Right now you are too busy. You have too much going on. You don’t have time to be creative, but later… Uh oh. That won’t work.
You want, crave, and need creative practice in your life, but you are have children (or a job or pets or a crumbling house or all of the above) needing and wanting and craving your attention constantly. Fitting in one more thing can seem impossible and you might be tempted to put off “being creative” until “later.”
Well, I have to tell you two things:
- “Later” is a Baaaad habit to get into. It mentally affirms over and over that you cannot be creative now and constantly puts it off into some rosey future. You train yourself that NOW is not an ok time to be creative and you set up the perfect excuse by imagining “later” as this time when you will have more…time. What do you think will happen? One day will all of your obligations cease? Will someone tap you on the shoulder and say, “OK. Now’s the time! You can be creative!”
- Being Creative is not separate from LIFE. It is not one more thing added in, because when you make creativity a priority in your life it permeates all parts of your day. I am not saying that every mundane task suddenly becomes filled with excitement and joy, but putting creativity at the forefront does mean that you are more likely to find ways to infuse your tasks with a creative flair.
Try this: the next hassle you come across in your day , even if it IS very annoying, try to frame it as an opportunity for creative thought. Perhaps say to yourself, “What would I do if I were a really creative person? (and psst, you are a really creative person.) Is there room for a playful or unique solution? Would a little humor help things smooth out?
We often think we can only be creative given hours of uninteruppted time, but we have little opportunities to practice our creativity every day.
(The drawing in the above image is inspired by Tammy at Daisy Yellow .)
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Alissa, thanks for this very wise blog entry. It is exactly what my art Buddy and I have been discussing. I’m going to send her this link.
Hi Alissa, I am Sandy’s “art buddy” Susan. This is exactly what I struggle with. I work in the corporate world and about the only thing I do creatively during the day is make my excel spreadsheets look pretty! The burning creativity inside has been put aside until I have the “time”. So, after much discussion with Sandy and others, I have decided on a particular form of art and signed up for a domain today. Yay, that was my first move. Now for creating… Thanks for the words of wisdom and thanks to Sandy for sharing too.
This is so true, Alissa. It also makes me think of this quote: “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass… it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” – Unknown
So many good reminders on your blog lately. I’ve been getting in creative time while I’m on maternity leave but come October it’s going to get harder!
Great advice that I just needed today, time seem to be work work work but yeah, will try creative time when I get home TODAY.
I think about this on a daily basis. I need to practice not putting off creativity until “later”. I do feel incredibly satisifed in the moments when I run with a creative impulse and I hope I can begin to do that more often rather than be inclined to delay or just maintain the status quo.
Thanks Alissa, this was a very timely piece for me to read this week as I am thinking about and examining mindfulness in my life/ homeschool. When we wait for the right time we are ignoring the now. This moment will not happen again. The potential of *this* moment can not be in the future.
This was also timely for me in a more nuts and bolts fashion. Yesterday A really wanted to paint. “Water colors?” I asked as I looked around at my less then tidy house. “No, tempera paints!” “Uh… sure let me just clean up an area, it will take a little while” ( It in fact took quite a while as I had to put out several small fires and one roaring blaze) However, once he got to painting I was so glad I said “sure” instead of “not today the house is too messy”. A painted for over an hour, happily listening to music and experimenting, moving away from the comfort of his typical subject matter!
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