The Struggles of a Creative: How to Stay Inspired
Have you ever noticed feeling down just by thinking about turning your computer on? Have you ever felt anxious starting a new project? Or felt like nobody understands your “creative genius”?
Remember how you used to feel excited each time you heard the word design? Or that spark in your eyes that was getting reflected off of your laptop screen, enough to light up the whole coffee shop you’ve hidden yourself in? How you’d get inspired checking that Behance project out, utterly confident you’ll create something as slick as that one, or even better? — You sassy little thing…
I hear you. Let’s talk about how you can stay inspired and nourish your creative genius.
1. Find The ‘Reason’
Before we even start digging into the topic, I want to mention, that nothing is going to be inspiring until you have figured out what you’re doing it for. This article about willpower by Benjamin Hardy, PhD has been my absolute favourite for a long time.
Benjamin writes:
“Willpower is a broken approach to thriving and success. […] If your life requires willpower, you haven’t fully determined what you want. Because once you make a decision, the internal debate is over.”
2. Find Something That Inspires You (Apart From Design)
In dsign they say form follows function, so it gets easy to lose passion for a project, or even design in general, if it’s always work-related or has to serve a function.
The 21st century creative freak and genius Steve Jobs used to search for inspiration in architecture (I guess, in between his transcendental experiments with LSD…).
In turn, Iraqi-born British designer and the queen of modern architecture, Zaha Hadid was getting her inspiration from the surroundings, landscapes, natural shapes and forms, as well as avant-garde abstract paintings, and creating a whole bunch of mind-blowing expressive paintings herself.
So to me, the modern art exhibitions in London, like, say, The Other Art Fair have become a huge source of inspiration.
3. Do Art For Fun
Following the previous tip, try finding something that brings you joy, or helps you stay in the flow. Whether it is taking a few shots with your camera, a pottery class, a written piece, an art party, a hackathon or a garage music jam— the sky is the limit!
It’s all about trying, experimenting and finding what works for you, so don’t be afraid or feel guilty for giving something up. For example, learning guitar didn’t work for me — it felt tedious and repetitive, so I gave it up and moved to abstract painting.
4. Find Your Tribe
Surround yourself with like-minded creative people, or someone who cares about you and is there to support you at the times when you’re an insomniac blanket-wrapped whining mess.
I know, not everyone is fortunate to have built a community of creative friends, but maybe try browsing through some local Facebook or Meetup groups and attend events that will get you in the mood for creating something just for the sake of creating and pleasure.
When I first moved to London and was working on building my portfolio, I attended a few cool hackathons, which electrified me with energy and passion for months ahead. I usually found out about them on Twitter and Eventbrite.
5. Find Your Design Guru
Find someone in design community you look up to, whose level you’d like to achieve someday and… shamelessly copy them.
Joking.
Analyse what they do right or what you love about their work and start your own project by copying some bits of their work — don’t worry, eventually your design will evolve into something unique and distinct from the one you’ve “borrowed your creative juices” from.
Have you heard of the term ‘cryptomnesia’? — A forgotten memory that returns and fools you into thinking that it was yours? Here’s a cool video on creative cryptomnesia by Jamie Windsor, where he shares his story of almost getting sued for plagiarism and how you can avoid that.
6. Don’t Wait For The Right Moment
Ah, that familiar feeling of perfectionism and procrastination…
You are not perfect, and that is OKAY. Nobody is.
Post and share your work even if you think you haven’t got there yet. It’s a nice way of staying connected with design community, getting involved in design talk, and having a sense of accomplishment and closure.
Who knows, maybe your work will also be an inspiration to someone else?
7. Don’t Compare Yourself
Just don’t. Trust me, I’ve been through some darkest and lowest moments of self-comparison, and this topic deserves a book in itself, but I’ll try to keep it short.
Here’s a nice blog post by Gleb Kuznetsov on overcoming design frustration and becoming a trend setter.
Just remember, everything once was invented for the first time, and maybe you are the next person to invent something cool and unique, or to completely turn the artistic movement upside down! So be unapologetically yourself, or as Marie Forleo says: ‘The world needs that special gift only you have’.
“Respect your uniqueness, and drop comparison. Relax into your being.”
— Osho
8. Stay Healthy
Yes, yes, that annoying reminder of the importance of healthy eating, good sleep, exercise or at least going for a walk once a day.
‘Mens sana in corpore sano’, or ‘you are what you eat’, or ‘the greatest wealth is health’, or… Well, you got the idea.
9. Turn Those Notifications Off
Get off your social media and set your phone into flight mode, even if just for an hour. As social media algorithms are becoming smarter and more sophisticated, the shorter our attention spans become. So give yourself at least an hour of a distraction-free, fully focused work-zen time.
“When asked what it takes to win a Nobel Prize, [Francis] Crick said, ‘Oh, it’s very simple. My secret had been I know what to ignore.’ ”
– Loonshots by Safi Bahcall.
If none of these work for you…
You’re doomed. Haha, jokes. Don’t be too hard on yourself and give yourself some time to recharge your batteries. Maybe all you need is a good rest, good sleep, a walk or just some quiet time with a book. It could also be the time to shift your focus into a completely new direction, and decide what you would like to do next.
Overall, don’t worry about reaching the end goal as soon as possible (whatever it may be). If you love what you’re doing and you know why you’re doing it, you’ll get there. Step by step.
I think it was Sophie Devonshire who said in her book Superfast: Lead At Speed: “Go slow when you can, go fast when you must”.
Go slow when you can, go fast when you must.
