A new perspective on my creative projects
Can I take good pictures of 10 different types of leaves? Can I document a week of sunsets, taking only 10-20 minutes each day for photos? Can I get excited about a little idea, and dive into it?
I’ve learned a lot these past few years. Obviously the coronavirus has made everyone a little more introspective, a little more aware of how they want to live their life, but I feel that changes in my life started one to two years before COVID-19.
For one, I began a journey of creativity after I moved to Washington state with my girlfriend (now wife) Hannah, in 2017. I’m not sure why this happened, but I began to feel more comfortable in my own skin and a desire to make things more often came forward.
I had made YouTube videos before and worked on my own website before, but I believe that I was making these things because I wanted to feel like I had an important mission, that I was going to be helping a lot of people with my content. This was around the period when I was consuming a lot of Tony Robbins content as well, which might indicate why I felt like I had to have this mission.
One thing that did happen before the coronavirus came around was my wife and brother teamed up to get me a DSLR camera for my birthday. This was a huge deal for me, as we were now living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and there was so much I wanted to photograph. So that gift really kicked things into different gears for me.
In the past 4-5 years I’ve worked on 2 different YouTube channels, at least two different Etsy shops (most recently selling handmade sewn goods), tried out portrait photography briefly, worked on my own websites on and off, taken a lot of photos of landscapes and nature, rearranged our apartment furniture about 4 times (Hannah is very patient), and even made a modern wood slat room divider and a shelf desk by hand.
Suffice to say that I’ve tried my hand at a number of different creative outlets and learned a lot.
I’d like to reflect on some of the things I’ve learned about myself and my creativity, and some new perspectives I have adopted.
Months and Years, not Weeks
The first thing I have learned, and the first new perspective that I have adopted, it to look at things in months and years, and not days or weeks.
You see, when I say I want to try out a new hobby for a month and see how successful I can make it (more on this definition of success in a moment) I don’t give myself a realistic and fair amount of time to grow and develop.
Any new creative hobby takes some time to get good at. While we can make tremendous progress in a month, I was being unfair to myself when I expected to be good at something after just a few weeks.
I’d also burn myself out trying to make something perfect immediately. Even though I was new to making videos, when I tried making interior design videos for the first time I took 10-12 hours minimum to make something I considered good. And this was while I was working a full time job. It was very rewarding, but it became exhausting trying to “crank out” videos consistently. Eventually, I got burnt out.
I’m enjoying a new perspective today - namely that I am committing to try out creative endeavors for half a year to a full year. I’m setting very simple goals for myself, but I am absolutely committed to being creative.
With my Etsy shop I’m committed to going a full year with my business, and then evaluating whether I want to continue it or not. I’ve recently had an urge to write more and make more YouTube videos as well, but, knowing that if I overburden myself I will burn out and quit, I’m committing to make 1 video a week for the rest of 2023 and then evaluating how it went later.
This means 1 video of any length and level of difficulty. It could be a 1 minute video. It could be 2-5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Maybe it will be a longer video, but the point is I want to be dropping into this creative mode once a week to publish something. I can help myself stay consistent by doing more talking head videos and expressly not expecting to make beautiful, cinematic documentaries each week.
Making for Me, not Social Media
Admittedly, I’ve struggled with social media. YouTube is my platform, and I consume far too much content.
But the bigger issue for me is that I take comments on YouTube personally. I don’t like to feel at odds with other people - I want people to get along. So when I find people online that seek only to be contrarian or rude (or rather, when they rear their heads - they are always there), it is very frustrating and hurtful to me.
I’ve worried constantly about what others will think of what I make, and yet, I would still like to share my creations. It is a double edged sword that is hard for me to balance; share your creativity, but don’t be invested in peoples’ opinions of your creativity.
(Some might say that we don’t have to share our creativity at all, that we can do it just for us, and this is undoubtedly true. However, making videos is creative, taking photos is creative, writing is creative, and I feel that part of making something is publishing it - it becomes a finished creation.)
But I am not willing to accept this behavior from myself anymore.
I am creating all these different things, jumping around and changing and coming up with new ideas, because I enjoy the creative process.
As much as it would be nice to have people appreciate what I am doing (and to earn some money occassionally for it), ultimately I have learned that I create because it makes me happy.
I am not doing it for the views.
I am not doing it for the likes or comments.
I am not doing it to be paid.
I’m doing it because I feel the most alive when I am making something, and that is a special realization. What I make going forward is for me.
Embracing the Cycle
Personally I’ve always loved learning about my personality through personality tests. I know the shortcomings - these tests do not define you, they do not make or break your life, and people can change - and yet I find them extremely valuable.
According to Myers-Briggs, I am an INFP. An INFP has been called many things (dreamer and healer are two common titles), but generally we are introspective idealists who are very good at mediating and supporting people.
I connect completely with specific definitions of INFPs, and that feels good to me because I feel that I better understand myself.
Creatively it is understood that INFPs and perhaps other introverts with similar profiles work in cycles. Personally I completely connect to this cycle, yet I have never really embraced it consciously. The cycle is as follows:
Inspiration - Something jolts us into a state of wonder, curiosity, or excitement
Creation - We want to make something special, so we get started on a new project
Rest - Our inspiration wanes, we get tired or the novelty wears off, and we stop creating
To be fair most people probably go through this creative cycle (everyone needs rest after all). But for people like me, that rest period might last several days to several weeks.
In the beginning of this blog post I shared all the different hobbies I have tried and returned to. It is clear to me that I have gone through repeated cycles of inspiration, creation, and rest with all of these hobbies. I know this because I have returned to photography months later, I have returned to making videos months later, and I have returned to writing months later.
Additionally, I know that I will return to making handmade things at some point.
My creativity ebbs and flows, and the biggest thing I am trying to embrace today is that fact. I cannot escape that there will be moments when I want to completely shift gears and try something new. As much as I might get frustrated at not being consistent with making something, I must embrace this cycle.
How do I do that?
Well one thing I can do is “go hard” when I am in a creative zone. Make several videos at once, take a ton of photos at once, write a lot at one time. If I am concerned about sharing my work consistently, this flurry of activity will leave me with more than enough content to share over the course of a few weeks at least.
The other thing is to try mini versions of this cycle. Usually my rest period is about 2-3 weeks, before I get inspired to create something else. I could however try getting inspired by something small each week and then create something small in response to that, and then “rest” my creativity for several days or the rest of the week. I don’t have to create big thing all the time.
Finally, I could try embracing this cycle within one hobby specifically. For photography, this might be trying out a different type of photography for a few months, then moving to something else, then something else, and so on - constantly going through the creative cycle within the confined of a fairly broad hobby.
The key with the last idea would be to get inspired by little things within the hobby. Can I take good pictures of 10 different types of leaves? Can I document a week of sunsets, taking only 10-20 minutes each day for photos? Can I get excited about a little idea, and dive into it?
Ultimately this is about embracing my own curiosity about the world and what is possible for me to create.
Summary
In summary, the new perspectives that I am adopting are as follows:
I am embracing the creative cycle of inspiration, creation, and rest
I am creating for me, because I enjoy the process and want to create more
I am committing to try out creative endeavors for half a year to a full year
Ultimately this is about living a life that I want to live, not based on what I feel I should do for others. I know what I enjoy and appreciate, and I want to experience more of that.
There are many other lessons that I’m sure I will learn going forward, and I hope once I have learned them I feel inspired to share them with you.
Thank you for reading! Until next time…