is not a way to make a living. Art isn’t a job. I fell for this ignorant and limiting nonsense. I let go of what I wanted and what excited me and proceeded to get lost in a reality that others expected of me. The years passed as I slogged through boring, sometimes mindless, and stressful jobs. I watched my creative ability slowly wither and die. I just stood by and let it happen.
I could say that life got in the way, but the reality is, I let it get in the way. The fact that I learned early on to reject my creative energies as being impractical is poor reasoning to have just continued along that path of flawed thinking. I can give you any number of excuses why I have sat idle for more years than I care to admit, but they are just that — excuses. To be honest: I haven’t been disciplined enough with my time to pursue my interests, to pursue what matters to me.
Caught in the Trap of Overthinking
The older you get, the less time you seem to have to pursue “frivolous” activities like art. How do we shift our focus away from a lot of the mind-numbing drudgery we let ourselves fall into and toward a more creative and inspired activity we feel, deep-down, is missing?
We may plan, stall, and procrastinate to the bitter end as we try to justify our so-called silly wants. The more technical term is analysis paralysis. You can plot, scheme, and analyze what you want to do and how you want to do it until you are blue in the face. But getting stuck in the infinite loop over overthinking goes nowhere. I know. I didn’t invent it, but I am pretty sure that I have become a master of overthinking. I like to plan, brainstorm workflows, and create processes. But there comes a point where the results of these processes need to be put into action.
The only way to break the cycle of “should I, or shouldn’t I?” is to do instead of just thinking. Well, you do have to think if you want to give meaning to whatever it is you do. How about this — Do; and don’t think so damn much. That is the only way to move forward.
You may be worried that whatever it is you create will suck. First, that is subjective, Two, you will never be completely satisfied with your creations. And three, creating “bad” art, writing, or whatever is an inevitable part of the process. Your process and presentation will get better. What is important is putting your plan into action.
Time is an Elusive Creature
You’ve stopped thinking and started doing. Now where’s the time going to come from? Life is busy. You have obligations to prioritize. There’s never enough time for it all. These thoughts convince us that there is no time, but with a tweak of your thinking here and a shift in your perspective there, you will see that there is at least some time for your creative pursuits.
Make time for yourself, your creativity, and your vision. An hour a day; thirty minutes; whatever bit of time you can scrape together. And make it a habit. I know, like many things in life and for most of you, including myself, this is easier said than done.
Creating habits isn’t easy. First, you have to want to make the change. Second, you have to stick to it long enough to form the habit.
Most of us don’t use our time efficiently. I think I can say that with some confidence based on the existence of the endless stream of motivational time hacks, gurus, tips, tricks, books, conferences, posts, tweets, grams, and fortune cookie wisdom; just to name a few.
One main point is to be more deliberate with how you spend your time. It can make a big difference in advancing your goals.
With that in mind; here’s a list of ideas to get you started:
- Figure out what you want to do/how much time you need.
- List everything what you want to do, create, or learn.
- Arrange your list from most important to least; and see where you can group or combine your ideas so you can get the most out of your efforts.
2. Schedule your creative time.
- Take a look at your day. How can you rearrange your schedule; or what can you cut out of your day that could be considered wasted time?
- Do you consistently watch Netflix an hour or two a day? There’s some perfectly good time that you can put to use.
3. Protect your newly scheduled time. It is now an obligation; make your intentions known. Tell your spouse, partner, kids, relatives, your employer, your neighbors, that creepy guy that hangs out on the corner all day for no reason — This is your time; do not disturb; no trespassing; beware of dog — whatever you have to do.
4. Start setting small achievable goals.
- These can be daily or weekly goals. You may have an ultimate goal in mind, but starting small gives you room to breathe and not get overwhelmed with the immensity of how much you may have to do to reach that larger goal.
- Establish a routine first, then start creating monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals.
5. Be deliberate; execute with intention.
- Know why you are making this time for yourself and follow through.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully it is enough of a start to help get you in the frame of mind to start taking more control of your time. The world needs you, your brilliance, and your imagination. Don’t leave it all in the rubbish heap to rot for so many years like I did.
