Chuck Close, on the topic of creativity has said:
“Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work”
Making the decision to be an entrepreneur in music and build a business around my creative output was, at the very least, a nervous idea. I struggled with creativity for a long time. Always inspired, but unable to see through the mysticism that often shadow great works and minds of creativity, my circumstances took the brunt of the blame. Ultimately what I have come to learn is that I was treating my art as a hobby.
We know the desire to accomplish something great is an honoured idea, one that comes with struggles and hard work. We also know that to be good at something you have to hone your craft. Realistically, I was doing neither. I was in love with the idea but not in love with the work. Why is it that many of us cannot see creativity as the business of work?
I for one held creativity up on a pedestal as something illusive and intangible like a whimsical gift born of spontaneity — wrong! This went on for years. My decisions to sit down and be creative were, at the best of times, sporadic and always thwarted by feelings of incapability or the idea that I did not yet hold the correct ‘ingredients’ for greatness — whatever I thought those were.
I frequently hunted (and still do) for new music, literature and design for which to be inspired by and always felt like I had something to offer with my collected influences and ideas, but nothing was forming in the way of a clear plan or direction to achieving my creative goals. Confused in a pool of disparate ideas, I could never form the relationship and cohesiveness between them that is so essential to solving creative problems.
Finally fed up with the anxiety of not creating anything ‘great’, I scoured the land for ways in which to nurture my creativity and foster the results I so dreamed of fostering. What I found was there all along — Frequency.
The frequency at which you show up to work on your creative ideas accelerates the rate at which those ideas come to fruition. By attacking my work frequently (ideally everyday) I discovered a momentum that kept me going. This momentum stopped the detachment from my ideas I created from attacking them sporadically, and killed the time I would waste otherwise getting back up to speed.
If you are creating one piece of work once a week or once a month or even more sporadically, it isn't any wonder that you may feel compelled to create something extraordinary and panic about the quality or your ability. Frequency can keep the pressure from mounting. I write/play/practice everyday now, even if just for an hour. Sometimes it may just be a few chords, or a stanza of lyrics, other times I will sit and write for hours. Ultimately the amount of time you spend on creating is not important, it is the consistency at which you attack your goals that will yield results, however big or small.
It is not surprising that you are likely to accomplish more if you work at it everyday. The productivity that is formed as a result of frequency helps to form a sense of accomplishment and progress. This accomplishment also helps to diminish any fear or worry you may have about your ability or the end result — it certainly did for me. This progress was the kick I needed, when the panic from not doing anything day-in-day-out had set in, because I was aware of myself doing the work which proved I could do the work.
The place in which frequency helped the most for me is idea creation. Because I was attacking my creative endeavours everyday (like work) my mind was constantly brewing with these issues I was working on. Everything I experience everyday is relatable to the project at hand and a connection arises between these disparate ideas. In contrast, working sporadically as I had done in the past created confusion, blocks and unrealistic standards of accomplishment. By chipping away at your project you are fostering creativity and room for ideas to pour in.
Realistically we are all busy. We have day jobs, family, friends, education and a hoard of other obligations and distractions pining for our attention. Whilst creating focus in a bombardment of distractions is worthy of a completely new article I will say this — Instead of feeling frustrated that you never have enough time to work on your projects, you make time. You do a little every day and think more long term. Much can be accomplished over the course of months and years this way. Sure, you don’t have to have a daily frequency, it can be a weekly one, if that suits you more, but a daily habit is most beneficial.
Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project has a long list of “Secrets of Adulthood”, the lessons she has learned as she has grown up and I would like to leave you with on that resonated with me:
“What I do every day matters more than what I do once in a while”.
Happy creating!
