Establishing a Creative Practice
Today, we are going to be diving into the topic of developing a creative practice. I want to tell you why this is such a powerful foundation for anybody that wants to thrive as a creative person, what it really takes to develop a creative practice, and how to go from idea to actually getting creativity into your daily routine.
So grab your drink. Get cozy and let's get started!
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Why do you need to establish a creative practice
First, let’s chat about some reasons why establishing a creative practice is a good idea.
It reduces the amount of decisions you have to make. If you’re like me, you’re making a bunch of decisions on a daily basis, whether it's about what you’re going to eat, wear, accomplish, see, you know what this is like. You don’t want to leave creativity up to chance. Creating a dedicated time to work on your creativity helps you to get it done without having to think too hard about it. This is so important when you’re low energy and neurodivergent.
Creating regularly becomes a habit that you look forward to. Similar to the first point, when you create regularly, it becomes a habit. You’ll know where, when, and what you’re supposed to be doing at any given time. Hopefully, you’ll even start to enjoy it so much that you’ll look forward to it. And, honestly, this is the goal. The more that this happens, the more likely you are to show up to practice your creativity.
It’s easier to see progress and growth. When you create often, you can pick up on the things you like and don’t like to create, as well as things that you’re curious about and want to explore further. And, honestly, this is one of my favorite things about practicing creativity. Creating not only helps you to grow as a creative but also as a human being. Creating allows you to develop and know yourself better. If you’re intentional with your practice, you can gain more than just technical skills. Creating becomes a ritual and a place to be our true selves and explore our inner world.
You bring fun and play into your everyday life. Let's face it, adulting comes with a lot of responsibilities, and it’s so easy to get caught up and forget to relax, have fun, and just play. For adults, creativity is how we play, but it requires us to loosen up, let go, and stop worrying about the daily grind. That’s why I love using therapeutic art with clients. It helps us unwind, gives us permission to make "ugly" art (which so many of us fear), and encourages us to embrace mistakes on purpose. Creating a safe, judgment-free space to play is so important. Because this nurtures not just our creativity, but also our spirit as humans.
What should your creative routine include
Next, let's talk about some of the things that your creative practice should include.
A clear and meaningful intention for you. Be very intentional with your time and get clear about your why. Why do you want to be more creative? There's nothing worse than waiting until the last minute to figure this out. This is a recipe for disaster and it will leave you feeling creatively blocked, losing momentum, and feeling uninspired. So, think about what you want to achieve before you have to sit down to do it. I really want to emphasize that this has to be meaningful to you! It doesn't matter what other people are saying out there. Focus on what feels meaningful to you. For example: Sometimes, I just want to have fun, I really don't care about getting better in terms of skill. I just want to create to support my own mental wellbeing and this helps me to put less pressure on myself. At the end of the day, these are things that we are doing for ourselves. No one is forcing us to do it. So, why make it hard on yourself? You don’t have to punish yourself by doing something that you don't like doing.
A simple and personalized way to track your progress and success.
Personalizing everything that you do is essential in your journey as a creative person. In other words, you have to do what works for you. We have to stop listening to what external voices say should work for us. This will keep us from internalizing feelings of failure when things don’t work out and it allows us to try something else instead. So, find a simple way to track your progress and define your own version of success. Don’t give away your creative power. After all this is what being creative is all about. Doing what interests you and sharing your unique creative expression with the world. Listen to your inner voice.
A place to record any reflections and/or discoveries. In my experience making time to reflect on your creative process is extremely helpful and insightful. I personally like journaling but if you’re an external processor you might want to try doing voice memos on your phone. Just make sure you keep them organized by labeling them for easy future reference. But in all honesty, I just recently started to implement this in my own creative practice. And, I regret not having started earlier (which is why I’m telling you about this now). But writing down your observations helps you to not only to note areas you can improve on but also things you’re already doing well. Also, noticing the baby steps we are taking towards our creative dreams is really satisfying and can help to manage the need for instant gratification.
Three ways to start integrating creativity in your daily routine
Now that we are clear on reasons why you should build a creative practice and some of the key elements you should include in your creative practice. Let's go over three ways that you can start to integrate creativity into your daily routine.
Prioritize it. There is no other way to say it. We have to carve out time to work on our creativity. There are always going to be many things asking for our attention. But we have to make time for our relationship with our creativity. For example, when I started my podcast, I had to take a step back from doing other things. I knew I had to focus on this new project and it wasn’t surprising when I had to spend the time for this to become part of my new routine.
Pick your creative medium in advance. As I mentioned earlier, it’s important that you reduce the amount of decisions you have to make before you work on your creativity. To put this into practice, decide what medium you’ll be working in ahead of time. Otherwise, you’ll waste a lot of creative energy trying to figure this out instead of putting it into your creative work. So, make a choice and go with it.
Protect your creative time. Let folks around you know that you are going to be busy working on your creativity. This helps to avoid interruptions, frustrations, and helps to set expectations of how available you’ll be for others. There's nothing worse than being in the middle of your project and having to pull away because someone needs you, especially when this time was supposed to be for you. Also, if you notice you’re constantly coming up with excuses for avoiding your creative practice, you might be sabotaging yourself and undermining your plans out of fear. So pay attention!
Bonus tip, start small. Remember that routines/habits take time to develop. So, don't expect to be able to do this right away. I know we hear all this all the time but it’s true. We really need to break things down to the smallest action step possible (baby steps). This helps us to let go of the pressure we put on ourselves to be amazing in the beginning. Make it impossible for you to fail. So, what is the smallest thing that you can do to get started?
Maybe this means simply starting by putting time on the calendar and figuring out what day works best for you to do your creative stuff. Or maybe it’s about setting a time limit that feels realistic like 10 or 15 minutes to work on things to avoid getting bored or overwhelmed. For example, one of my favorite things to do is set a short time limit to trick my brain into doing something I don’t want to do. Then, once I’m into it I can do it for longer if I want to.
Again, the goal is to avoid internalizing failure and telling yourself you can’t do something. When you make it easy to practice, you are helping yourself to experience small wins and excitement which helps us to feel motivated to keep showing up over and over.
Let’s recap
Today, we talked about:
Why you need to establish a creative routine
Key ingredients you should include in your creative routine; and
Three ideas to help you kickstart your creative practice/habit
In short, establishing a creative practice ensures that you create regularly without having to think too hard about it. Once this becomes a habit, you start to look forward to doing it and hopefully miss it when you don’t. This is how creativity goes from being a random thing you do when you feel like it into an intentional ritual for your self-care, growth, and wellbeing.
Renata is a creativity coach empowering neurodivergent and multi-passionate women of color creatives to overcome creative blocks with therapeutic art making and strategic planning so they can create with ease and achieve their creative goals. She’s currently offering a free copy of her therapeutic art making workbook when you sign up for her email list. Sign up here to get your free copy.
