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14 Ways to feed your creative muse
It’s very easy to get lost in everyday mundane tasks, things you need to do every single day and forgot why you started in the first place. While it does important to show up every day and get things done, it’s vital don’t forget your bigger purpose and remember why you do what you do. It’s essential to feed your creative muse regularly.
People aren’t born creative or talented, it’s a myth. In fact, every person on this earth has something that only she can create and share with this world. Although, we somehow let to convince ourselves that creativity is something that is accessible only to several chosen people.
You have an access to this creative energy within you all the time. You don’t need more inspiration, looking at what others are doing, somebody else’s permission, a perfect location, and a perfect time to start creating. We need to stop everything outside of ourselves to control our creativity. And learn to look inside of ourselves to find it instead.
Even when you find your life purpose and your life calling, it’s still can be hard to do creative work. It’s hard to face a blank canvas, to face the unknown, and not always be sure of how you will create something that has never excited you before. Or whether you will be able to monetize your passion and creative work. There will be moments when you will be afraid to speak about your creative work and sell it. But I personally believe that it’s possible to monetize any passion you have and make a living doing it. A lot of fear will come out when it comes to selling, but you can overcome these fears and live doing what you love.
Creative work doesn’t come with guarantees, there will be a lot of uncertainties, a lot of fears and limiting beliefs that you will have to face on your creative journey. It will be hard to put your “imperfect” creative work out there.
There will be moments when you’ll feel stuck, and won’t know what you do or where it will lead you. The only thing you need to do is to start, you will figure everything out through a creative process. When you create you feel inspired, but when you wait, you feel stuck and it makes you lose the momentum.
As Pablo Picasson once said:
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
So what are you waiting for?
What are the most common obstacles we have face when it comes to doing creative work?
“Fear is always triggered by creativity, because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome. This is nothing to be ashamed of. It is, however, something to be dealt with.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Your fears are not unique, almost every person on this earth has the same fears:
- You’re afraid that you don’t have a talent.
- You’re afraid that might be rejected, criticized, misunderstood, ridiculed or ignored.
- You’re afraid that everything was done already and that there is no market for your creative work.
- You’re afraid that somebody might steal your ideas, so it’s better never to share them and keep them hidden in your closet.
- You might think that your work isn’t important enough to share it.
- You’re afraid that your work is ridiculous and that nobody needs it.
- You’re afraid that you don’t have what it takes to do creative work.
- You’re afraid that you don’t have a degree, are not qualified enough, or even think who are you to speak about this?
- You’re afraid of upsetting your family, friends, or even people you don’t know.
- You’re afraid of what others will say about you when you share what you do and your work.
- You’re afraid of facing your inner demons and limiting beliefs.
- You’re afraid that you will never be able to create anything extraordinary.
- You’re afraid that it’s too late to start.
- You’re afraid of success
- You’re afraid of facing the unknown.
I bet that you have at least several of these fears that are holding you back.
There will be many obstacles on your way if you decide to do creative work, but it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to deal with them. It’s when coming back to your values, big vision, your purpose and creating powerful habits and daily routines will help you to keep creating.
What are the most common hurdles to doing creative work?
Fear of uncertainty
Fear is nothing more than an unpleasant feeling. Thoughts play an important role in maintaining, creating, and exacerbating our fears. When you start creating something, you step into the realm of the unknown.
We tend to see the realm of the unknown as something bad, and horrifying. But nothing great can be created in the known, the unknown is the only place where possibilities exist. It’s natural for a human being to be afraid, to search for comfort, pleasure, and the known. Your brain wants to keep you safe. Our fears are there for the reason, they evolved to help us to handle challenging situations.
Don’t try to fight fear, avoid it, or respond to it on autopilot. But rather try to make room for it, breathe into it, notice it, acknowledge it and expand your awareness about it. Be pleasant and welcoming with your fear, talk to it. Recognize that you’re on the same team. Genuine confidence isn’t the absence of fear, but a transformed relationship with your fear.
I love this speech that Elizabeth Gilbert created to talk about her fears:
“Dearest Fear: Creativity and I are about to go on a road trip together. I understand you’ll be joining us because you always do. I acknowledge that you believe you have an important job to do in my life and that you take your job seriously. Apparently, your job is to induce complete panic whenever I’m about to do anything interesting—and, may I say, you are superb at your job. So by all means, keep doing your job, if you feel you must. But I will also be doing my job on this road trip, which is to work hard and stay focused. And Creativity will be doing its job, which is to remain stimulating and inspiring. There’s plenty of room in this vehicle for all of us, so make yourself at home, but understand this: Creativity and I are the only ones who will be making any decisions along the way. I recognize and respect that you are part of this family, and so I will never exclude you from our activities, but still—your suggestions will never be followed. You’re allowed to have a seat, and you’re allowed to have a voice, but you are not allowed to have a vote. You’re not allowed to touch the road maps; you’re not allowed to suggest detours; you’re not allowed to fiddle with the temperature. Dude, you’re not even allowed to touch the radio. But above all else, my dear old familiar friend, you are absolutely forbidden to drive.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Not taking action
Taking action it’s the only thing that will bring you results. If you wait, overthink, trying to be a perfectionist, you lose the momentum and let your fears, unhelpful thoughts, and feeling take over you and run your life. You get trapped in a vicious circus, trapped in your head and don’t take action. And then you get upset because you don’t have the results you wanted to achieve. But you can’t get upset because of the results you don’t have if you didn’t take any action.
