Five Tips to Kick-Start Your Creative Practice

We've all been there.  Whether you're a creative professional or just starting out, as artists we've all been victims of procrastination. We've all thought "this is the year I'm going to write that novel/paint that oil series/compose that symphony..." And then we work full-time, raise families, etc., and years pass without any action, and our creative dreams are still elusive phantoms who come back to nod and prod and poke at us in our sleep.   We procrastinate to the point of no return. And while January 1 may provide some new inspiration for going after our dreams, its hard to come up with a plan that actually works for the long haul.

Everyone is different, but I thought I would share my own working habits and what sparked my effective painting routine after a long time of zero production.  Here are my 5 tips for kick-starting your creative practice:

1.) Be realistic. 

This is a new life, and you're excited (after all you've wanted to do this for years). If you're like me, you are very overzealous with your schedule planning.  "I shall get up at 5am every day and paint before work.  Then I'll come home from my full-time job, and paint until midnight. Then I will paint all weekend long, 12-hours a day..." Yikes.  That's not realistic, and you are likely to last only a few days until exhaustion kicks in. 

When starting out, make the commitment to work 6 days a week on your creative project, with one day off.  That way you have one day to play and rest which tends to bring new inspiration to your work. Why work 6 days? Because repetition is important in forming a new habit.  The more you do it, the more you get in a groove and the more you accomplish.

But don't cry: this doesn't mean giving up other small pleasures in life. What do you love doing on a daily basis? I for one, love binge-watching Netflix at night.  Well, I work on my paintings, and when I'm done, on goes Netflix.  There is no need to deny yourself things you enjoy doing.  You can be creative and still do them with a realistic schedule.

2.) Play to your strengths.

Ok, so I'm going to work 6 days per week, but when should I do the work? This is important, and it can really make or break your success.  Figure out when you have the most energy during 24-hours and work then.  Are you a morning person? Do you wake up at 5am every day ready to tackle the world? Then do your creative work in the morning.  It will then energize the rest of your day.  Are you a night person? Then come home and work at night.  It makes no sense for a night person to plan to work at 4:30am, cause odds are you will press snooze every day, and the plan will fail.  Playing to your strengths is another guarantee you will win.

The famous Mexican-American artist, Jose Cisneros, worked a full-time job during the day for an El Paso bus company, while supporting a wife and five daughters. Knowing he was a night owl, he worked on his illustrations at night after dinner.  He went on to become an award-winning illustrator, was knighted by the king of Spain and the Pope for his contributions to Spanish history through his detailed horse and rider drawings, and even went on to win the Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2005.  But the key here is he played to his strengths.  And he did it daily. 

3.) Measure your daily work in progress, not hours.

Ok, so we've created a realistic schedule, and we know our best time to work.  How long each day should we work? This is another point that is key: do not set a time limit.  Rather, measure success by a small daily progress goal.

For example, "tonight I will write 2 paragraphs in my novel" or "tonight I will finish the eye on my portrait painting." The elation you will feel when you have written those two paragraphs or painted that eye will be ecstatic.  And then you will go about your day/evening with a skip to your step because you have accomplished your goal for the day.  And what if you've exceeded your daily goal? Well then DAMN, you are on fire!!! That's why I have found small goals to be so successful: they are easy to meet and euphoric when surpassed.

I've also found that having a certain time commitment can always create an awful shame spiral when its not met.  For example, say you want to paint one hour per day. But suddenly life gets in the way: you have to work late at your job, your car breaks down or your kid has a sudden need, and you don't have an hour to spare on a given day.  You will beat yourself up for not sticking to the plan and will be more likely to give up altogether. With progress-based goals, you can be like "Well, xxx happened, and I only have time to paint one flower in my landscape painting. But that one flower is gonna be awesome and gorgeous and lovely!" I've literally done this, and it so works.  Because then you can continue to make progress and stay in your groove, no matter what life throws at you. I had a horrible cold back in January and was feeling so rotten, all I could accomplish for a week was literally 1 small flower in my painting per day.  But I did it, and made progress on those 5 minutes per day. And I had a great sense of accomplishment.

4) Remember you are only breaking an old habit. 

You are in the habit of not working on your creative project, and you simply need to get in a new routine.  For me that realization was key as I was in a guilt shame spiral about not working on my art.  Realizing its not a personal issue (you are not a failure!), and that I was only in the habit of doing nothing released me from guilt and gave me a new perspective to look at producing art from.  We can all learn new routines.  Statistics say that the first 30 days are the most challenging when sticking with a new routine, but after that it gets substantially easier. In fact, around the 60 day mark, the new habit tends to become automatic.

5) Celebrate each victory.

You only wrote two measures of your song today, but damn, that octave change ROCKS!! Celebrate your victories daily no matter how small.  Be proud of yourself.  Think of your creative project that was only an IDEA a day, a week, a year ago, and wow, you did it.  It's becoming a reality.  And you know what? Your love and creativity will snowball.  The momentum will build to where you are thinking about it constantly, and what was once a force of monumental strength to make yourself work ten minutes becomes an effortless four hours.  The work will have a life of its own that will propel you to new heights you never thought you'd ever scale.  And then suddenly, it will be complete, that secret love you wanted to create for years.  You will be there standing in the room looking at the body of work you painted; that novel that is stacked and finished on your desk; that aria you wrote and just played start to finish on your piano. And that is a great thing.