STRUGGLING WITH CREATIVITY?

Many people struggle with creativity just like myself and along the line, they start to question themselves and also feel like they do not have that inborn talent. Five days ago, I wanted to write an article but I couldn’t because I was struggling with writer’s block I tried to pen down some thoughts or ideas I had but none was forthcoming. My brain was blank. I felt so angry with myself and I told myself in quotes, ‘Cassandra, you are not creative’. Those words I said to myself weren’t helpful at all, instead, they made it all worse. I had a heartfelt talk with a fellow creative and he was able to help me with some tips he employs when he feels uninspired or has run out of ideas.

When you feel uninspired working on a project or task, don’t force it. Just take a step back and do something else. It’s another reason I always advocate everyone having many things to fill their time with.  For instance, if you are working on a music project and along the line, you feel uninspired, you can either turn to content creation or any other creative niche you do maybe arts, and do that for a while. This surely will help to bring on a new spark of creativity in you which you can later translate into the music project that you were doing but were not inspired to complete and this hack works like magic every single time.

Creativity does not have to be painful. In fact, it should be as effortless as possible. Depression and anxiety are not badges of honor to be worn proudly around your neck simply because you are creative.

Some people call it “being in the zone”, others call it “flow state”. We’ve all experienced it in our creative endeavors, that state where you almost feel like a god, where you’re both enjoying what you are creating while making some of your best work.  Now, I am not saying that all of your work must only be done in this state, of course, you can achieve great things even under duress, but if you find yourself slipping too far to the other end, take a step back, do something else, for a while then come back to your creative work and “kick ass” like you always do.

So, before you get the tips on how to avoid struggling with your creative side, you have to be able to identify the problems or bad habits that are preventing your creative side from conquering the day.

1.  Fear Of Being Identified As A Failure: 

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” – Winston Churchill. Mistakes help to increase our success rates and you shouldn’t let those mistakes stop you from taking more chances because two or more of those chances guarantee success.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or fail at a project because most times in your quest to avoid mistakes or failures, you end up also avoiding success.

2.  Lack Of Confidence:

Lack of confidence is a problem for most creatives because they tend to have Imposter Syndrome, i.e. having a bad feeling that you think you’re unqualified or incompetent. Even in areas you excellently excel in, you consistently experience self-doubt and have a lack of confidence about your ideas not being as good as the next person’s own or you not being as talented as other creatives in your niche. Do not let a lack of confidence hold you back or stop you from pursuing your goals. Keep going and refuse to be stopped.

3.  Discouragement:

Discouragement is the opposite of feeling encouraged and inspired as a creative and how you handle discouragements can affect your ability to take on new projects and deliver. Discouragement is what makes the highs and lows of our human life. Discouragement only comes after you have failed at a task and to overcome this, you should see the failing as a learning process and not something bad that defines us.

4.  Perfectionist Syndrome:

Being a perfectionist is not a problem as it is the driving force behind our creativity.

Perfectionism can be defined as a personality trait that is characterized by a tendency to set extremely rigid, ‘perfect’, and high goals, and these place excessive demands on oneself.  Perfectionism can cause you to have anxiety and depression problems and it also makes you feel an overwhelming sense of failure because you tend to beat yourself up for every tiny mistake you make and when you make such a mistake, you tend to think constantly of those mistakes or ‘failures’.

Having identified some major reasons why you are struggling with creativity, here are some pointers or tricks for boosting your creative side:

• Surround yourself with other creatives like yourself who are your inspiration and maybe creative objects.
• Creativity requires devoted efforts and time so create time for creativity.
• Learn from your mistakes and failures and do not see that as the end of the road but instead as an ‘Education’.
• Always be open to receiving constructive criticism from fellow creatives or friends. Do not view them as attacks but instead write them down and study them.
• Take risks. Being creative is all about taking risks and trying out new tasks, ideas, and techniques. Do not always remain in your comfort zone.
• Jot down your ideas when you come up with any. Remember it doesn’t have to be a perfect one because you can always come back to the paper to review and expantiate on the ideas.
• Take a break. Do not underestimate the power of what a break can do. When you are feeling uninspired or the ideas aren’t flowing in, take a break like going for a walk, you can go to the park and look at nature or sit out with friends. While taking those breaks, ideas tend to come in, and again, you feel renewed when you get back to work.
• Try out another creative activity. In the second paragraph at the beginning of this topic, I made mention of this. If you are involved in more than one creative job, you can switch to the next one and take a break from the other. That can also help to inspire and motivate you.
• Implementing a gentle workout routine in your day like taking the stairs instead of an elevator or taking walks down the street can help you see things from a different perspective which is what makes one a good creative.

The bottom line

Don’t force the process, slowly ease yourself into that flow state.