Your journey starts only when you take action. So don’t fuse with your unhelpful thoughts, and feelings, don’t overthink, but choose a valued direction and take action mindfully. You feel the most stuck when you wait. But as soon as you start taking action, and creating, inspiration and motivation follow. But not the other way around.
So what are you waiting for?
Expect everything to be perfect
Let go of the idea that everything should be perfect. Practice self-acceptance. Accept the fact that your first tries to create something will most likely suck. Don’t create excessive expectations, especially if you don’t have the necessary skills and experience for doing your work just yet. Be honest with yourself.
Often you’re the person who judges you the most. Keep practising, keep trying, be patient and always share the work you create with the world, even if it’s “not perfect”. You will get better, I promise you!
What others will think of me and my work?
“Let people have their opinions. More than that–let people love their opinions, just as you and I are in love with ours. But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) to make your creative work. And always remember that people’s judgments about you are none of your business.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
This was probably one of my biggest obstacles when I started to create content and put myself out there. I was especially afraid of the opinions of people I knew. What if they won’t understand what I do? What if I am rejected? What if everybody thinks that I’m stupid? It’s still scary to be honest sometimes. But with time I learnt not to fuse with these unhelpful thoughts, and not let them from preventing me from taking action. The more action you will take, the weaker this fear became. You will learn to trust yourself and start building your self-confidence. This fear will probably never go away completely, and it’s okay.
You need to stop letting other people’s opinions dictate how you live your life. Most people think about themselves all the time, but not about you. And even if they do, it’s not your business what they think.
Comparison
Our minds compare us to others in the most unfavourable ways for us. It compares us to people who seem to do things better, has more talent, or have it all easy. But often it’s just your perception.
You cannot know how much time and effort it took for somebody to get where the person is right now. We don’t ever think that we can have something that somebody else might want. Your journey is unique, and shouldn’t be like everybody else’.
Obsessed with the outcome and not enjoying the process
So often we tie our self-worth to money, to achievements and results, and forget to appreciate our effort. We beat ourselves up when we don’t have fast results when we don’t make the amount of money we want or don’t hit our big goals fast enough. It’s especially true when we have a lot of pressure to make money fast. But getting any results can take time, and often we’re not ready for it. That’s why having some source of income before your business starts to generate any money is essential. It will help you to be freer, to experiment more, to play, don’t take everything so seriously and enjoy the process more.
Probably working under pressure and stress works for some people, but it doesn’t work for me. I can’t relax, open up and create anything when I worry about the money all the time and don’t enjoy the process. And when you need the money right away you will be stressed, whether you want it or not.
But when you have some source of income, you’re relaxed, you can detach from the outcome, enjoy the process, and make your business profitable so much faster. There is an unlimited abundance in this world and it’s accessible to everybody.
Not working on your limiting beliefs, unhelpful thoughts, and emotions, not mastering your mind
Before you conquer yourself, you cannot conquer the world. You need to make it a priority and have daily practices to work on your mindset. Because if you don’t your unhelpful thoughts, emotions, self-sabotaging behaviours, and limiting beliefs will dictate the way you live and the action you take, or don’t take.
Create time and pace for daily practices to work through your limiting beliefs and unhelpful thoughts. It’s should become a must, it’s not optional. You cannot just hope that one day they will disappear without you doing anything. It’s your mind’s limitations that prevent you from taking action, from growing, from building the life of your dreams. Your dream reality already exists in your imagination already and you’re already the perfect version of yourself, you just need to find ways how you can bring everything you imagine into reality.
My daily and weekly practices include meditations both guided and open awareness, sports, eating healthy, reading good books, journaling, super thinking sessions when I do nothing except write down all my ideas, visualization practices, practices that help me to release all my limiting beliefs, spending time in nature, quiet time without any distractions and taking daily action if I don’t feel like it. It’s time to find out the best practices that will work for you and that will help you to maintain you on your journey.
how to fuel your creative muse
Don’t underestimate the importance of feeding your creative muse by reconnecting regularly to your authentic self. There will be days when you will feel more motivated (although, I don’t really like this word) and days or even weeks when you feel like you have nothing to say, and that you’re out of creative ideas. And it’s totally okay, there is no need to freak out, beat yourself up and try to force the creative process. I would say more, forcing is probably one of the worst things you can do. When you force yourself to create tension, stress, anxiety and pressure. Very rarely great ideas can come to you in this state. I can tell you this for sure. I tried to force a lot of things in the past and it’s a very bad place to create from.
