Let’s face it: it can be really tough at times to get yourself to make art, even if you love to do it.
Work, school, and other responsibilities get in the way. You get home at the end of a long day and you’re exhausted— the last thing you even want to think about is testing your mind, body and soul on the front lines of the war of art.
I’ve been there. After graduating with a BFA in graphic design and joining the creative workforce, I found, to my horror, that I wasn’t making any progress on my own personal projects. I’d often start on new ideas, but at the first sign of resistance I’d often jump ship. I’d reason with myself that it was too much of a time investment, deciding that I’d get back to it later. But I never did, and my creativity and skill level stagnated as a result.
If you feel like you’re broken for not being able to coax yourself into doing something you’d really love to do, this article is especially for you.
The following 5 tips helped me to get out of my own creative rut and back into making the things I really care about.
1. Be clear about what you want to accomplish and why.
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.“
– Michelangelo
What do you aspire to? Do you want to be admired for your refined skill and craft? Do you want to be well-known, or to make money by selling paintings? Do you have a story to tell or a cause to promote? Or have you simply always wanted to complete a certain kind of ambitious project just for the pride of saying you did something that most will not?
Many would-be artists step up to the plate knowing only that they want to make something, anything. Without a clear direction in mind they may dabble in a technique or medium here and there but not make real progress toward what they truly want.
Making art isn’t always easy. Knowing what you want and why you want it will help you to persevere when times get tough.
It will also keep you focused so you can spend more time on the aspects of your art that really matter the most to you.
Know what your prize is and keep your eyes fixed on it. Often times, a lack of motivation is simply a lack of vision.
2. Know your daily task
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
– Pablo Picasso
Achieving goals of any kind takes consistent work. As is the case with anything that truly matters, if you don’t make your art nobody else can do it for you.
Progress happens day by day, as long as you are working on a daily basis.
What action, if performed every single day, will eventually result in you arriving at your destination?
A clear, concrete daily task is far easier to commit to than a vague idea of what you “should” do.
3. Start small
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
-Vincent Van Gogh
You may not feel as though you have enough time to do anything meaningful. You may hesitate to get started, reasoning that you’ll be able to make art later on when you have more spare time.
But extra time seems to never come.
Here’s a secret: you don’t need oodles of free time to make art. You don’t even need an hour a day.
Set aside 15 minutes if that’s all the time you can consistently commit to.
You may be surprised how quickly just a little every day adds up. Start now even if you need to start really small.
4. Abandon toxic mindsets
“Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.” – Bob Ross
Making art can get difficult enough even without a saboteur trying to foil your every attempt.
Unfortunately, if you’re human, you likely have absorbed a few mindsets and beliefs about yourself, other people, and creativity in general which do just this.
If those destructive mindsets remain unchecked, your ability to actually follow through and create art will never reach its peak.
Spend some time every so often identifying and challenging the beliefs you hold about yourself which prevent you from making the life you want.
Filter the poison out of your Creative well.
5. Rely on habits
“Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.”
-Twyla Tharp
Motivation itself is like riding a wild beast. It’ll move you toward your destination if you hop on for a ride, but it’s nearly impossible to control. It’s elusive; it shows up late to the party if it comes at all and it has a way of heading out early without warning when you need it most.
Motivation is a friend for sure, but it’s a flaky one.
Habits, on the other hand, are solid, constant and reliable, and they can be custom-built to suit your own needs.
You already have a bunch of habits in your life that determine many of the things you do. They often run automatically behind the scenes, difficult to even notice.
The act of creating art everyday can become an automatic process just like the rest of the habits you already have.
No need to spend precious energy chasing motivation. Spend time building helping habits instead.
Ready to make progress?
Practicing these tips helped me gain more momentum in my own creative projects than I had seen in years.
They also helped me stick with one project at a time rather than bouncing from thing to thing, leaving each of them unfinished.
If you’re ready to commit to a concrete set of actions that will help you get more firmly set on the track toward your wildest dreams, check out my free 5-day productivity course for artists, Creative Basecamp. Its week worth of audiovisual instruction and clearly defined action steps will get you out of your creative rut and bring back some of the passion for your craft that you may have lost.
The course covers planning, goal setting, mindset “reprogramming,” habit formation, and more. It’s super easy to sign up and you can get it here.
I look forward to seeing you there, and can’t wait to see the awesome things you’ll create.
