Difficult as it is to remember, it is our work that creates the market, not the market that creates our work.
~Julia Cameron

Lightbulb! I am re-doing The Artist’s Way and when I read this it struck me with it’s truth. This is so true. I think a big part of the reason why I have gotten stuck on certain projects is that I was trying to fit my work to the market. That never/rarely works. I knew I needed to read this book again

9 days left in August, I feel like this month is just flying by! So much work done, so much to do. I truly feel at my creative best now, the most this year. The surge and fullness of summer is in me, alongside impending anticipation of fall.

So may changes happened this year. I really don’t know where to start. To begin, I’m at least feeling like a grown woman. It’s a bit sad, to be 37 and just now feeling like grown folk, but at least the long masquerade of adulthood is over. There is that. In part what took so long was coming to the understanding that I could be the type of woman I longed to be; I didn’t have to take on or settle for anyone else’s ideas of what a grown woman was like. I could decide and choose that for myself.

A big part of that is claiming the creative life I want to be part of. I’ve always been creative my entire adult life with my writing, but it took me a long time to claim that I lived and breathed creatively in most aspects of my life. I create when I sing. I create when I exercise. I create when I sew. I create when I parent. I create with my husband. I create when I cook. I create with my homemaking. I create when I garden. I create in my spirituality. My whole life and being is an expression of creativity.

Claiming that has freed me in so many ways. It’s taken shackles off my work I did not even know were there. I must say I wish I had come to this realization sooner, but I am glad I came to it right on time.

I am often asked how I get so much writing done. I kinda feel vaguely irritated at such a question because I think it’s sort of a back-handed jab, but here are some things that have helped me:

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
Seriously. There is no race, or contest, or competition. If you want to create something, just do it. Comparing yourself to others is futile because there is always somebody who does more or whose work is better or whose work could easily make you feel inferior if you play that game. So don’t play it. I found that when I stopped comparing myself to others my creative output skyrocketed. Also I just became more productive about things I wanted to accomplish in general, not just with writing. Comparing myself to others crippled my thinking.

Decide On What Projects You Want To Do, Then Schedule Them
Do you want to write a book this year? Or record an album? or create your own website? Whatever you want to do, define your goal and then schedule time to do it. Your work won’t get done unless you do it and it’s likely you won’t do it unless it’s in your schedule. It took me years to write some books because I wrote ‘when I could find the time’. When I made the time, when I scheduled the time, it took me less than two months to write other books.

What You Write Is How You Eat
If you have a regular job that pays your bills, forget about it in terms of your creative work. I didn’t say quit it (I’ve made that mistake before oh boy) I said forget about it. Act like you have no income. Pretend to yourself that you need to get your project done in order to have money. If you plan to become a full-time writer or singer or whatever, this will soon be the case anyway. This is good practice and helps you develop discipline to keep producing your creative work.

Create Something You Love & Would Want Yourself
When you are working on something you are passionate about, it really affects your productivity. Whatever your project is, ask yourself, is this something I would buy? Is this something I would spend my time on? Put your heart into your project to produce something you yourself would want. This helps you not to cut corners and to put your best foot forward with your work because you most certainly won’t want to bore yourself or waste your own time. All will help you to boost your creative productivity.