But I'm just not Inspired....

(Photo by Gustavo Leighton on Unsplash)

What you think creative life will be: You wake up in the morning brimming with ideas. You can barely make it through your coffee before you’re compelled to start your creative process.  The juices are flowing so fast that you can barely keep up.  You work with no interruptions or distractions all day and into the night.  Then you finally retire with a deep sense of satisfaction, knowing the day was not wasted.  You’re excited to do it all again tomorrow.

How it really happens: You wake up and consider rolling back over.  When it’s time to get to work inspiration is no where to be found.  You decide it’s not worth it anyway, so you distract yourself with chores and mindless scrolling.  Finally when time’s almost up you throw something together. But you feel intensely insecure about it.   And you go off to bed worried that you’re wasting your time.    

Does that sound right to you?

WAITING FOR INSPIRATION

A lot of creatives wait for the burst of inspiration before they start a project.  They say: when it feels right, it will be time to write the book.  I don’t feel like finishing that painting today - I can do it tomorrow.  Or I just have no juice for it today, I’ll blow it off.

It would be great if inspiration were reliable and on-demand like Netflix.  Then you could be hit with a compelling idea at exactly the right moment, and roll with it through the next creative session.  

But that’s not how it works.  Instead, inspiration is rather elusive.  It’s there sometimes, but not all the time.  And it tends to show up in moments when you can’t do much  with it. 

That’s how inspiration works.  It’s unpredictable. If you sit around waiting for it to show up before you make anything you’ll be waiting until your life runs out.  

START ANYWAY

Instead, start before you feel inspired.  

Get out the paints even if you don’t feel like it.  Sit for meditation or get on your yoga mat even when you’d rather watch Netflix.  Or pick up the knitting needles without a plan.  

Easier said than done, I know. The key is to START.  Once you get started you shift.  When you get to work, inspiration gets interested.  It starts leaning over your shoulder.  And eventually it whispers ideas in your ear and you enter the dance of your creative expression.

Not all the time of course.  Sometimes inspiration still doesn’t show. In those times, if you keep at the work, you still build a habit of creating often.  And being in your own creative groove helps inspiration come closer the next time.   

FEED THE DOG

This plays out for me in a silly way almost every night.  I am the family cook in my house.  So I have made dinner almost every single night for the past nine months during this pandemic (and many nights of the prior 15 years of my marriage).  

In general I enjoy cooking and think of it as a creative experience.  And I really love it on the nights when I feel inspired by what I’m making.  But, honestly, I don’t always feel super inspired when it’s time to make dinner.  I’m tired.  I’m bored of the same foods. And really I’d rather sit on the couch.

But, dinner needs to be made.  So.  I go and I start, whether I’m inspired or not.

On the nights when I really can’t seem to come up with an idea, I start at the easiest place - I FEED THE DOG.  I fill the bowl with dog food and put it on the floor.  That’s it.  Something about that very simple act gets the dinner ball rolling.

Dinner might not be stellar, but it gets made.  We all eat. And that makes it easier for me feel inspired the next time.  

MAKE IT EASIER TO START

You can make it easier to start by building a starting ritual around your creativity.  

• Choose something simple to do that will be the lead up to your creative time.

  You could:

  light a candle

  read a poem

  play a song and dance to it

  shut the door to your creative space and take 3 deep breaths

• Do it every single time before you start creating. 

Choose something super simple (like feeding the dog) and do it every time before you start your creative time.  The repetition signals your brain that it’s time to step into creativity - even if you don’t feel inspired to do it.  The more you do your ritual, the more you build the groove of creating, no matter your mood.

GET STARTED

Inspiration sounds like a great thing, and yes it feels wonderful.  But if you want to truly build creativity into your life it will take committing to it whether inspiration is there or not.    Using a ritual to help you start before you feel like it could be exactly what you need to help you stay committed to your creativity.