Creative Motivation
Two of the hardest things to maintain at high levels as a creative and a freelancer are inspiration and motivation. Although I’ve managed to give motivation a kick-start by setting due dates for my own projects as well as the ones I do for clients, I have to admit, inspiration doesn’t always flow as freely as I’d like.
Many of the greats like Stephen King say they sit down to write every single day. Many claim it’s the same time too. That worked well for me when I was working a full-time job, and after 10 PM was about the only time I could send my inner critic off to amuse herself so I could write for a couple of hours. It’s not so easy when I often have an entire day spread out before me, and distractions come flying at me like meteors. There are times no amount of ducking and dodging keeps me from getting beaned by one or two.
Compassion Overrides Introversion
The holiday season makes it even worse because I can leave the house to go to the gym and 
find myself spending 4 or 5 hours running around town doing errands. Not just shopping either. Some days it’s car care, others, a much-needed and long-neglected massage. Sometimes, I have to kill time because something I ordered wasn’t ready as promised.
If I’m in a particularly friendly mood, it’s even worse as I’ll get wrapped up in a conversation with a sales clerk, someone standing in line behind me, or even an especially adorable child who wants to share their life story. Trust me, even introverts get caught up in the friendliness of the season.
As my compassionate side grows, the culprit is often someone who’s feeling sad and needs a few minutes of kindness in an otherwise frustrating day. How can I not give a harried sales clerk or checker a bit of my time? Their job can be unenviable at best in the insanity of holiday shoppers. And I’d be three kinds of hypocrite for ignoring them after all the posts I’ve written about caring for each other.
Finding the Right Writing Schedule
After spending months trying to readjust my sleep schedule so I woke earlier in the morning, I often find I don’t start writing until the sun goes down anyway, though granted, that’s about 4:30 PM right now. As darkness falls, I’ve wound down from being out among people for a few hours while the sun was out, and am finally ready to put fingers to keys and hope my creative muse was merely waiting for that moment to emit the stored up wisdom my distractions held at bay.
The one saving grace is it takes little to no preparation for me to start writing. Were I a painter or sculptor, there would be supplies to unpack and lay out, maybe a surface to prepare, and a multitude of other things standing between me and inspiration. Fortunately, my inspiration needs little more than a keyboard and a site to write in, or even a notebook and pen to begin the creative dance.
In some ways, I think setting my thrice-weekly gym habit has more to do with being able to stick to a writing schedule now than anything else. When I was wishy-washy about my gym schedule, it overflowed into everything else I did. Once I committed to going three times a week, and stopped saying “I don’t feel like going today. I’ll go tomorrow”; once I stopped allowing myself to get away with letting my workouts slip to another day, or, more often than not, get skipped entirely, I became less inclined to allow other plans to slip as well.
Staying Ahead of the Game
Even more, when something has to slip because of other commitments, I’m like a crazy 
woman working to get back on schedule once the immovable distraction has passed. After slipping by almost two weeks while preparing for Thanksgiving, it took about a week to get caught back up. Meanwhile, I look ahead to see what the coming week holds so I know if I have to accomplish more than usual in order to stay ahead.
The week before Christmas was a frenzy of writing and planning because I didn’t want to have a repeat of Thanksgiving week. Schedules were bumped so I’d have 4 weeks of posts scheduled before I left for my daughters, and all Medium posts for January were set up as well. As wrapping was done well ahead of time, it simply meant fewer hours parked in front of the TV indulging in Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies. When all is said and done, it was a small sacrifice for preventing a post-holiday meltdown due to too many missed deadlines.
Many entrepreneurs will tell you they put in crazy hours in order to get some time off. The truth is, most of us like putting in crazy hours for awhile so we can have a chunk of down time if we want it. Sure, it depends on the business you’re in. Some require a certain amount of monitoring throughout the year that can’t be delegated to others. Mine is no different in that regard.
Always Something to Write About
I have to write the posts and get them scheduled, but I also have to make sure they get shared around, re-posted, and promoted once they go live. Eventually, I’ll be able to hire someone to do the promoting, but unlike my clients, I don’t see myself giving up the writing. It’s the part I love. Why would I give what I love away? In truth, I’ve been writing this stuff for years, but used to call it brain dumps, and no one else ever saw it.
Many of those brain dumps have been lost to computer crashes over the years, at least until I learned to save everything on backup drives or to the cloud. Most of it wouldn’t translate well to the blog space anyway. My point is, writing my 3 posts a week is a kind of therapy, but it’s also my way of keeping the creative juices flowing and the motivation from flagging. It’s a way of exercising my writing muscle so it stays healthy and fit, just as I go to the gym and lift weights to keep my body healthy and fit.
Self-Care Wears Many Faces
To make a long story short, there’s a direct connection between self-care and staying on top 
of the tasks necessary to run and build my business. Skills learned from one directly impact the other. Allowing myself to get away with letting things slide in one area of my life will directly affect everything else.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to make commitments to myself first. For years, I believed my wants and needs came last, and my entire life reflected that belief. I was sad, miserable, and angry. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, the person I was angry with, was me. I could blame people and circumstances, but until I valued myself above everyone and everything else, I was of no use or value to anyone.
Now, I’m happy and healthy, and if I choose to take a day off to do nice things for me, I no longer feel guilty about it. Instead, I feel grateful.
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri 
believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income. If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author. And check out her new group, Putting Your Whole Heart Forward.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.
