Weeks ago, I made a content plan. It's a spreadsheet with six months of themes, dates, and blog topics. What I'm writing now does not match the plan. Why? Because I wasn't having fun writing about the topic that was scheduled for today. Writing is hard enough when you enjoy the process. When it's a drag, writing is just an irritant.
Of course, the reason I write a blog isn't (or shouldn't) be about me. It's about you, the reader. I want to help you learn and grow creative curiosity and courage. But I'm going to insist that I have fun in the process. It's the advantage of owning my own business and being my own boss. I get to decide pretty much everything, including when to ignore the content plan.
You hear opposite pieces of advice when it comes to running a creative business. Some taut the blessing of being able to earn money by doing what you love; others warn that when you turn your creative passion into a business, you destroy the passion. I suspect both can be true.
When you're wearing your creative hat, as a business owner or a hobbyist, or something in between, you can make choices about which creative projects to continue and which ones to stop. I'm encouraging you to avoid anything that turns creativity from positive to negative. If you're not getting satisfaction from being creative, you're doing it wrong. When creativity isn't joyful, it loses its magic. Diminished joy might be related to the level of skill or challenge as we learned from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Or maybe you've gotten off-track from why you were creating in the first place. Find out what's going on and then decide how to get the joy back or make a decision to stop doing the thing that is no longer fun. It's a simple guideline: Keep Creativity Joyful.
Let's not confuse joyful with easy. Creativity is not always easy. Again referencing Csikszentmihalyi, challenge is part of the formula. Creativity takes time and patience and determination and discipline. Sometimes it can be frustrating when you can't bring a creation to life in the way you envision it. And when the frustration rises to the point of anger or apathy or anything that ruins the act of creating for you, it's okay to step away. That's not failure, it's a decision to protect what matters—joyful creativity. There's no rule that says you can't return to that frustrating thing a little later when you have more skill or information or motivation. You can put it down and pick it up multiple times. Just keep chasing joy.
I'll get back to the post that was planned for today a little later. When I do, I'll make sure it's more enjoyable for me to write. It'll probably be more enjoyable for you to read as well. That might be another topic to consider for the content plan: Does joy spread from the creator to the consumer through art? Let's all assume the answer is yes and go create something this week to share with another person. See what happens. Let me know how it goes. Enjoy.
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