A Creative Lifestyle Needs Structure

Many creative people scoff at the idea of structuring their creative life. They believe that a creative lifestyle needs to be a free form; a fluid life. They feel that placing structure on their lives will place their art inside of a box. The problem is, adding structure to your creative lifestyle does not mean adding structure to your art.

For many creatives, the problem is that we think the creative lifestyle is only about creating. If that was true we wouldn’t worry about food, shelter, or how to procure the needed art supplies that cost too much and never last long enough.

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the problem with many creative lifestyles is the lack of everyday mundane structure. At least that was the problem with me. I assumed that the responsibility of the mundane was my partners. Also, in the beginning of my creative lifestyle, I would jump into creating, and realize, once the dizziness set in, that I hadn’t eaten all day.

A human being, for those not in the know, needs food, water, and shelter.

This is just one example of what a lack of structure can lead to. For me, the creating wasn’t, or isn’t, the problem. My problem is the fact that that as human, inside of a society, in a life partnership, I had other things to take care of as well. This was my first obstacle to tackle in creating a structured creative lifestyle, but not the last.

The structure you build will be a reflection of multiple factors. Your strengths and weakness, mixed in with your individual life, as well as your goals. I eventually saw the need for my creative lifestyle to meet structure. The first step I took was to have an honest conversation with myself. The things I asked myself were as follows:

1. what am I trying to do?

2. what are my strengths?

3. what are my weaknesses?

I was trying to make a living from publishing art. My strengths were, that I was a self starter, worked all the time, and was able to deal with rejection. My weaknesses were, a lack of self care, starting too many projects, and staying in my comfort zone.

The honest conversation is the start. It tells you were you are, where you want to be, and then helps you identify how you want to get their. As a creative being we all struggle with our own set of dilemmas, and each one of our lives affords us more or less of different needed pieces.

For example, my worse enemy is also one of my strengths. I am a self starter which leads me to launch 1000 different projects a month. Starting a 1000 projects and finishing none is a problem. Once identifying that I set a strict rule of only working on one main project a month. My monthly project, can not have two consecutive months. This has been working for me.

I’ve also set a strict breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A must shower rule (don’t judge me! I’m not here to be judged). A mandatory 1 hour walk for my pups and me, and other strict mundane stuff that has alleviate so much of the struggle and stress I use to deal with.

Those are some of the benefits to a more structured creative life. It actually opens up your time to be able to just create.

Remember to add and subtract to your structure, keep it fluid, but please start structing your creative lifestyle. Your creative endeavors are counting on you.

-Rich