Have you ever noticed how the greatest ideas come when you feel happy, when you do mundane tasks, and when you’re outside doing things that bring you pleasure? That’s why you need to have either a small notebook where you can take quick notes or a simple notepad on your phone where you can write these ideas down when they appear. Because we can forget them fast.
My greatest ideas came to me when I was playing, having fun when I was in nature or when I was meditating. It’s incredible actually! So when I feel tired, and out of creative ideas, I try to give myself more space, meditate, or do things that bring me joy. I try not to force myself anymore because when I do, creative energy is fading away.
So what can you do to access this creative energy within yourself?
Reading good books
Reading great books is very powerful. A lot of great ideas and concepts were distilled by a lot of great people who experienced them, lived them and shared them with the world already. So why not get inspired by these great ideas and take something for yourself?
Listen or watch audio programs, podcasts or videos, and attend live seminars
There are so many amazing things that were available to us on the internet these days! It was hard to imagine even 20 years ago. Although you need to be mindful about choosing the information that you consume because there is still a lot of garbage information out there.
Find people who inspire you, people you like, whose life amaze you and learn from them, soak in their wisdom and get inspired to create something extraordinary of your own.
Connect with other creative people
We can do many things by ourselves, although connecting with other people can wake up something inside of us. It can feel lonely sometimes when you work by yourself all the time, but building meaningful connections, and having deep conversations with other creatives can help a lot. You can exchange ideas, create amazing collaborations, and keep moving forward.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to people first, engage with their content if you genuinely enjoy it. People will appreciate it and you will be able to cultivate genuine connections. Don’t be afraid of rejection, maybe not everybody will be willing to connect with you and it’s okay.
Go outside and connect with the nature
Being in nature, and watching beautiful natural sceneries wake something up in us as human beings. It inspires us, our brains respond to these natural sceneries in some way.
We evolved as spices in the natural environment, it was always part of who we’re as humans and it will always be part of us. So no wonder that we’re so inspired and connected to nature. Carve some time every day to go for a walk, to spend some time outside, or to hike. It’s not a waste of time and it’s not laziness, it’s an important part of doing creative work. You can even take a half day off and go outside when you feel stuck.
Travel, visit new places
It doesn’t need to be a fancy and expensive trip. It can be visiting a new city you have never been to before or going to the natural park near you.
It will help you to recharge your batteries, relax and to open up. It will also help you to see your habitual environment from a different perspective and appreciate it more when you come back.
Take regular vacations and days off
Days off and regular vacations should become a must. It’s not a luxury, and it’s not laziness. It should become a part of your regular working routine. It can be hard to do when you see all these people and business owners who are hustling all the time as if it’s a norm. It’s not! And doing more isn’t always better.
You need time to relax, and recharge your batteries to be able to function normally, you need to have balance. Creative people need more days off because creative work is hard. It demands a lot of emotional labour every single day. So give your mind and body the time it needs to relax and restore.
Slow down and have more quiet time
It’s vital to give yourself permission and space to slow down and be still, especially when you feel low. Slowing down and doing less can help you to see everything in perspective, see the big picture, and reconnect to your bigger vision, your values, and your whys.
It will help you don’t get lost in endless to-do lists and mundane tasks. Quiet time without any distractions can help you to reconnect your inner authentic self and your intuition. Don’t forget that everything you need exists within yourself, and silence can help you to start hearing your inner voice more clearly.
Play, try new things, experiment
Don’t be afraid to try new things, experiment and have fun. Creative work doesn’t come with a guarantee. Often you cannot predict the outcome when you start, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot try new things and see where they will lead you.
Stop being so serious all the time and thinking that there is “a right way” of doing things. There are no right or wrong ways of doing creative work. There is no “right” path that you can follow that brings you the results you want. Moreover, if you follow somebody else’s way, you will never be able to realize your potential. So embark on this exciting journey, your journey, and try and experiment to find your own unique path and way of bringing your creative ideas to life.
Do things that bring you joy
We all have things that bring us joy, that inspire us and rise our energy levels. Carve the time every single week for doing these things. It can be hobbies, being in nature, creating things with your hands, reading inspiring books, or listening to great music.
Feed your creative energy by doing things that bring you joy. So that you could create and show up with the highest possible energy. Being on your creative journey can be hard, and achieving any results can take time, so make sure that you enjoy your journey, but don’t just expect your achievements and results to make you happy.
Meditate
Daily meditation practices were the most important thing I started to do for myself and my business. It helped me to reconnect to my authentic self, find my life purpose and to start overcoming my limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging behaviours.
