Does painting feel like a chore?
Has expressing yourself started to feel burdensome?
When we start something new, it brings us an initial rush of joy and excitement, and our brain is on creative fire with possibilities.
After a bit of time, this new activity gets placed in our mind as a chore because we feel obliged to get it done.
When did creativity stop being fun for you? This is, pretty much, the #1 thing that keeps my students from creating: it just isn’t fun anymore.
Why isn’t creativity fun anymore? + How to change it —
Here are some thoughts:
You got graded on creativity
Unless you’ve completely avoided the school system, at some point in your life I bet you’ve been graded on your creativity. That moment when your passion becomes objectified changes what you do — no matter whether you were graded good or bad.
One exercise I like to give my students now is to give themselves a grade.
Many of us are locked into a cycle of creating and waiting for approval. The outside approval can help us think: this is valuable. I’ll keep doing it since others give me the thumbs up.
While that approval may be fuel at first, it’s a cycle that isn’t sustainable. Your audience will change or disappear. What will you do next, then?
Giving yourself a grade will remind you that you’re the audience you’re looking for.
How much do you value your creations today?
You tried to turn your hobby into a business.
Perhaps you returned to creating as an adult. And somehow or some online persona told us to go professional or make a business out of making art. Then your art became about making money. This relates to the cycle of being graded that I write about above.
Let me say there is nothing wrong with making money from your passions. I really wish the whole world was filled with people making money from creativity. Yet, the pressure to make your art something it isn’t it often sucks the life force out of it. I’m going to write more about this next week, so stay tuned.
Ask yourself: am I trying to make my art into something it isn’t?
You were told that the creative block was something to work against.
Perhaps today you don’t feel creative. You didn’t sleep well last night or you’ve got a situation on your mind that keeps you occupied. Let me say: this is normal & ok.
Yet, you’ve received advice to push through creative block & to keep making even if you don’t want to.
And you started to work against your instinct. Day after day you kept doing something you didn’t feel like doing. That’s exhausting – and where creative burnout comes from. Have you ever worked on something that was broken and you keep breaking it more and more instead of fixing it? That is what working through creative block is like.
There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to create. Creativity is seasonal, and sometimes you’ll be blooming and other times you’ll be dormant. Creating seasonally is the tenant of my online course Learn Creativity – where I teach you how to honor your creative blocks.
Creative blocks are totally natural and necessary.
Ask yourself: have I been pushing against my creative block?
I cannot say there’s a solution for everyone to make creativity fun again. I wish it were so. Yet, your individuality is what makes this world a beautiful place. Keep seeking freedom in your creations, and excitement in releasing your expectations. That, I can say, will usher in the fun like a long lost friend.
::: Learn Creativity is open:::
You’ll find lifelong tips and helpful tools to keeping your creations fun in my latest online course, Learn Creativity. Here you will observe, like a scientist, how to make creativity fun for yourself again. And I teach you how I paint based on the seasons of nature and your internal soul.
What one of my students say about this course:
{Learn Creativity} freed up my energy for creation and was fun to do – also helpful was the painting lesson for each season – Hillary T
Anyone who joins today will get a comprehensive self care bonus kit (over $300 worth of goodies).
If you’re hesitant but curious to learn more about this course, send me an email and I’ll answer whatever questions you have!