Is creating a habit or a reward?

As a motivator

I struggle with this one, a lot. On the one hand, the opportunity to just sit and create is an incredible motivator for me. It will get me to finish something I’ve been putting off, promising myself that if you just do this one thing you can go play for a couple of hours. Some days I need that extra push to get me through a difficult project or task.

As a Habit

On the flip side, the act of creating needs to be a habit as well, it needs to be part of a regular routine that is intentionally scheduled. Creativity is a valuable skill and it is a muscle that when not exercised regularly can atrophy and not be there when you need it. It needs to be developed and nurtured on a regular basis and should not be something that just happens to come along once in a while or when we have the chance.

The act of creating can be:

• Therapeutic
• Stress relieving
• Encouraging
• Fun
• An analytical brain break

When I don’t take time to create, I get restless, I’m distracted much easier and I can get a wee bit cranky. Sitting behind a keyboard all day is at times a challenge and a huge drain. Taking the time to sew, make soap or lotions, herbal balms, knit, write longhand, or making photo cards, takes me into another world where the synapses in my brain fire differently, make different connections that I wouldn’t normally and help me figure out problems the analytical side of me has been mulling over and over and over.

So where is the balance between these two ideas? I’m guessing it needs to be somewhere in the middle. I can see the value of ideas. So it needs to be put on the calendar and needs to be something you follow-through on but on those days it can also be a motivator to get er’ done even when you don’t want to. There are days this will work and days it won’t so I’ll still be working on this one!

What do you do to be creative in your day-to-day?