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Yeah I know you’re probably thinking “What could a creative person possibly be struggling with, at least you have all these cool ideas.” It’s just not that simple.
I see creativity as a fuel tank, you get creative ideas from your surroundings. The more you take in the more full your fuel tank gets. It’s the easiest to be creative when your tank is full, you can go for miles, hours, days, it’s a creative road trip. But what happens when you hit E?
What happens when a creative person isn’t feeling creative or productive? What is it like when you do get that idea but don’t want to act on it? I’ve noticed I go through phases, one week I can lock in a be productive 24/7. Making new content, new music, hitting the gym, reading, writing, my fuel tank is on F. But then I have weeks where I don’t want to do anything, I waste my time on social media, I go out drinking and partying and barely do anything. Normally once I hit this point I get into a depressive cycle of hating myself and needing to change everything that second which then comes with a rush of anxiety, no sleep and anger from no sleep.
It’s easy to get lost in this cycle, it’s easy to forget this cycle even exists. So what do you do to get out of it? Well, it may be easier than you and I think. You fill your fuel tank. “Alright so how the hell do I fill my fuel tank?” you’re probably asking. Easy, feed off other people doing what you want to do, my go to solution is youtube. I find creative people that make inspiring videos that I know will strike some new ideas and motivation for me.
Find what you love and find people that are doing it, watch how they do it in their own way and take insperation. Do you want to make a short film? Do you want to make music? Do you want to learn the piano? Do you want to clean your room? Find videos that are well made that fit what you want to do. For me I want to stay organized, I want to make inspiring content, I want to make unique music you can only get from me.
Look at it this way, you sit alone for a week uninspired, sad, unmotivated, almost feeling helpless. Then your friend calls you and says “Hey we’re going to the gym at 6pm then grabbing some food.” You think “Bro seriously I don’t want to go to the gym I got stuff to do.” but you talk yourself into it, you get a bag together, change in to your nicest gym fit and head to the gym. You meet up with your homie and he slides you an energy drink, you down it and get started. You hit 2 sets on the bench press and your friend goes “Bro you got more in you add 20 lbs” you shake your head and say “bro no way I could barely hit that”. So you know he hits you with the “shut up bro put it on”. You’re now going for your set with an extra 20 lbs, you’re kind of nervous but you have a feeling you can do it. The energy drink starts to kick in and Heave by Marauda is about to hit drop 3. You are locked the hell in, you squeeze the bar and he lifts the weight off and sets it all in your hands. You feel the extra weight in your elbows and then the drop hits. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 “Come on bro 3 more” your homie says. 6, 7 and with every once of power you have you just barely get the 8th rep in. “Bro I told you” he says while you have a huge smile on your face, you dap him up and go “holy shit I wasn’t expecting that”.
After the gym you guys grab some food and talk for an hour, you head home and feel great. Your tank is back to F, all you needed was your friends inspiration to fill you back up. You start adding the gym to your schedule, which means you need to wake up earlier to have time in the afternoon to go. Since you need to wake up early you stay away from scrolling until 1 am and instead grab a book to help you get to sleep by 10pm. You wake up feeling good because you didn’t have blue light burning your eyes out all night. The rest builds itself, do you see how one ounce of inspiration and motivation from somebody else can change your whole life.
I know, not everyone is fortunate enough to have someone like this in their life. That’s why you can use youtube as a tool to get the same outcome. Sleepy Charlie is just one example of a dude that makes killer content, it’s simple, straight to the point but get’s you super inspired. You binge acouple 5 minute videos and boom you’re back.
Instead of watching boring tutorial videos that aren’t inspirational find someone that has a similar mindset as you that talks about how it feels to be able to do the thing. For example I really want to learn how to play the piano, what I can do is find somebody that talks about how spending 30 minutes a day changed their life. It took them away from all the bad and gave them something they can do with themselves that makes them happy. “yeah but how did they learn” you’re probably asking, most of the time it’s just because they fu**ing did it. They got the piano, set it up in their room so they could look at it everyday until they went “you know what I’m going to learn that song” or “why don’t I try writing a melody for my new track” until they got motivated to actually watch those boring tutorials.
Listen, i’m not saying I know what Im talking about. I just know what works for me and what has helped me stay on my A game. I hate feeling depressed and I like creating new things I can look back on and be happy about. My biggest struggle is hitting E and thinking nobody wants me around, thinking if I leave it wouldn’t make a difference to anybody. This is a terrible thing to have in your head and yes, that feeling may not ever go away but all im trying to do is lessen the amount of times I think it in my life.
Everybody is creative in their own way, everybody has their own ideas. The people that take the action are the ones that truly make the difference, for yourself and the world. Somebody out there needs your creativity, don’t be the one to keep it away from them.
https://youtu.be/B_E3-1Ypfbc