CreateSmarts: Relax, creativity comes after
Creativity is demanding.
It’s exciting, challenging, and sometimes exhausting. Creative blocks can hit you at any moment.
You still need to meet deadlines. This sometimes means working through the night, or until the early hours of the morning or for an endless amount of hours.
Given this amount of pressure, some of us wipe out.
If you don’t give yourself time away from work, even for a few days you’re most likely to experience a decline in your health and your business. This comes in many forms, and you may not notice them until the worst possible moment.
Reward yourself.
Give yourself a pat on the back every now and again. More so when you’re working on a tight deadline or a large project that’s taking up a lot of time. This could be just taking one day off, with no interaction with work projects.
Take some time for you and explore something you’ve always wanted to do. A show, a film, whatever it is.
Lift. Heavy shit.
As you’ve heard time and time again, exercise is a miracle cure for many things in life.
So, get down to the gym, or lift some weights in the house. Again, find something you enjoy that takes you out of the work environment.
It’s not wasted time.
Those creative blocks we mentioned earlier? Use the time not to get frustrated with how ineffective your creative output is, but use it to hit the reset button. The time away helps, it really does.
Something comes out of nothing. Give yourself nothing time, time to procrastinate, and time to look at things differently.
Leonardo da Vinci took an estimated four years to create the Mona Lisa according to the biographer, Giorgio Vasari. Four years for one painting.
However, four years to create probably the most popular creative works in history.
Embrace negativity. Use it.
Sadly, not every working relationship will be as it should be. Some of us just don’t get along creatively.
It can be a variety of things putting a wall against you and these people. Negativity isn’t good in any environment, and it’s stronger when it comes to your creative work.
Clients will give you feedback that can knock you off your feet. Have faith in your creative convictions and take the feedback like a Marshall stack. It’ll pay off in the long run.
More importantly, use these moments to think clearly about what you’re doing. If this is becoming stressful and causing anxiety, then take a step back and look at the impact of what you’re doing in the world.
At the end of the day.
It’s only work.
Obviously, work has meaning, is meaningful and has causality. For the sake of your health, wellbeing and other relationships, it’s wise to tap into a new part of your internal creative culture.
Relax.
Think internally.
Explore nothing to create more.
