Paying & Collecting

See the World

I would like to use modern day banking as a model for the sake of this blog post. Anyone who has a bank account or investment account understands that when you put money in there, you receive interest. The financial institution gives you money just for entrusting your money with their organization. Some places give you more interest than others depending on the amount of risk you want to take. Personally, I think this sounds like creative output.

For every deposit you make, your value grows and you also gain interest. For every withdrawal you make, your value decreases and you lose potential interest or profit. Simple. Now let’s apply this to our creative endeavors. More importantly to the three resources that make your creative endeavors possible - time, energy, and headspace.

First, let’s address the things that have you paying interest, essentially losing value in your three key resources - time, energy, and headspace.

Time, your most precious non-renewable resource, is stealing value when you work in a disorganized space. Don’t get me wrong, I have made a lot of things on a table that is loaded with a stash of fabric or pile of hand painted papers. What some call a creative mess. What I am referring to is the disorganization that steals your time because you are searching for things and cannot readily find them. The inconveniently placed items or stuff that is located in places where you aren’t planning to use them. If every time you need scissors you have to look under piles of stuff or open five drawers until they appear, that is interest you are paying on your creative time. Consider how you could get this time back.

Energy, what makes your world go around, is renewable. (I hear you fellow science nerds - Yes, it cannot be created or destroyed. As a former physics and chemistry teacher I wholeheartedly agree.) You get a good night’s rest and you are ready to go. We’ve all had the experience of get a terrible night’s sleep or taking a red eye flight home only to be completely exhausted. How productive are you that day? Not taking time to rest and renew is paying interest on your creativity. Having low energy that is self-inflicted (pronounced late night TV binge), is stealing from your energy resources. Here’s another thing that can be a real thief of your energy supply - complaining. When I was working full time, I often came across people who would complain about everything from the weather to world problems. If I could, I would turn and walk away. But, I often watched people join them and go from feeling just fine to being miserable. The act of complaining is a voluntary decision to give away your energy and lower your energetic vibration. I suggest you stay away from complainers. We have all had a bad situation that we want to vent about but, when it’s relentless, it steals your creative energy. Let it go, walk away, write it down and burn it. Do whatever it takes to renew your energy and don’t pay interest on it.

Headspace, is something that is really impacted by what you put in there. Just like complaining, procrastination can be an uninvited visitor to your peace and clarity. You want to go in and paint but, first you should empty the dishwasher, fold the laundry, mow the lawn, paint the kitchen and on and on. You keep thinking about the thing you want to do and find excuses for not doing it. Here’s the real kicker. All the while that you are busying yourself with other tasks, your brain is on repeat and you are never going to enjoy anything else until you stop procrastinating on what you want to get done. I don’t know why we do this. We should on ourselves. Now, if you know that you will have a clearer head once the laundry is folded, go fold it. But if you are using it as an excuse not to go do the creative work, you might want to have a think about why you are stealing joy from yourself.

Personally, I think that my time, energy and headspace are best used on creative tasks first. I can fold the laundry in the evening when I am lower on my energy reserves and don’t want to make any more decisions. I can also unload the dishwasher while dinner is on the stove. I don’t worry that it will never get done. I just try to align a task with what amount of energy and clarity I want to bring to it. I prefer to bring my highest energy, clearest mind and least rushed time to my creative practice. Whenever that time is for you might be something to consider.

If you want quiet time to work on your art, perhaps after the kids are in bed is best. If you are a morning person and you want to write poetry, maybe getting up before everyone else is your best bet.

Now, let’s take a moment to discuss how you can collect interest and gain value to your time, energy and headspace.

First, your time. A non-renewable resource. You can’t make more but you can make the most of what you have. Invest in organizing your work space. Just like you wouldn’t look through your dresser drawers for a spatula, put things where they make the most sense and where you will look for them when you need them. Yes, it will take you some time and energy to organize your space. However, it pays you back in interest of time saved not searching. I would like to add that organizing your time in the day to help you collect interest on your creative work is also important. If you work best at a certain time of day, dedicate that time and reserve some energy and headspace to do your best work. The world wants to see your best work. In fact, that’s why you’re here to add your best to the collective whole. When you do this, you collect interest in the way of inspiration, motivation, self-worth and happiness. Who doesn’t want more of that?

Energy is collected in being fully engaged with doing the thing you love. Time flies by unnoticed and you are renewed by being fully present mind, body and spirit in your creativity. You are not procrastinating on making something, you are engaged in it. You feel the flow or energy. Your headspace is aligned with where you are and what you are doing. That’s what is so rewarding about getting down to it and not making excuses that stop you. We all have things to do, scrolling your phone or bingeing on TV are not helping you gain value and collect interest. Prioritize what you want to accomplish and the other distractions will fall into place, probably on the bottom of the list if they make the to do list at all.

The last thing I want to discuss is your headspace. Call it whatever you want - mindset, inspiration, thoughts, etc. If you want to get in a creative headspace and raise your energy, apply gratitude. Be thankful for the day you have, the time you have, the materials you have and the ideas you have. Rather than think about the material you wish you had or what you consider a time shortage, be grateful for whatever you have. Fifteen minutes - GREAT! Your child’s practice is running late and you have a pencil and sketchbook - GREAT! You can’t justify the expensive paint but, you have some very nice colored pencils - GREAT! Stop looking at what isn’t there and just focus on what you have been given. Appreciate it and every small thing can be just what you needed at this moment.

I hope there was something in this post that makes you stop and think about how you could be happier and more fulfilled. And just to support you here are a couple more posts that might also benefit you.

Here’s an older blog post that might be helpful if you want to organize your studio and collect interest on your time.

Here’s another previous blog post about building a creative mindset.

Long Time