I imagine there will be a few of these "preaching to myself" blog posts on here, but after having a conversation with a group of people earlier in the week about the same topic, it felt right to share.

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post because I thought I didn't have anything to write about.  I was going around each day with the mindset of "oh, something good will just pop into my mind and then I'll work from that."  Probably one of the biggest things I have learned right now personally for me, is that this is not always the case.

Along with all the other things I do, I am also photographer and I've currently given myself the task of taking photographs more regularly in order to keep me shooting at times other than just when I'm on a planned shoot doing it for work, as well as to have more little memories to be able to look back on.  Over the last couple of weeks, I've had days where I would forget or there would be just days where I'd be indoors most of the day and it would get to 11pm and I'd remember and then attempt to shoot something quickly last minute.
This ultimately took away from the entire point of why I wanted to shoot everyday as it became rushed and meaningless or didn't even happen at all.  I wasn't intentionally seeking out opportunities to shoot and similarly with this blog and other writing projects, I wasn't being intentional.  I was content on just carrying on going about doing other things and waiting until something came into my mind or until I by chance saw something that I could to write about.

Yes, things can still start out like an idea that way, most things do, and those epiphany moments do happen and they're beautiful, but if you're not practicing your craft or pursuing moments and experiences to be inspired in order for you to then move in your creativity, well, other than instinctively, how else will you be inspired and move in your creativity?

After feeling the guilt of not achieving as much as I wanted to creatively, I had to sit back and be real with myself and remind myself of why I was doing what I was doing.  I wasn't doing it to please other people, I wasn't doing it just to tick something of my list of things to do, I was doing it because I wanted to do it for me and exercise my strengths.  Taking photographs, writing, everything else that I feel I am essentially gifted at and put on this planet to do is important to me and I'm sure the things you are good at are fundamental to you as well.  So let's take this in for a second.  Like any other skill, like any other craft, creativity can't thrive as well unless you nourish it. So if it is important to us, why have we become so blasé about it?

If you play and instrument, you practice to become a more competent player.  If you study, you read up on your area of expertise and research to improve your knowledge, so surely it doesn't have to be different in this case right? If you only played your instrument whenever you needed to, you're ability to play will still be the same as when you last played, if a not little rusty or worse.  If you didn't stay engaged with what you're studying, you'll inevitably not do as well as well as you could in any assignments or examinations and if you waited until you had a "creative idea" until you did anything every time, you could be waiting for weeks, or even longer.

Some people are blessed with having creative ideas come to them more frequently than others and that's how they commonly function, but maintaining continuous practice helps you move in your creativity naturally as well.  The more you're engaged with it, the more likely you are to have those "epiphany moments".

After thinking through all of this in my head, I realised that there wasn't really an excuse.  For some reason, my brain just somehow naturally programmed the concept of being creative to only having creative ideas and being creative only at certain times and it happening naturally and not letting it become part of my lifestyle and I think somewhere along the way, we have all done it too.  Truth is, it needs to become an intentional part of our lifestyle if it's how we grow.

There is an abundance of quotes on creativity out there to help keep you motivated but if there's anything I am going to take from the last few of weeks it would be none of those, but this one phrase I told myself:

It is time to stop waiting for things to happen and hone in on our crafts, seek opportunities, be mindful, be on the look out, stay engaged and enjoy what we find, learn and create.