Demanding creativity.
I’m giving myself five minutes to delve into this because I’m ~ exhausted ~ .
Over the last few months I’ve undergone a career-building program that’s required me to:
Write blog posts
Create and refine a talent profile
Film tech tool videos
Build a professional brand
Receive and implement feedback
Give feedback
Identify problems in companies I’ve never worked for and develop the solutions
Create social media ads
And document everything.
All while having a full-time job and a side gig.
I’m thankful for the challenge, but my brain is jelly.
The work has been invigorating and refining and challenging and rewarding. But the pace has been the most difficult thing to manage. Ironically, the pace was one of things that drew me to the program in the first place: it was only a year long. I liked the idea of committing one quick year instead of the four I’d have to invest for a traditional schooling path which I was also considering.
In this program I’ve
spent a lot of early mornings punching away at my keyboard
came home from my day job, sat at my desk to work, and not gotten up until bedtime
gotten shifts covered so I could spend 12+ hours chipping away at lengthy projects
put my head in my hands after stumbling over my words in take #38 of filming a tech tool video
accepted the challenge to write 30 blogs in 30 days
and most of all:
demanded creativity and product from my brain on a consistent basis
Long hours, lots of work, commanding my head to spill its contents and produce something valuable.
I’m reminded of this quote by Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic:
“There’s no dishonor in having a job. What is dishonorable is scaring away your creativity by demanding that it pay for your entire existence.”
The last few weeks have required more creativity from me than I’ve ever experienced.
While balancing the workload of all my responsibilities, the narrow windows of time I had to work on my assignments forced me to demand a lot of myself.
Most of the time, I put something on paper because I needed to put something on paper. And it was often a fight.
Before this, I relied pretty heavily on waiting for inspiration to blow through me like a breeze before creating anything. Once this program’s over and I no longer have due dates looming over me, I hope I don’t revert to that mentality.
I’ve found a better one.