The Doldrums of Creativity
Every once in a while, your ship will sail right into the dreaded Doldrums of Creativity. Have you been there recently? What I’ve found in my life is that usually when I am in the Doldrums of Creativity, it’s not that I don’t have ideas, it’s that I don’t have faith in my ideas. It’s not that ideas aren’t flowing, it’s that in some ways I’m holding myself back from creating them.
Allow me to give you some encouragement today. Perhaps a gust of wind will come along while you are reading and push you back into the direction you want to go.
Here are three short lessons on creativity:
1) Your creative work is a service to humanity
What’s your favorite song right now? Imagine if it was never released into the world. Wouldn’t that be a tragedy?
Sometimes we get caught in deceptive thinking that wanting to do what we are passionate about is selfish.
But let’s think about this. Nearly everything in your life is people’s creative work — the music in your ears, the chair you’re sitting on, the architecture of the building you’re in, your favorite city park.
You benefit from other people’s creativity every single day.
What if the artist who wrote your favorite song just kept it to themselves because they didn’t want to be selfish by putting their work into the world? It would actually be more selfish of the artist to not share it with the world.
Your creative work is a service to humanity. You are not selfish for wanting to create.
2) Listen to the whisper
Every once in a while, you get this little glimmer of an idea, a little whisper of a desire to try something out of the ordinary. Follow that whisper. Those ideas feed your soul in magically refreshing ways.
Here’s the thing, creativity often moves on a different wave length than ordinary work. Ordinary work says we should put our nose to the grindstone a specific number of hours a day. But creativity likes to fight against that.
It is a bit like the French Resistance in WWII. It shows up in unexpected places. It invites you in a gentle voice to blow up a supply train of the normality of your day. It will say, “wouldn’t it be delightful if you made a tiny art project and displayed it below the staircase?”
It’s up to you to recognize the difference between when you are being too easily distracted from work you need to get done, and when you are being invited on a path of delightful creativity. Use your intuition as best you can to tell the difference, and don’t beat yourself up when you get it wrong.
3) You are an aquifer
One time in college I had a paper due on invasive plant species. It was midnight and the paper was due at 10am. The printer finally laid its ink on the final draft and I snapped the staple through the pages at 5am.
To my amazement, when Dr. Bernards returned the graded paper he said, “this was an excellently written paper. Good job on this.” After I graduated he wrote and asked if he could use some of my writing as examples of what he was looking for in the assignments for future students.
The whole thing was a lesson to me. Actually, pretty much every time I’m forced to write anything it’s a lesson. This is what I learn:
Sometimes creativity comes to you in the soft whisper of intuition, and that’s amazing. But on any given day, there is a well of creative liquid gold in you. You normally don’t tap into it because it’s a lot of work to drill down into the aquifer. But believe me, it’s down there. All the geological surveys say you are a sure place to drill for creative gold.
I’m thankful whenever I’m forced to create because it causes me to drill deeply. I create things I never would have known I could create.
If you are struggling with coming up with creative ideas, or thinking your ideas are good enough, take heart. Your ideas are good. You have more to give than you could ever imagine.
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14 Comments
Lori Hazelip
Thank you for your blog, every article is a word of encouragement.
Sarah Kirsten
Thank you for reading, Lori!
Teresa Grall
I really needed this today. Thank you!
Sarah Kirsten
Hello Teresa, so glad this was encouraging. Thanks for writing in. Hope you’re having some sweet moments with creating this week.
LAURA OVERTURF
Sarah,
Your insight is just the ticket for me today. I’ve been planning ahead, collecting materials and then struggling to get started then avoiding the next step much less complete anything. My work areas are in disarray and my energy tanks. Thank you so much for the wise words of encouragement. I’m gonna clear my brain and my space and begin small. Mighty trees from mighty acorns grow 🙂
Sarah Kirsten
Hi Laura, my goodness what a powerful reminder about the acorn. It’s so true. One little step at a time adds up to big, strong things. This makes me think about cycling. Sometimes at the beginning of a long ride I think about how slow it’s going and how long it will take. But then pretty soon, you’re half done, then three quarters done, then nine tenths done — all by one pedal push after another. Little things really do add up.
Kate Godfrey
The aquifer metaphor is a strong reminder. Thank you for that image, Sarah.! I am finding that my skills take a big leap when I work through challenges on a deadline. You are so right!
Sarah Kirsten
Hi Kate, isn’t that so interesting? Deadlines are wonderful teachers. Perhaps we need more of them in life, but not tooooo many 🙂
Trish Seifert
Wow. This is exactly what I needed to read this morning. I’ve been avoiding my studio of late because I feel all dried up creatively. Sounds like I just need to start drilling, start that quilt, make some marks on a fresh sheet of watercolor paper. I’m encouraged. Thank you.
Sarah Kirsten
Hi Trish, so glad this was encouraging. I’m imagining what wonderful things you are creating this week.
Mea Cadwell
It IS true – what if that songwriter didn’t share his song with the world. I never thought of it that way.
I’d always thought that my creativity ebbed and flowed just like an ordinary spring of water, we need to give our creativity a rest just like we do anything else. It always comes back refreshed although sometimes I have to ‘force’ myself back into it – whetting my appetite for sewing, by making a Q.D. (pronounced ‘Cutie’)
Q.D. is short for ‘Quick and Dirty’, or a sewing project that takes no thought and has no pattern, you’re just doing it. Sometimes it turns out great, sometimes not, but I alsways learn from making them and that tends to get me going again.
Sarah Kirsten
Hi Mea, I absolutely LOVE the idea of a Q.D. It’s brilliant! And I bet you come up with some really fun ideas to try out. Thanks for passing this on.
Joy Kendall
Sarah, thank you for the encouragement you’ve given here. It’s just lovely! Liquid gold, a whisper—I’ll take that!
Sarah Kirsten
Hello Joy, so glad there are some nuggets that resonate with you. Thanks for sharing.