5 Simple Steps to Open Your Creativity
There are as many ways to be creative as their are people who create. If you are looking for ways to start or restart your creative endeavors, I have some suggestions that may prove very helpful to get you on track or speed your creative journey.
Make Space
Making space for creativity applies to quite a few things. First, you should have a physical space that you call your own and claim it for your creative projects. The spare bedroom, garage, closet that once decluttered could house your materials and work table, back porch. It doesn’t matter what the space it. It doesn’t matter what size the space is. What matters is that you have planted your flag and claimed it. You might need to clean it out first, but I bet you can find a place to call your own.
Along with a physical space, you need to make space in your schedule. Everybody is busy. Take a look at your calendar, your commitments and your time usage. Where can you find space to create. Go to bed earlier and wake up before anyone needs you? After breakfast? After dinner? After the kids are in bed? Saturday mornings? If you think you don’t have time, I suggest you watch one less thing on TV, scroll less on your social media and find the time. You deserve to give that time to yourself.
The third thing you need is to make head space. Are you worrying? Comparing yourself to someone who made space and has been creating for a long time? Telling yourself it’s all been done before? Stop it. Making things is human. Making things is unique. You making things is as essential to your well-being as it is to your universal contribution. The words “I made this” have brought joy to our souls since we were little kids making things to put up on the fridge. Find that joy again. It’s waiting patiently.
2. Show Up
Once you have a place, time and idea the only thing missing is applying your skills and getting down to the actual doing of things. Go in your place, at your scheduled time and clear your mind of expectation so you can just make something. None of these preparations matter until you actually show up. Exchange scrolling and time wasters for something that brings you joy.
3. Simplify
Start with as few materials as possible. This reduces your fear of wasting materials. It also reduces decision fatigue about what to do. It increases the amount of time you are interacting with creative materials and shaping your ideas into physical form.
4. Focus
You want to try clay, fabric, collage, acrylic, sculpture and watercolor. The problem is that you will spend time shopping, deciding, organizing, and ruminating. Focus on one thing at a time. Learn watercolor deeply or sculpt with clay for fifty projects. But stop trying to create a painting, a sculpture, a quilt and a poetry book at the same time. You will make very little progress in any one direction. The lack of progress leads to abandoning the creative endeavor entirely. Failure does not breed success. Small successes build more success.
5. Embrace Progress
However small, accept with grace and gratitude what you learn, how you grow and any time you invest in making something. The minutes add up. They fuel the desire to put in hours. They also create momentum that keeps you coming back. It doesn’t look like a giant occasion with lots of fanfare. It is the little inner smile you get when you mix colors and get something unexpected that makes you say wow. It’s the way you notice the materials on the table and see a new possibility. It’s the magic of time passing without you even noticing. Joy, like progress, is a collection of small things that fill you up like one marble at a time in a jar.
I hope something in this post helped you clarify why your creative endeavors are important. I also hope that you will invest in your happiness and take steps to create whatever your heart desires. Find that space, time, pursuit and go. Even the slowest pace lets you linger in the creative joy. You deserve it.
