How to Bring Creativity Into Your Life
If you’re reading this, you’re a creative person at heart. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even wonder how to bring creativity into your lifee.
Perhaps you read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert or The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and understand that creativity comes in a different form. You can be creative with your spreadsheets or how you pack your kids’ lunch boxes.
I’ve always had this desire to create. Do something with my hands, make something beautiful. You and I understand that beauty is different for everyone. Even if I say this picture is beautiful, you may disagree.
I’m sure you understand the desire to create something beautiful.
While I was in high school, I attended an art school. All of a sudden, the problem of what I’d be doing after school disappeared. I wanted to be creative. Someone suggested that just painting is not going to earn me a living, so I should do something like interior design or fashion.
At the time, I was obsessed with models and fashion. I started sewing when I was 7. I even remember what my first project was exactly. I couldn’t wait to start sewing the way my Mum and my auntie could. My auntie is a professional dressmaker. My summers were spent choosing fabrics for my new outfits and looking through fashion magazines.
So, I decided I’d do fashion. It felt so good. I just knew what I wanted to be doing. The only thing was that I didn’t get into the university I wanted. It was a disappointment, though I knew some people spent years trying to get to this art university. A girl who lived with me in a room was amazing at drawing, and it was the seventh year she attempted to get admitted.
I decided to try twice. In the second year, I tried interior design because I thought I was better at drawing interiors and architecture than dresses and figures. I managed to go through to the exams but didn’t get in. I didn’t want to go to college, only university.
I tried a private university, but the classrooms were freezing (that was in Estonia; it is cold in autumn without any heating). I also realised that I had to buy so many materials and have free time to do the tasks. It’s not like I could do them overnight. But I also had to work.
But if I look back, freezing in an ugly space was the number one reason I switched to a different degree. Economics. Yes, an entirely different career path.
I stopped painting. I attempted to paint a couple of times, but I didn’t continue. Twenty (!) years later, I ordered simple watercolours from Kmart and bought a nice-to-feel watercolour paper from a two-dollar shop. It turned out it was a pretty good paper. It cost around $10, not two. I showed up exactly at 11am on Friday as I said (to myself, and Katie, my coach)
I know that you have that yearning within you to create something. Maybe you even know what it is. Maybe not.
The simplest way is just to start. Start with what you have. Find a tutorial online or an inexpensive course for beginners and follow along. Most likely, you’ll not be great right away, but the feeling you’ll get after you’ve done what you’ve wanted to do is second to none. You’ll feel on top of the world.
Of course, I was upset that sometimes it didn’t work out, and the result I would get by the end of the class was not what my teacher in the video had. But then I learned to shrug my shoulders and say to myself, well, that was good to get this done. You have to create bad work to get good at something, right? I needed those not-so-perfect and pretty outcomes because later, I started getting work that I actually liked.
So, decide when you’re going to do your creative work. Make it no longer than a week from today. Get what you need: buy a course or find a tutorial on YouTube.
Buy your supplies. First, see what you already have. It probably is enough.
Let people you live with know that you’re not going to be available between this and this time. Say 10–12 pm. Then, show up at the time you said you would, just like you would for someone else.
And start.
Don’t have two hours? Make it 30 minutes. Make it 15. You can watch a tutorial today and paint tomorrow. You can write for ten minutes. We spend a lot of time watching Netflix. Be creative instead.
All you need is to decide that you can do this. And to feel more confident, you need to start with something and improve just by 2% every time. 2% doesn’t sound that scary, does it?
Decide that you’re worthy of the art you want to create. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at what you do.
Start with what you have, try it and go from there.
Olya
“You use a glass mirror to see your face. You use works of art to see your soul”
~ George Bernard Shaw