There’s this one quote that I stumbled upon when learning about creativity.
“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” —W. Somerset Maugham
Creativity is a powerful thing. People often think that creativity is only reserved for the selected few, for the talented few.
But creativity is actually a skill. A skill that can be developed & build upon. The more you work on it, the better you become.
When doing creative work like writing, designing or building something, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “waiting for inspiration to strike”.
But most creative people that succeed don’t wait for inspiration. They create it, through processes, systems & a whole lot of discipline.
Creativity is powerful, but also chaotic. Until you learn how to contain & control it, you won’t be able to harness its full potential.
So how can you harness the power of creativity?
Here are 3 steps that has helped me in my creative endeavours all these years,
1/ Pick a goal for yourself.
Choose one creative goal that you want to pursue & commit to it. It could be writing one piece of article everyweek or designing a single poster everyday. Pick one & really commit to it so that you don’t think whether or not you should do it but rather what you should do.
2/ Set a constraint for it.
Creativity by nature is chaotic, so you need to put it in a box, contain it well. Set some rules for yourself, like a time limit or a deadline. Then follow through with it. Be disciplined about it. Get rid of distractions, put your phone away. Be in a conducive working environment.
3/ Simply put in the work.
And lastly, just do the work. Just write, just design, just create. Don’t edit yourself, let it flow. Don’t let the page stay blank, just write anything, no matter how shitty it is. Imagine like riding a bike, when you do it for some time, you’ll be cruising in no time.
Creativity is very much like a muscle. It can expand & contract. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. If you stop using it, it will shrivelled down.
So put in the work. You don’t have to start big, just take some small steps. Pick a goal, set a constraint & get to work.