Creativity Without Practice

#52Essays2017 - Week 21


Creativity without practice is nothing. It does not exist.

I'm learning that as artistic as I've always claimed to be, it is only ego talking. Yes, I used to lay flat on my belly on the floor and sketched for hours. I used to create stories in my head and act them out, maybe even believed them. But the creativity was fed by practice and consistency. Which in turn resulted in more creativity. I wasn't born with more artistic neurons, or a larger right side of my brain. I had discipline with my art. I was clueless about where the daily drive came from, but the discipline was there, and the results were visible. 

The older I get the more trouble I have with discipline in my practice. I want to do it all. My mind wanders and jumps from one idea to another. But ideas are just that, ideas, if not put into action.

I find that I am not alone in this. The more I read on the subject the more I realize we tend to wait around for inspiration, a strike of luck, or for some super natural force to push us to start doing whatever it is we want to do. And when and if we do start, it seems difficult to be consistent with our plans. Whether we want to go back or maintain a routine at the gym, school, leave a dreaded job, or learn a new language. We just wait and push ideas and plans back to an unknown future instead of acting on our desires now.

I believe the first step to bringing discipline and action back into our lives is acknowledging that we are not the exception to the rule. We have to stomp on our egos, pick it back up and throw it as far away from us as possible. Because saying or thinking we are talented or creative, or boasting on all the things we want takes us no where if we do nothing to obtain them. We become stagnant, and the idea only gets farther and farther from our reach.

If I want my creative juices to flow I have to be consistent with my art. I have to show up everyday to a blank page and write. I have to pick up my camera and shoot even if it's from inside my home and the landscape before the lens comes from outside my window.

We have to show up. We have to not only start, but also treat each day as the first and do whatever it is we want to do Every. Single. Day. I guess we can call it karma, whatever we put out we get back. If you create, more creativity will find its way to you. Make it a ritual of just showing up and asking yourself "hey, I'm here again, what's new today?"