Unless you’ve got a job that completely fulfills you creatively, you’ve probably got a day job to pay the bills.
And a lot of creatives, like myself, have full time jobs as writers, designers or artists. But between the client, the realities of business and budget limitations, a full-time creative can go home at the end of the day feeling pretty un-fulfilled.
So how do you find the energy and the time at home to do something as intellectually exhausting as being creative, or even tougher, marketing yourself and dealing with rejection?
The number one criterion is passion. Time at home is free time. If it isn’t something you’re prepared to give up valuable free time over, you probably aren’t going to do it.
Number two is discipline. There will be days when your passion won’t be enough. You’ll be tired. There will be a movie to watch. Garbage will need to be taken out. (It’s sad state of affairs when you’d rather take out the trash and put off working on your idea).
This means finding some way to get yourself to do something you don’t want to do. Try:
- Rewarding yourself after an hour of work on your idea with dessert
- Punish yourself by returning that movie you picked up until you’ve worked on your idea
- Find something that inspires you. (Being outside, a good movie, a painting are all good candidates). Pull it out when you feel uninspired
- Find a friend who is creative as well. Like a running partner, you can lock yourselves away to work on your ideas for an hour or two and keep each other honest
- Do things by hand. Take away the computer and you take away lots of potential distractions
Number three is to take a break every once and awhile. If all you do is sit in your room and create, you won’t be very interesting. Get out and actually do things. Live a vivacious life. You’ll have a lot more material to draw on and you’ll meet more people like you.
Number four? Don’t get overwhelmed by your own genius. If you’re like me and generate tons of half thoughts and small ideas that don’t go anywhere, it’s very easy to feel like you’ve got so many things up in the air. Where could you possibly begin? It’s OK to put things to the side.
Focus on one project at a time. You’ll get to the other things later. It’s far better to work on one thing for a month and have five ideas waiting in the wings than to work on five things for six months and have nothing to show for it. That type of approach can be very discouraging.
