Monday, October 26, 2020

Do One Creative Thing

Hey Creatives,

Do you find yourself completely overloaded with creative ideas? 

Does it feel like there are so many artistic things you COULD do that you end up doing nothing, completely paralyzed by the weight of all those possibilities?

Maybe like me you work for a church, or school, or company, or for yourself, and a thousand cool, awesome ideas are flowing through your mind. Or it’s the weekend, and there are many creative things you COULD do today. If you’re not careful, you’ll feel overwhelmed and end up doing NONE of them!

 

So, I want to talk about four simple ways to figure out that ONE CREATIVE THING you could and should be doing right now.

1. What is the current thing that HAS to be done RIGHT now? 

You know, that one thing you are really tying to finish. That thing that MUST be done and out your mental way.

This could be a deadline. Something due the very next day, or TODAY!! You HAVE to get to this creative thing before you can even think about anything else.

The other day I was deluged by all the creative ideas I had. I literally had 5-10 brands that I wanted to work on and know needed work. I had video ideas, blog ideas, picture ideas, music ideas, and more. I was in turmoil, not knowing which thing to focus on.

Then, my mind cleared as I remembered that really, and truly, I only had to get one thing done that day (I needed to finish for an online church broadcast for release the next morning.) Everything else could wait. All I really had to do was focus my creative engines on one (or five) tasks to get that done. But what was ALL I had to focus on.

Once you know that current thing, then block out all the other creative ideas and FOCUS on that one thing today. When it’s done you can think about other things. But today, THAT PROJECT is your focus. Put all your creative brain mojo on that and make it great.

2. What will bring the most value the quickest?

This is a great one for the to do list makers out there, like me. My to do lists have to do lists. (Props to Evernote. If you don’t use it, your probably should!)

But sometimes, the rent needs to be paid, or the car payment, or whatever. What will bring the paycheck, or keep the paychecks coming? Focusing on the creative task at hand is helpful for you and the client or project it goes with. That job may be your lifeline to pay bills or pay for more creative projects.

If you can’t figure out what to do, and especially if you are needing to get paid, go to your to do list and find the one what will bring MONEY! Or find the one that will keep your boss or client (who pays you money) the happiest.

Sometimes focusing on the value of getting a creative job done is the real answer on what creative project to tackle next!

3. What will bring you the most pleasure to do?

If there is no deadline, or monetary need, then maybe the best creative project to choose is the one you know will be the most FUN. Remember that? Remember fun? It’s what we used to do with our creativity before we became such driven artistic “professionals.” Before it paid the bills and became our master!

Create. For fun. For YOUR enjoyment.

If you’re looking for what artistic thing to do, do THAT. Wouldn’t it be so fulfilling to get more down the road or actually finish that creative project? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to bring that artistic treasure that you’ve been mining for so long to the world?

4. What do you FEEL like doing the most?

This is a question I ask myself a lot as I think about what I want to get done creatively. Sometimes I just go with the one that I want to do MOST. I look over all my creative projects that are somewhere along the line of being done and pick the one that strikes me as the one I WANT to do at that moment. It usually works, and is probably the one I should do as a creative.

I think we can lessen our creativity when we just make creative work like any other work. So we need to FEEL it as much as possible.

What one creative thing will you do today?

I hope these are some things to try and see if they help your mind to focus next time your mind is besieged by all the creative things you COULD be doing.

Have a great week!

EC

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About the Author

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Eric Copeland is an author, producer, keyboardist, songwriter, and president of Creative Soul Companies. What is Creative Soul? Our main goals are to inform, encourage, and assist Christian creative folks in ministry, no matter where they are in their journey. Thanks for reading! Find out more about us at http://www.CreativeSoulOnline.com