Creative inspiration – Motivation to keep creating #2

You seemed to have enjoyed the first article of motivation to keep creating. Here are 3 more of my tools to keep creating.

Be original, be yourself

This tends to be one of the biggest things young or new artists struggle with. We’re usually looking at other artists who are much bigger than we are, and have already achieved some kind of success, and we think we can never be them.

When you’re hesitant to upload your work online and you’re thinking, “I’m good enough”, “I might not get a lot of likes or followers”, “I don’t think people will appreciate my work”, your focus might not be on the right thing.

What can keep us down and hold us back is the fear of not getting the response we expected or wanted from others, or the fear of rejection. Forget about this, especially in the beginning. Instead, focus on your own creative journey and get the ball rolling.

More than likely when you begin posting on social media or on your own website, you won’t receive any likes or engagement. You might be discouraged by this, but it can be a good opportunity. It gives you the opportunity to become comfortable to share your work online without the world bombarding you with positive or negative thoughts.

Maybe after a handful of posts over a period of time, you will begin to receive a tiny bit of engagement and feedback from one or two people. It will most likely be positive feedback. Now you’ve received your first taste of engagement. It wasn’t too overwhelming. It was just enough to give you the feeling of fulfilment that there are at least one or two people out there who appreciate what you’re sharing.

If you keep going and growing, two people might become twenty and eventually two hundred. Now you have built a small community around your niche and you might receive a good amount of engagement.

But soon, it might not feel like enough. You want more, and more and more. Two hundred followers aren’t enough. Neither is two thousand or ten thousand. After chasing numbers for a while, you forget why you were doing this in the first place. Which was to focus on your own creative journey and sharing your creative work.

Keep moving forward

Keep creating. Keep doing the work. Network with like-minded people in your niche. Have fun with it. Keep moving forward. Your community might grow rapidly as an indirect result of you simply having fun and sharing your work. A growing community is a side benefit, not the goal.

The goal should be to have fun creating and sharing your work with others. Whether it’s five people or five thousand people.

The moment I stand still and allow things to slow down, it’s difficult to get everything moving again. I’m constantly moving from one article to the next. From one project to another. I try to be in the flow the best I can. I enjoy losing myself in the process. That’s where I have the most fun.

Everyone starts somewhere

Always keep in mind that all the artists you admire and look up to also started from zero.

When you’re starting out, don’t focus on the numbers,. It isn’t a worthy measurement of your creative work. Focus on creating the best work you can and getting it out there. You should have butterflies before you upload it, because it probably means you’ve put effort into it and you’re proud of what you’ve created.

Something I’ve mentioned a few times is,

Do it for yourself.

If we’re not enjoying the process, then why are we doing it? We should do it for ourselves to improve our creative skills and to learn more about our craft. Along that journey, we can share what we have learned and share our work with others who are also interested in it or simply enjoys being on the journey with us.