The blank slate. Everyone’s dealt with this before, and it’s most creative people’s worst nightmare.
Maybe you had an idea and couldn’t wait to get your music recorded, or your blog written, or whatever. But as soon as you sit down – it’s gone.
Or maybe it’s not as good as you thought it would be.
Maybe you just “set a time to work” and then nothing came out.
Well… I solved that for myself. I’ve written every week, at least once a week, for over two years. I usually write more than that, especially when you consider email and social media content.
It’s really, really easy to tell you how to do this.
But you’re not going to like it. I can almost guarantee you that.
Those who do what I’m about to suggest (and you have to do it in every discipline you want to be unblocked from – separately – which is daunting. Ideas don’t just flow from one type of output to the next, in my case at least.) will rarely ever face a creative block in the specific output they’re working on ever again.
You write music? You’ll rarely be at loss for some kind of tune.
You write words? You’ll have them, even when you imagine you won’t.
Etc.
Create More
That’s it. The heading is the magic bullet.
Seems like a letdown, right? Well, in words – it is. The secret sauce is creating more content. I mean a lot more content. If you write a song a month, try writing a song every few days (or every day). If you write a blog a week, try and write a blog every single day.
Now that you’re panicking – there is a mental catch that can get you past that current freakout you’re having.
None of it has to be any good.
That’s right. You must give yourself the out that your content can suck. I’ve written for multiple years, and most of it (in my personal opinion) has sucked. I’m not in love with hardly any of it.
Others disagree, and that’s great. I didn’t start writing because I wanted approval. I started writing because I knew I needed to be writing to accomplish goals. So, to hell with whether anyone read it or not.
That’s the key – you can’t, at least temporarily, care about the quality of the output and if anyone is going to be exposed to it or not.
I didn’t even “announce” many of my first posts. When I started sharing them, it was awkward. Hundreds of posts later – it’s completely routine.
And that’s the goal. Make so much that you make it routine. Instead of you having to “get ready” to get into “creation mode” – you can just drop into it, because you’ve been catching ideas all day and you’re used to focusing in short bursts to just get things out.
I’ve had posts planned on a calendar for months out, now. I add more ideas regularly. When it’s time to write – I just write.
That only happened because I drastically increased my volume for a period of time (about 5-6 months, to write a book).
You Object
You’re probably objecting to this already. A good percentage of you are going to think something like
“Make more? I already don’t have time! Guess I’m $*%@!”
I can easily count the ways that – for the majority of you – that’s bull. But, you already know that, and I don’t need to throw “Get off Netflix and Facebook” in your face. It’s not going to help you.
Instead, there’s a very simple concept that you’re missing – and it will change the world for you.
Your rules for creativity are wrong.
Writing for me used to be an exercise. I had to get in a “frame of mind” to write. I had to have X amount of time. I had to have a silent, quiet room for my thoughts. I had to have a bunch of prerequisites out of the way before I could even start.
The less prerequisites you have, the more easily you can bang on something quickly for 10 minutes.
The more you bang on something quickly for 10 minutes, over and over, the more you can create.
Is having an hour to sit down and knock out your new song a bad thing? No, not at all. If you’ve got that luxury, awesome! Then you really have no excuse. For the rest of the world, with lives, a day job, a family, responsibilities, whatever – it’s work to make your creativity the important thing. Not to excuse it away.
And finally, the reason that volume is important?
(meaning, the amount of work you finish – not the quality)
The reason a large number of you sit down and your brains just shrug and say “*$&@ if I know what to make!” is due to fear.
You want to make something super good. You may want praise for it, you may just not want to look stupid, whatever. But you want whatever comes out of your hands to be shiny gold.
But the artists you idolize put out turds way more than you know. You just don’t see them.
While I’m not encouraging you to put out turds and say “meh, whatever.” – the biggest point on creating more, for me, was this:
The more you create, the less any one creation matters. The less any one creation matters, the less you’re stressed about the supreme quality of this one creation. If this one sucks, there will be another tomorrow.
And suddenly, you’re free to make something every day.
Now, get to it.
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