How to Trigger Creative Motivation
As a creative, it’s real easy to get burnt out from excessively creating work. We can easily get to the point where we feel we don’t have what it takes to come up with another new idea. It’s like our well has run dry. Having a creative block can trigger lack of motivation, making the problem even worse. So not only do you not have any ideas to pull from but now, you don’t even feel like doing it all.
That’s not a good look but I feel pretty safe in saying that every creative has been here. Every creative has woken up one day or another not driven in the slightest bit to create the next masterpiece. To not sit at their desk. To not turn on their machine. To not step foot into their studio. Every creative has felt like, “Nah, today ain’t it.”
Now, I’d creativity is your hobby, that’s fine. You don’t HAVE to create in days you don’t feel up to it. You can do you. When creativity is your actual livelihood, that’s where things change.
As a fashion designer in my 9-5, I’m expected to show up and be ready to create the next set of designs whether I feel creatively motivated or not. I’m expected to come up with silhouettes, choose fabrications and have an idea of graphic art whenever it’s expected of me. Even if I physically clock in and mentally don’t. Let me tell you though, whether I want to be there or not, the work will get done accordingly. Ya know why? Because I need to stay employed to adult properly. Ya know how? Let’s continue.
When you have to be creative on a regular basis, you develop tools and resources that will help inspire your creativity and get your juices flowing. Similarly, we should all have a few tricks up our sleeves to get us motivated and light fires under our butts to get back producing greatness. Here are a few of mine:
5 Ways to Stay Motivated and Keep Creating
1. Back track
Take a moment and think about what caused your lack of motivation to begin with. When did you start feeling like you didn’t want to show up for yourself, your job or any creativity for that matter. Try to find the root of the problem. Once you identify the specific issue, you can focus your energy on getting past that single issue so it won’t hinder your creativity any more.
The most recent time I didn’t feel like producing any work has been during the current Black Lives Matter protests. I became overwhelmed and drained from seeing all the videos and content posted by others, some positive and some negative. I literally felt like I was in a physical fight when I had simply been scrolling through my timeline. Days passed and I barely felt like getting up out of bed, let alone creating anything.
Turns out, I was feeling too much. I was using too much of my mental energy by scrolling, leaving me unmotivated to basically function through the day. The solution? I unplugged. I erased all the apps off my phone for a week to clear my mind and it worked like a charm.
2. Find your purpose
There’s nothing like a good purpose to keep you going and there’s no difference when you maintain your creative motivation. It’s not just enough to want to create. To want to make things look pretty and aesthetically pleasing. There needs to be something that’s a little bigger than you that has enough influence to keep you going.
The bare minimum of a purpose would probably be livelihood. You depend on whatever you’re creating to maintain a lifestyle that you’re accustomed to. That’s fine but like I mentioned before, I’ve shown up to my 9-5 to do work even though I wasn’t the least bit motivated to do so. We have to come harder than that.
What drives me in my 9-5 is seeing my designs in the store and on the street. Seeing others enjoy my hard work and my creations. That someone emotionally connected with a piece of my work so much that they had to cop it. There’s power in that. What drives me to design under my own name, make videos and create blog posts is representation. I didn’t have anyone like me to watch growing up. Actually that’s a lie. I looked to Kimora Lee Simmons for a while as a design inspiration; her having her own streetwear brand and doing fashion shows, that seemed like the life to me. I want to be that for another girl.
3. Stay Inspired
Sometimes lack of motivation just comes from not having anything to work with. Not having enough ideas to play around with. This one is an easy fix. Find things that inspire you. Find things that will get your creative juices flowing.
I stay looking at pictures. Pictures on Pinterest, pictures in magazines, pictures on instagram, pictures on Google… And when I find them, I save them. I create visual libraries of things that once sparked the slightest of a creative idea. I may go back and look at them but more than likely, I won’t. Why? Because when you’re inspired by a lot and you have all of these creative ideas circling your mind, you can’t help but be motivated to create. Or you’ll just have sleepless nights because your brain is doing overtime and won’t let you sleep.
To stay inspired, I look at different art mediums, like architecture, culture and music. These are my typical go to’s when I’m starting a new project and need a creative push.
4. Break it down
Overwhelm is the devil. It’s not but it can definitely be a creativity blocker. When you have too much on your plate, it’s hard to know where to begin. The only logical answer from there is, don’t begin at all, and that’s where the decrease in motivation comes from. For the record, no, not starting is not the most logical solution but it’s likely to go down that way anyway.
Instead of feeling crippled by all the things you feel you have to do, you can break the project down and simplify it. For example, if you have to sew one complicated design and you’re feeling uber overwhelmed, here’s how to handle it:
Know your timeline. Know exactly what is expected by when. Once you have that, plan your attack.
Know the steps. What is everything you’ll need to do to get to the finish line. With the example at hand, you’ll need to gather trend inspo, come up with your design, purchase fabrics and notions, pattern, cut and sew it all together. With your timeline in hand, write out a mini deadline for each step. When does each step need to be completed by that will keep you on track for your overall deadline.
Make the commitment and follow through. I’m guilty of not doing this on several occasions but I’m here to teach you to be better than me. It’ll only cause more overwhelm since you’ll now start to think you’re late and back up and won’t have enough time to finish the design.
5. Don’t pressure Yourself
If overwhelm is the devil, self doubt is a bish. Self doubt will have you believing things that aren’t even close to being true. You’ll second guess yourself to the point where you question why you should even bother in the first place. What’s the point of doing the creative thing because I won’t be able to execute XYZ like I want it or I don’t even know how to do that so there’s no point in trying. Both these thoughts are a no go when you’re trying to stay creatively motivated.
Instead of focusing on the negative, think about the positives. Think about what you’ve already accomplished and celebrate those wins. I’m not going to lie, I always forget about the projects I’ve created in the past and I think that I won’t be able to do the same things today. For example, I created bridesmaid gowns for my best friends wedding almost a decade ago. Now, I’m considering doing custom prom gowns and my self doubt sounds like, “I’ve never created a gown. I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s going to be a mess” and the like. It wasn’t until I was scrolling through old photos, weeks later, where I was reminded of what I had done. Try not to be your own worse enemy.
Bonus:
6. Discipline
So I’m going to stir the pot a little here. I know the post title says how to stay motivated and what not but if we’re truly being honest, you can’t sustain motivation. Sometimes you’ll be motivated to do things and other times you won’t be. Such is life. But where motivation falls short, that’s where discipline comes in. On days when you have no motivation to show up for yourself, discipline says you show up anyway, whether you want to or not. Still being honest, discipline isn’t easy. Discipline is a muscle. You regularly work at it and pressing it so it’ll get stronger. It’s something I myself am continuing to work on as I continue on my purpose.
There you have it. I’ve shared 5 ways to stay creatively motivated, given you 3 steps to break down your tasks and 1 bonus that shared the secret sauce for you to continue to create when your motivation is down. Share with me, how do you feel about this? Do you struggle with creative motivation? If yes, how do you handle it?
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