The Fallacy of Inspiration for Creativity : Mark Your Time Better

The potential exists for the light of consciousness to penetrate ever deeper into the mind when it is open and prejudice-free. Maintaining the flow of spiritual wisdom requires the free will of the mind. The free mind doesn't accumulate; it stays malleable and flexible. The well-known psychologist William James is credited with noting that routines and habits are crucial because they “allow our minds to advance to really interesting fields of action. If you waste resources trying to decide when or where to work, you'll impede your capacity to do the work," an article in The Guardian stated. The assertion is supported by a plethora of studies on motivation and willpower. Stated differently, if you truly want to produce something captivating, you should quit waiting for inspiration and drive to come to you and instead make a plan for consistently completing your task. It's simple to say, of course, but far more difficult to achieve in reality.Keep Creating Junk ~  (Source: Google Images) Creative work is no different than training in the gym. You can’t selectively choose your best moments and only work on the days when you have great ideas. The only way to unveil the great ideas inside of you is to go through a volume of work, put in your repetitions, and show up over and over again. Doing something below average is never the goal. But you have to permit yourself to grind through the occasional days of below-average work because it’s the price you have to pay to get to excellent work. If you’re anything like me, you hate creating something that isn’t excellent. It’s easy to start judging your work and convince yourself to not share something, not publish something, and not ship something because “this isn’t good enough yet.”But the alternative is even worse: if you don’t have a schedule forcing you to deliver, then it’s straightforward to avoid doing the work at all. The only way to be consistent enough to make a masterpiece is to permit yourself to create junk along the way.Your Schedule Is The System For You~Your aspirations become a reality when you create a schedule. Without one, you're left relying solely on motivation. If you don't plan your workouts, you'll wake up each day hoping to find the motivation to exercise. Similarly, without a structured marketing plan, you'll go to work each day hoping to figure out how to promote your business amidst all your other tasks. And if you don't allocate a specific time each week for writing, you'll often find yourself saying, "I just need to muster the willpower to do it."Make a routine for your habits instead of waiting for inspiration or motivation to strike. This is how amateurs and professionals differ from one another. Professionals plan their time and follow through on it. Novices hold off until they are motivated or inspired.