6 Tips for practicing more creativity in your life
Who doesn’t want to be more creative?
There have been so many times in my life when I could have been creative and made or done something amazing…but didn’t.
I said things like:
There’s no time…
It’s not good enough…
I don’t have the resources…
Someone else will do it…
Don’t let yourself fall into the bad habit of dismissing your own ideas. If you don’t even give them a chance, who will?!
I’m here to encourage you to make a commitment to get your ideas out. I don’t necessarily mean out in public, but out of your head into a journal or other medium, or discussing them with a trusted fellow artist, friend, family member, stranger on the street, etc.!
Maybe what you need is a little bit of organization. You might be a free-flowing creative but you’re having trouble organizing your ideas, keeping them together and safe.
The busyness of life can take us away from what we really want to be doing. You need to take control of the situation and be intentional about this. Here are my tips to help you start expressing your creative ideas.
Tip 1: Schedule time alone
I want you to give yourself the space and opportunity to move your ideas from starting point to something else. Something else doesn’t have to mean what you originally intended. It could be completely different, but that’s the point of working on ideas!
By the way, have you ever heard of an idea garden? It’s a very cool way of archiving ideas and coming back to them (or not) in a format personalized to you. If you want to find out how to set up your idea garden, I recommend this article. Personally, I hope this website is a type of idea garden for me as I express different things and come back to them from time to time.
Now, back to being alone…this applied to even the most social of butterflies: you NEED to be alone from time to time. Find a time in your schedule where you can be by yourself and conditions are pleasant enough for you to express yourself freely.
Alone time is a precious thing these days!
Tip 2: Carry the tools with you
I try to always take a journal with me wherever I go. I once heard on a podcast that you should constantly be writing down questions, not necessarily wanting to answer them, but simply to ask them. Random questions, deep ones, questions related or unrelated to your surroundings and future plans….just ask questions! They are the beginning of understanding, getting answers, creative solutions and (sometimes frustratingly) more questions!
I have small, practical notebooks that can fit into any handbag, but if you’re an avid writer and want something that is inspiring just to look at, try this Shakespeare-inspired notebook or this rustic sketching leather-bound beauty.
Of course, if you’re more of a visual artist, a sketching pad is always handy, or a relaxing colouring-in book (my fellow Aussies probably gravitate toward one like this). Some crafts, such as crochet, lend themselves to easier transport. Even if you can’t take it with you, a good go-to is a notebook to jot down thoughts or plans for new projects.
Tip 3: Value your thoughts
Tip 2 was about the physical tools, but the most important tool in creativity is your mind!
Allow me to play the philosopher for a minute here…I feel like we have this imaginary barrier between our minds and what’s in the world. As if our thoughts are a stream of triathlon swimmers just pushing against the tide of the incoming world, with only the strongest ones getting through.
This self-imposed censorship (which I’m all too familiar with) can come from shyness, trauma, not having the right support system, or simply having too high a threshold for what constitutes a worthy idea or thought.
Creativity is an expression of your deepest self, so to access it you need to wade through the more shallow areas first. I suggest we start to break out of what we believe “should” be expressed and instead practice saying what comes to our mind in the most graceful and considered ways.
In my own life this is helping to spot conversation openings, create more connections, understand my thoughts and how to articulate them more efficiently.
[Bonus Tip 3.1 here - this is crucial, and I may write about it further in a future post, but before valuing your thoughts comes valuing yourself! If you have spent your life being a consumer of other people’s products, art, books, podcasts etc. without putting your own thing out there, you may not realize that you have something valuable to share. To overcome this feeling takes a lot of work, but even if you have to fake it ‘till you make it, acting like your work is worthy of your time will get you much farther than making yourself small. If you are doing this in your creative pursuits, you are likely doing it in other aspects of your life. Life is tough, man….and you, like me, probably need to actively pursue loving yourself - but not in the cheesy sense. In the sense that you end up treating yourself the way you want to treat the most cherished person in your life.]
Tip 4: Connect with others
Now that you’ve spent time alone and gathered the right tools for the task, get out there and share the goodness!
At some point, you must expose yourself to other creatives, whether local or online. Find the community that lifts you up, inspires you and welcomes your contributions.
Don’t underestimate small interactions too. People are in desperate need of connection, and art creates a perfect setting to have meaningful discussions.
Set a date to visit a small gallery, and discuss one or two of the displays with the person next to you.. Initiate interactions instead of sticking to the self-guided headphone tour.
Tip 5: Don’t wait for big stretches of time to be creative
It’s easy to say we don’t have the time to dedicate to our craft, and the days just slip away while we get on with life.
But I remind you that we all have choices to make in how we spend our leisure time, including the micro moments throughout the day that present opportunities for creativity. This connects to tip 2, where having a notebook can come in really handy while you wait for the bus, as an example.
Waiting for your doctor’s appointment, during your commute, your break at work, your bedtime routine and many other moments can be great for getting just a little bit further on that thing you’re working on.
Tip 6: Set yourself challenges
So far I’ve spoken about creative activities like they are there to help us relax and unwind, but some of us would benefit from a stronger work-ethic type of approach to creativity.
One of the (very few) things I miss about school and university is the deadlines. I am personally someone that responds well to pressure and having a looming submission is helpful to get me working on something.
Remember: it’s better for something to be done than perfect. So if a deadline motivates you to produce at least the draft version of your work rather than keep pondering it, then try incorporating more deadlines into your plans.
A lot of times, people recommend that big tasks get broken down into smaller tasks. You may find it overwhelming to break something down into a bunch of little tasks to complete by each day/week. Maybe you just resolve to have the whole project done by a certain day. That’s fine too.
As long as you’re not just sitting in uncertainty of “I’ll get to it one day”. Gift yourself a sense of order to the amount of creative pursuits you’re excited about.
In researching for this post, I came across this article by Steven Kotler and I have to say, the concept of non-time that he talks about is fantastic. I have added his book to my wish list but in the meantime I will aim to have enough “time” in my schedule for “non-time”.
Besides deadlines, why not seek out opportunities that push you outside your comfort zone? Local library or group competitions, attending feedback groups, taking a class or even teaching a class could be incredible challenges that lead to even more open doors. The key is in seeking them out, because life doesn’t get handed to any of us on a platter!
I hope this has been helpful in inspiring you to get the creative juices flowing (or in my words, the creative lions pouncing).
I’m curious…which of these tips do you think you need to implement ASAP into your routine? Let me know, and happy creating!
You might also like to read:
Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic.
And a nice follow-up article about it:
“In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!”
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