How to multiply your creative enthusiasm? Creative enthusiasm, to me, means a state of excitement and passion to think, create, and innovate. But as an artist, you know that the extreme emotions of excitement and willingness to create exist in a sphere of ups and downs. Sometimes your creative enthusiasm is sparking, and sometimes it is dying. So what happens to creative enthusiasm? How do you prevent it from dying? and how to multiply your creative enthusiasm.
What happens to creative enthusiasm?
It fluctuates exactly like everything else. One day you are finding inspiration in the most ordinary corner of your living room, and the other day you are in a museum thinking about your laundry. Inspiration and creative enthusiasm are not guaranteed, as they don’t follow universal laws.
But you have had your creative enthusiasm for years; perhaps since you were a kid, it never died, but recently it did. And you are wondering what would have killed it. I often think that maybe being in my late twenties means that the flame I had for creativity is dying and that the child in me is slowly becoming a grown-up who cares less about art as its vision is foggier because of the adult world and all its hassle. But I recall reading Mastery by Robert Greene and the notes I took. Robert promised me to be my most creative self in my 40s, which takes the power out of my inner child’s hands and places it in the hands of the mind, the conscious, and the subconscious.
So, if it is up to me to control it in the present moment, how can I prevent my creative enthusiasm from dying?
How do you prevent your creative enthusiasm from dying?
I may not know why your creative enthusiasm died or how you’re measuring the loss, but I will be general and assume that you have chosen creativity as a career path. Therefore, the first question that comes to mind is: Why did you start creating? Why do you create art?
Be honest with yourself. Your answer will help you pick one of the three options: to temporarily resign from creating and find something else that will inspire you; to keep on pushing and looking for the little things that will keep you going; or to stop creating once and for all and just diverge to a different path.
Let’s answer the following questions together:
- Do you feel that the work you are doing is valuable?
- Is it a time management issue? Does your life have so much going on that you can’t balance your creative time?
- When you are not making art, are you engaging your brain in activities that allow for creativity, such as music, reading, writing, puzzles, etc.? Read this article: 5 ways to instantly spark your creativity
- Are you taking good care of yourself? Getting enough sleep, exercising, and having a quality diet? This is important.
- Are you learning something new each week? If not, why not, and what opportunity is there?
- Would you be happier working with different mediums? On a different project? In a different area? In a different location? With different people? Don’t feel entitled to your current self-image. If you feel a need to change, listen to it.
- Are you passionate about creating, or is it just a paycheck?
If you can take the time to reply to these questions and even explore how you deeply feel about your creative endeavor, you will understand why your creative enthusiasm is dying, and you will be able to prevent that from happening. But if it’s dimming and you want to multiply creative enthusiasm, keep on reading.
How to multiply creative enthusiasm?
Create with no expectations to succeed
I recently read a Medium article from Alex Mathers where he said that we shouldn’t expect any traction or engagement from our work until we’ve created and published at least 300 pieces. I know you are tired, and I know that a lack of feedback may be one of the many reasons hindering your creative enthusiasm. But this statement from Alex made me feel a great sense of relief because the lower our expectations are, the more enthusiasm we will have to create and innovate. And as Alex said, “knowing this makes it easier to power on when you might otherwise get disappointed.“.
Own being a creative
It’s not as easy, and it’s not as fun as it sounds. Being creative requires a constant cycle of input and output. It doesn’t come naturally to anyone. You need to be creating constantly. You also need to be failing and redoing. It’s the purpose of an entire lifetime, and I don’t know if we all can embrace and own the creative genius in us. We are mostly tired, physically exhausted, overworked, have bills to pay, and so on. Deciding to shut it all down and opt for creation instead requires accepting that part of us.
Feed your curiosity
Every time an idea pops up in your mind and you shut it down because you’re too busy, too stressed, it’s too real to be tangible, etc., you are killing your creative enthusiasm. Instead, you should be feeding that curiosity. Looking something up on Google takes seconds. Sketching something on a piece of paper takes minutes, and if you are way too busy to stop and do one of these whenever you get an idea, I don’t think it’s the right time for you to follow a creative path.
Start with single thoughts
I always hear people debating whether to focus on quality or quantity, and let me tell you that there is a way to do both. If you take time to hone single thoughts by creating them in different physical forms (photography, design, sculptures, collages, paintings, journal pages, etc.), you can get feedback from other people on your creations, and that will help you identify what works best, what’s loved, what’s hated, etc.
Conclusion
This was my take on creative enthusiasm and some ways to multiply it. What are your ways of keeping your creative enthusiasm high? Share them in the comments below and enjoy creating <3
