After a couple of months of hardly any creativity, I am SO ready to start creating all the time again! Here is a list of 20 things I scribbled down one day to get me there!
- There are no rules. I can do whatever I want. Whenever I want. However I want.
- Fuck perfection. Trying to make something perfect is so stifling to creativity!
- Surround yourself with inspiration. I am working on a digital collection of all sorts of things that inspire me. My phone is always with me, and inspiration is just one click away.
- Declutter. Can’t create surrounded by junk (unless the junk is scraps of paper for #9)
- Learn a new skill. This is where Creative Bug and YouTube come in!
- Don’t limit the definition. Cooking a new meal from scratch and adding ingredients that want to be added is creativity too!
- Set out your tools. I am turning my desk into a creative haven, where every tool I might need to create is an arms-length away.
- Make time. An essential one. Can’t create if I keep myself busy with something else.
- Art journal. My art journal is my safe space, where I can experiment with my wild ideas and silly notions.
- Play. There’s no creativity without play for me. Play is letting go of everything, staying in the moment and creating whatever I can think of.
- When in doubt, collage! I sometimes can sit and stare at an empty page and not think of anything. That’s when I need to grab my stack of collage papers, a glue stick and have a party 🙂
- Limit your options. I always used to have a bag full of creative stuff that I hauled around the house. Now I only have a sketch book, 3 pens and a tiny watercolour set with me at all times. It’s way more than I need!
- New toys. Fits with #5 🙂 Playing with something new, even if it is a dirt cheap new watercolour palette is all I need to kickstart my creativity at times.
- Make an altar. I am slowly but surely collecting stuff for a creative altar in my office, filled with inspirations, quotes to hang on the wall over it, tiny lights. It will be bright and colourful by the time I am done 🙂
- Always dance. Even if walking and standing is hard, you can still dance sitting in the chair, nothing like dancing to bring up the positive energy.
- List your fears. When fears get to hang around in your head, they can spook you at any time. When you make a list of all things you fear related to your creativity, you are golden!
- Keep an idea notebook. I always have something to write on and a writing instrument with me. Also, my phone. Whenever an idea strikes, I grab either of them, and scribble scribble scribble. You never know where the idea takes you!
- Limit distractions. I had to take a good hard look at what I do when I procrastinate. It ain’t pretty 🙂 Getting rid of those distractions is key!
- Don’t compare. If I start to think that someone’s art is better than mine, I stop creating. Get inspired, but stop comparing!
- Have fun. When I wrote this list, I had a huge smile on my face, drawing out everything. That smile is all I need to keep creating 🙂