Organization/completing projects/ensuring your success

Hello team!

I’ve been speaking for a while on the importance of organization when it comes to creative freedom. I spoke about it a little in the “What’s in a name” episode. I'm delving into it even more deeply with this blog.

When it comes to being an artist/creator, we can often start projects and not finish them due to a few factors. Whether it be too many projects going on at once, perfectionism, lack of motivation or lack of origination, there can be many things that seem to stand in the way of our success. That’s a big reason why I started this “Creative Freedom Podcast”. I wanted to ensure my success while supporting my community in ensuring theirs. Because the world is richer when we share our gifts. 

As I’ve reflected on the things that nourish my success, I realized that containers/boundaries/systems help me create the environment I need in my life to help me accomplish my goals. As self-employed artists, we are self-guided. So creating systems of accountability is a big key in getting to commit to the completion of a project, even when it gets challenging. Every creation has its own hero’s journey. Even when I was painting my pig, I struggled with getting the shading. That could've made me give up. But I went into student mode, learned, experimented and became a stronger artist because of my ability to overcome this challenge. 

When we consider the things that support us in the completion and realization of our projects, it’s important that we look back at our previous successes (big or small) for guidance. What worked? What didn’t? And what created the environments that supported our success?

First, there are basic nourishments you can consider. Nourishments like drinking water, being in nature, silence or noise, community or solitude, a good night's rest and so on. If this is what you need, make sure you give yourself this fuel before you say you have writer's block. Is it writer's block, or is your tank just empty? 

Important distinction*** sometimes people feel the most creative in tragedy. For example, after a break-up, the loss of a loved one, rage and so on. And while using our art to alchemize and process our pain is a vital part of the creative journey, it’s important not to harm ourselves to make “good art”. There’s enough pain in our lives that we don’t need to seek it out to make art. I had a friend whose teacher told her she didn’t suffer enough to make good art. Which is wild. Because first of all, he had no idea what suffering she did or did not experience. And second of all, not all good art has to come from suffering. A lot of great art comes from pleasure. And I don’t want to give up on “making good art” just because I’m in a good place in my life. We can make art as a prayer or an expression of so much more than just pain. However, if you need that sacred tension to get inspired, it’s possible to create without adding more control dramas into your life. Like vigorous exercise, giving yourself a deadline, cold dipping, healthy competition or other ways of creating challenges that inspire your growth. Art made from pain and from pleasure are both valid and important!

I digress. Back to my list of containers. 

When I consider the containers that hold my work, I consider the following:

Projects

People

Places

Devices 

Time

PROJECTS

Projects can be big or small. They can be a single song or a musical. A poem or a novel. Knowing where your ideas can land is a great way for people with many interests and ideas to funnel their creativity. For instance, I write children’s musicals. This is a great project that allows for me to funnel my passion for puppets, songwriting, storytelling and crafting. Puppets are a great container for me to express my passion for acting, fashion, crafting, socializing and filming. An album concept or an upcoming show is a great way for me to funnel or get inspired to write new songs, play my instruments, produce and market. When we have a project container for our work, our ideas don’t seem as scattered because they all can have a home. And because those ideas know they have a home in our projects, more ideas come to us. because they won’t just gather dust. 

PEOPLE 

People can add so much to an environment. What people are you around or not around when you feel the most creative? Are you on your own, or with a pal? What are the traits of these people? Are they compassionate or competitive? Digital or in person? Doing similar work to you or different? Do you work in silence or bounce ideas off each other? When you start to notice the similarities between the people you work with the easiest, it can be easier to call in more of that or ask for your needs. Also, you may notice certain people support different projects. You might like knitting with one friend, doing more admin stuff with another, and playing music with another and composing alone. Having a digital or physical community of people who you can meet up with to help uplift each other is a great way to complete your projects. My weekly Wednesday live podcast streaming could count as something for your people category. I love listening to people who are living creative lives while I’m creating. 

PLACES

Places or environments are very important to consider as a container when you’re creating. It’s a limitation that informs your style. I can’t bring a sewing machine on a road trip, but I can knit my beehive cozies. Maybe you like painting outside, or doing your paperwork in a coffee shop. Different environments are charged in different ways. It’s like feng shui. The intention of a space has a big effect on what you’re creating. Not everyone has the gift of many rooms in their homes. However, sometimes just changing tables, or chairs can shift the intention of what you’re working on. I get a lot of great ideas when I’m driving. Or at the beach. So I need to be ready to receive them there with our next category. 

DEVICES. 

Devices are important as the boundary for your project. If I get my best ideas in my car, a notebook will not be the device for me. But voice memo is great. If I get them in the beach, maybe a notebook would better serve. Different devices will hold different projects or the same project at different stages in its life. Perhaps your ideas go in notes, voice memo, notebooks or social media. Then your editing happens in your word documents, or DAW. Perhaps your monetization happens on your website, or a social media platform. The devices need a way to be congruent and communicate. And this is where our next container comes in. 

TIME 

Time is a powerful way to tie in together all the elements of our work. When do you take all those ideas on all those devices and organize them back into your projects? If you don’t schedule this, it may never happen. So this is key. This can be a challenging one, so you can resource your people, environments or projects to make sure you do this. If you have a show in a month, you’d got to take some time to get all those songs into a folder. If you don’t have some sort of time accountability, the project doesn’t always happen. Because I do theatre camps every summer, I write a new musical every year. That time based boundary helps me get the job done. If you want to record an album, a great way to do it is to plan mini shows along the way, or even commit yourself to a weekly livestream where you share songs from your album. This not only builds hype, but also helps you clarify the arrangements for your songs and see how people react. It’s a smaller goal that can bring you to your bigger goal. Your time commitments don’t have to be huge. You can learn a new instrument in 10 minutes a day. (I’ve definitely spent more than 10 minutes a day scrolling passively on social media). 

I hope this little exploration was helpful! What are the containers that nourish your creativity? Consistency is key. So find ways to support your success. It can be hard sometimes to dedicate that time to ourselves in a world where we were raised to people please. But your pleasure is our pleasure. The work you do that nourishes you nourishes the collective. It makes the world more beautiful and will be a medicine for those who are meant to find it. It takes discipline to love ourselves. But the more we do it, the easier it gets. It’s important to remember, even the people you admire, have struggled with committing to themselves. I know I have. So as we live our lives as creatives, it’s important to appreciate ourselves in our wins. Share our beautiful creations so we can be celebrated. Feel free to tag me in your posts so I can applaud your work. It is so important, as artists, to cheer each other on and make the world we want to see with our art. We are world builders! So let’s make something beautiful!

Love, 

Wuzzô