Creating Begets Creating

Just a little pastel drawing that wanted to emerge when I brainstormed this blog post.

Do you ever find that when you create, you feel energy to create more?

I certainly do. However, I frequently leave my artistic endeavors until I accomplish everything else I "need" to do. I dispatch all of my more mundane "have to's" before picking up a pen to write or a pencil to draw.

Why do I do this? For some reason, I feel that my writing and my painting are play. They are! And as I was raised and our performance-based culture preaches, work comes before play. We must complete our chores and errands before indulging in the pleasure of playing with color or words.

I need to shift this mentality. If I want to make a living from my creativity, I need to prioritize it. Art and writing are my work! That alone is enough reason to leave dishes in the sink (oh, there are so many reasons to leave dishes in the sink!).

And here's another more hidden yet more important reason: creating gives me energy to do more of everything else. When I spend time writing a blog post or sketching ideas for an art journal page, I then feel energized to tackle the details surrounding my son's upcoming graduation or the pile of unfolded laundry. Not only do I feel sparked to address those to-do list items, I approach those tasks with more joy, energy, and imagination because I already have creative juices flowing.

Creating begets creating. The creative life requires that energetic input. And so I have made a commitment to myself that in the coming month and a half, a time span when I'll have many family details to tackle, I will spend at least one half-hour a day working on my book. You heard it here, folks! Feel free to keep me accountable!