What's on your creative to do list?
If you're like me, you have a "someday" creative to-do list. My creativity to-do list often gets neglected because I feel like I should be making calls, running errands, or picking up around my dream home. Then I realized that there is always going to be laundry to do, workouts to work in, and relationships I want to build. And "someday" is not a day of the week.
What would you do if you didn't let the weight of productivity and perfectionism slow you down? I'd become a writer.
Are there things you dream of doing that go undone because you're not good enough yet? Me too, like writing. The truth: I become a writer by writing. This is no different than when I became a runner by running. One Saturday morning in 2000, I laced up my shoes and walked out the door. Simple as that. Why should writing be any different?
If I waited to publish a blog post until it was perfect, I would have published approximately zero blog posts so far. This was a game-changing, perspective shift for me. Doing more, lying to myself less. Someday is not a day of the week, repeat.
Last year, my creativity goal was simply to spend time once a week doing something I love. There were no rules. It just needed to be something I don't let myself do because I "should be doing something productive." Do you ever feel the weight of that lie? You can't (insert whatever you're passionate about here) because you need to (insert whatever is on your to-do list here). Truly, there is nothing more productive than doing something that keeps our passion burning.
I've learned that reading, running, and creating are what keeps the fires burning in every area of my life. Whether it's writing, working, or loving...I can't do anything as well without taking time to do what lights me up. When I'm making time for my creative to-do list, my home stays neater, the gym sees more of me, and the people in my life get a better version of me.
Another epiphany came while restarting this site. I noticed that when I don't spend time in God's Word, I suddenly "run out" of things to write about and time to write in. When I'm spending 30 minutes of my morning having my perspective shaped by the Truth, I can't write fast enough and time seems to stand still for me.
Try it. It works.
This year my goal is to write 250 posts in 365 days. If I want to be the gracious alternative to your morning paper, I need to be here for you....every morning. 250 posts is Monday through Friday all year, with two weeks of breathing room for when life happens.
I burned one of those "life happens to the best of us weeks" last week when MacKenzie, my iMac, needed to go to the spa for some upgrades. She crashed, so it was lights out here on Paper & Glam. If you stopped by and I wasn't here for you, I'm sorry I missed yah! I'm going to try like fury not to let that happen again. But when it does, thanks in advance for your grace.
What's on your creativity to do list? Let's make this the year, and the week, and the day we prioritize that list.
with mad Hope on this winter Wednesday,
Lm
