A friend of mine recently asked me how I keep my creative momentum going. In other words – how am I so consistently productive and creative?

My answer was – I’m not.

The truth is, I have long stretches of not feeling at all inspired. Especially when it comes to music. Unlike more serious musicians, I can go months without touching my piano. Unless I have a specific goal or project in mind, I often severely lack motivation.

However, what I’ve learned over the years is that if I accept without self-blame or judgement, that the mysterious inspirational forces naturally ebb and flow, the flow comes more often and the ebbs don’t last as long. What I’ve also noticed is that even when I’m not actively working on a project I’m usually either in input mode (having experiences or appreciating other people’s work) or my energy is going elsewhere. So, the process never really stops. It’s like respiration… inhale, exhale, repeat.

I have to admit that for the past month or so I’ve been feeling totally uninspired. But then, I did relocated my entire life and start a new job. If I look at it closely I can see that all my creative verve has gone into my new classes, and picking out furniture/arranging my new place. I did start working on a new song, and a few hours later got frustrated with my lack of guitar abilities and stopped. So, yes, I’m a quitter. It may well be why I’m not a super successful artist… haha. Nevertheless, being a creative soul isn’t about making money off your talents, art is for the sake of art after all. At least this is what I tell myself!

The issue of motivation is something I’ve contemplated quite a lot over the years. There’ve been times when I’ve felt downright self-loathing because of my own lack of drive, and I always wanted to know just why I didn’t have the determination that other people seemed to have. Therein lay half the problem – I was comparing myself to others.

There is this fantastic TED talk called “The art of being yourself” in which Caroline McHugh points out that the greatest people on this planet have one thing in common, and that is they are 100% themselves. They wouldn’t even think of comparing themselves to others. Our planet’s most brilliant creatives have an inner confidence that goes far beyond caring about judgement. They have found what makes them truly unique, and uniqueness is entirely something which, by the very nature of it, cannot be compared.

Be Yourself

If anyone out there is struggling with their own lack of impetus/productivity, as I often have, the first thing I’d suggest is to stop comparing yourself to others. Contemplate what it is that makes you unique instead. And maybe that is something which has nothing to do with being an artist. Maybe it’s your family, or compassion, or your sense of humour. What makes you distinct is the precise combination of everything about you, and when you embrace and love everything about yourself, your confidence will grow and you will shine! No doubt it is these aspects of your uniqueness which feed into your art and make it unique too.

Forgive Yourself

One thing I know for sure is that beating yourself up for your own mistakes and shortfalls never helps. Lack of action results in lack of achievement, which is in itself punishment enough. Why add to it by hating yourself for said lack of action. You’ll only end up spiralling into a pit of despair, which, lets face it, is your ego’s playground. Instead, be proud of the things you HAVE done and cut yourself a break for not doing everything. At the same time, guilt happens for a reason… SO

Channel Negative Feelings into Art

That includes feeling guilty about not creating. Feeling guilty happens because we know deep down that we aren’t in alignment with our own values – whether that means you did something harmful to someone else, or to yourself. It’s like a little kick in the butt to let you know something needs to change. Sometimes when I’m feeling bad for letting myself down, I force myself to create. For some people this quickly turns into genuine inspiration. For me it usually turns into frustration and I’m only able to work for an hour or less. However, I always feel better knowing I at least did something. And whether the results were amazing or not, every little bit is practice and helps to hone our skills.

One of the main reasons for creating for me has always been to cope with my emotions. These days my life is pretty stable and I’m generally content, so it’s rare that I need to create to manage suffering. That said, I obviously do have my challenging days. I mean, I am human… Sometimes when I’m feeling blue I don’t really want to write a song about it. Instead I’ll do something comforting like cooking or binge-watching a tv show. Other times nothing helps more than simply playing my piano for hours. Not only does it give me an outlet for the feelings but I also get to feel good about having done something I consider to be productive…

You Don’t Need a Final Product to Be Productive

One of the things I love about cooking is that you get results. I’m a really creative cook and I love trying out new combinations of flavours and colours. And at the end I get to say “I made that!” and then I get to eat it knowing that it’s full of really good nutrients that make me a stronger, healthier person. It’s such an easy way to get almost immediate gratification from a creative process. Not to mention it’s a kind of self-care, which is self-love. It’s basically win-win-win! When I was younger, making music was quite a similar experience. In my early 20’s I could churn out a completed song in an hour and be so proud of myself.

These days I make music differently. Sometimes I’ll come up with lyrics as I’m walking home from work. A month later I’ll rewrite those lyrics. On another day I’ll just feeling like making sound. Nothing gets recorded, nothing is usually even remembered. The final product might happen two years after I started working on it. And even then I probably won’t be satisfied. So I’ve changed the way I look at everything. Every little bit counts. Even listening to music counts. If I listened to 5 new songs today, listening closely to the tonal textures and chord progressions, then I’ve grown as a songwriter. And that is productive too.

Creativity Feeds Creativity

Many years ago, when I was in a long musical dry spell, someone suggested I take up a different art altogether. I took a class called “painting for process”. This class was essentially art therapy. We painted not to have paintings, but to get into a state of flow and relaxation. It was all about enjoying the process and not worrying about the product. When internal frustrations arose as a result of the art, it was important to consider why you were frustrated and to notice the standards you were holding yourself to. I didn’t particularly care whether or not I was a good artist. I wasn’t trained, so how could I be good at it? I had literally nothing invested. As a result I absolutely loved it. No doubt I’d recaptured those feelings we all have as kids, before we start judging and comparing ourselves. In fact, I got SO into painting that I ended up buying an easel, canvases and a full set of acrylic paints. For the next year I painted like crazy. Then I put all my paintings on display in a local cafe… because, as it happened, I just sort of ended up with a lot of “product”.

Then I went back to making music. I still love painting, but rarely do it these days simply because it’s messy and I’ve got carpet.. haha… But I learned something great: By discovering a new passion, I was able to get inspired in general, and it didn’t take long before my musical dry spell was broken. These days I flip between writing and music and cooking and making materials for my classes. I consider that all these things are keeping my flow flowing.

Being an artist in a world that is all about demand, output and money is challenging. Those things mess with the way we see what we do, and the way we value ourselves. If your skill isn’t marketable or well-paid, sometimes it feels like you’re worth less as a human being. But I’m focused on my own Queendom, and I hope you’re focused on yours too (see above TED for reference). So please, keep creating. The world needs us. We are the dreamers who nurture the sparkle and inner-child in this very adult place.