Meditation gives you the possibility to have quiet moments, observe your thoughts, and be in the present moment. So often we merge with our thoughts, outdated programmed beliefs, and destructive behavioural patterns. They tend to hold us back, make us shrink, to prevent us from realizing our full potential.
Remember that you’re not your mind, you’re not your body, you’re not your limiting beliefs and not your thoughts. And meditation helps to separate yourself from your unhelpful thoughts, observe them, and neutralize them.
There are many great guided meditations you can try even if you don’t like meditation. Start small, be patient, persistent and keep practising.
Stop searching and inspiration outside of yourself
I had an interesting conversation recently with somebody who kept telling me that looking outside, watching others and consuming as much content as possible is the best way to get inspired. And to be honest I cannot disagree more. I used to do it a lot when I have just started my business, and it was one of the worst things I did.
Over-consuming content can feel overwhelming, it can make you compare yourself a lot, make you feel unworthy, and make you lose your confidence to put yourself out there. It’s especially true for people who just started and have no idea of who they are, or what they want to do. It can prevent you from finding your unique voice and style, and it can paralyse you, make you stuck and prevent you from taking action.
There is nothing wrong with getting inspired sometimes but observe very carefully how the content you consume makes you feel. I believe that you need to reconnect to your authentic yourself first and have a very clear idea of what you want to create first. You have everything you need within yourself, and you can access your creativity anytime and you don’t need to always watch outside to do that.
We need to stop letting everything outside of ourselves control our creativity. Make sure that if you do consume a lot of content, you at the same time create something of your own at the time. Just consuming and not creating anything won’t lead you anywhere.
Be a creator, not a competitor
I believe that every human being on this earth has a unique gift that only she can share with this world. Competition doesn’t exist, it’s a false concept that was created to bring us apart.
A thing that you will create will be unique, it will be done with your perspective, filled with your life experience. Your creative ideas and your unique gift already exist within you, you just need to learn how to access them and how to bring your vision and ideas to life.
Stop overthinking and just start
The more you overthink, the more worry, and anxiety you feel. Often when you start you don’t exactly know what you want to create, and you feel a lot of uncertainty. You have no idea how you will be able to bring an image in your head to life. You have to let go of the idea that everything should be perfect and predictable. It shouldn’t! And if you feel afraid, please know that it’s totally okay.
If you feel stuck and don’t know what to do, the only thing you need to do is to start, and take action. Don’t worry about the how, and embrace the momentum. You will figure everything out through a creative process. It’s when you wait you feel the most suck.
So what are you waiting for?
Stay consistent and train your creative muscle
Creative work demands discipline, patience, courage persistence, enchantment, permission, and trust. And all these elements are accessible and universal for everybody! It doesn’t mean that creative living is easy, but it means that creative living is possible for all of us.
If you want to become good at something you need to practice. And practice often brings discomfort. So we tend to avoid it. You need to learn to work to improve your habits, and daily routine, overcome self-sabotaging behaviour patterns and accept the fact that probably the first things that you will ever create won’t be the best, and it’s okay.
You learn, evolve, try, and with time and effort, you will get better if you stay focused and keep practising. You need to be able to find practices and techniques that will help you to cope with your fears, accept the unknown, and uncertainty and be able to face a blank canvas.
Creative work often gives a rise to uncomfortable feelings and a lot of fear. So if you keep waiting until you feel like doing the work, you will never be able to create anything. You need to create powerful daily habits and show up daily even if you don’t feel like it.
Final thoughts
Creativity is accessible to every human being on this earth. There is no chosen group of creative people out there, although, we somehow let convince ourselves that it’s exactly the case. You have this creative energy inside of you all the time and you can access it anytime you want, you just need to learn how to do it.
Creative work can trigger many fears, and limiting beliefs within you. It can be hard sometimes to create. It’s exactly why you need to have some specific set of tools to inspire you, feed your creative muse, and sustain you on your journey.
You need to find a specific set of tools that work for you and use them regularly. These tools will help you get inspired when you feel low, and help you keep going when things get tough.
Trust the creative process and just start and I promise that will be able to figure everything out through the creative process. You’ve got this!
Useful resources
- Guided meditation to unblock your creativity. It’s an amazing guided meditation that can help you to reconnect to the creative energy within you. You can do it daily, or come back to it wherever you feel stuck. It will help you to break through your mental blocks, enhance your creative flow, and discover the unlimited power that exists within you.
Big Magic : Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s an amazing book that can inspire you a lot. Elizabeth Gilbert digs deep into her own life to share her perspective on creativity.
The Confidence Gap by Harris Russ. Another great book with a lot of practical advice and techniques that will help you to start building your confidence.
“Your elusive creative genius” – a great TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert to inspire you and make you look at creativity from a new perspective.