The Motivation Myth
Getting and staying motivated as a creative professional is no small feat. Creativity wells seeem to run dry, and you could swear that sometimes the pencil just isn’t working right.
The motivation myth is that creativity can only happen if you’re feeling motivated or inspired. Unfortunately believing this myth will actually compound the problem.
There’s no such thing as being magically motivated to start creating.
Creative sparks don’t happen in a vacuum. Just like an actual spark, the creative spark requires an object and something interacting with that object to create the spark. Time and again I find myself reverting to a place where I’m waiting to be magically inspired before I start on any given project.
Yes, even I, the design process guru, sometimes forget that inspiration and motivation often do not come spontaneously.
There are definitely some tangible things that that can help you with your motivation (like a workspace, tools, and who you surround yourself with), but the most important things about getting motivated are all in your head. There are a few things I would like to share with you on how to fight the motivation myth.
1) Don’t wait for motivation.
It never fails, I have a client project waiting on me, my sketchbook is staring at me, and I feel stuck. Even if it’s not a tedious project, or an un-exciting project; it can be a poster project or book cover — my absolute favorite things to design. But due to the scope of the project, I have often put off starting because I wasn’t feeling inspired and therefore I wasn’t feeling motivated. So, I finally decided to suck it up; having already done a creative brief, I got out my trusty pencil and sketchbook and started my word map. Halfway through five word maps, I was still feeling unmotivated drained, it felt so forced — but I kept on working. I kept trying to remember that I need to to follow my own advice and trust the process. In the end I wasn’t surprised to find that I came up with a great concept and visual strategy after I was finished and that became my motivation to continue.
I proved to myself that my process worked, not just to come up with a great idea, but it worked to motivate me — even when it was forced, I was newly energized to create.
Start the process and the motivation will follow. The thing about coming up with ideas and being creative… creativity is not like a river that is constantly flowing and all you have to do is dip in your coffee mug, drink up the creative juice and then you’ll make something spectacular. It’s more like an ocean with waves of creativity and you have to choose to get out your surfboard, actually get out, and ride the waves. They come and go and chances are that you won’t stay on that wave for long, and you’ll probably crash on some bad ideas but as long as you keep on getting out there you’ll find the perfect wave for you. Side note, I’ve never been surfing; the point is that you can’t expect your ideas to come to you, you have to go out and get them.
2) Procrastination is a trap.
When it comes to creativity and design is that you can fool yourself into thinking that if I just wait, it will save me time because I’m bound to think of a great idea if I sit here long enough or ignore the project. But if you are waiting for some burst of creative genius to spurn you to get off social media or bingeing Netflix and start working — you never will. Procrastination breeds procrastination and the only way to get motivated when you’re not “feeling creative” is to decide to actually do something.
As hard to believe as it is, you can be creative without feeling creative.
Much like love, creativity is a choice, you have to choose to be creative, you need to decide in your own mind that you will be creative, and the feelings of excitement and motivation will follow.
Decision and action beats out procrastination every time. You just have to start. Start the process, start your process; whatever that is for you — just start.
3) Intentional Motivation Takes Practice.
Practice doing creative things, even when you don’t feel creative. The ability to be creative is not a magical quality that some of us are born with and others aren’t. I feel like every person who has ever existed has had creative ideas. But acting on those ideas and practicing at them is where the magic does happen, acting on those ideas makes you more than just creative, it makes you A creative. Everyone has ideas, the problems come when we are being paid to be creative and it feels forced. But by choosing to start our own creative processes, especially with a creative brief or word map (wink, wink), you are honing a skill that will serve you long into your creative career.
You make your own magic when you choose to act on your creative ideas.
As graphic designers we need to stop getting discouraged when we have to work for our ideas.
The best ideas in my opinion are those that come from process, planning, research, and are backed by logic. These kinds of ideas don’t come by osmosis — they come with work, and lots of it.
It’s all a matter of perspective, if you decide to start something, you have to also decide to keep starting, until you get to the idea that is worth finishing. Don’t be fooled by the motivation myth when it comes to your own creative endeavors.
Make your own motivation, choose it, then do something.
Too many people sit around waiting for success, or ideas, or the perfect life to come to them. Don’t be like everyone else, make choices and make great work, make your own design magic.
Choosing to work while everyone else is sitting around will only give you more confidence to continue to keep getting up and working at being the best creative that you can be.
Design is a wonderful world, I hope you’ll join me here. Because design matters.
Originally published at http://www.brandisea.com