It’s not difficult to find inspirational quotes on creativity. They make us feel warm and fuzzy, as though being creative is as easy as pouring milk out of a jug; one just needs to think, I’d like to be creative, and bang, you are in the middle of such a moment, producing something satisfying. It doesn’t quite work out this way.

Recently, I found that it doesn’t (quite work out this way), not because we have unrealistic expectations of how easy it is to be in a creative space, but rather because we don’t dive headlong into creativity often enough. You see, I was lagging on a deadline I’d set myself. Deadlines, responsibilities, commitments work for me. It’s part of how I get stuff done. I write in my diary that I will complete this or that by such and such, and mostly, it’s a case of VOILA! Not that everything ends up the quality I’d like it to be (there’s another blog post in that), but in terms of completion, I nearly always get there when I said I would.

So to keep up my new target of posting twice a week for a total of around eight posts a month, I had quite a backlog to catch up on to make my quota for September. You see, I had a grand total of zero posts on the last day of the month, and was therefore faced with writing eight posts in one day, in conjunction with my other work, which was also on a fairly strict commitment track.

And so I started by tackling some half-finished blogs that were still in draft form. I had one easy one that was almost complete. Others were not much more than fragments of ideas. A few sentences that were more cryptic than transparent. I had to figure out what lines I must have been thinking along when I’d written them. I started out a bit slowly and awkwardly, posting one blog, and then the next. By the time I got to blog number four, I’d hit my stride, and as I was writing, other ideas would come to me that I would jot down for the next post.

I’m not sure at which point of that day I saw the picture of Maya Angelou with the quote:

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Clearly a woman who was used to the creative process, and who was comfortable with taking the necessary risks daily. Creating requires a degree of courage, even if it’s only the disquieting feeling of putting yourself out there, of being out of your comfort zone. But do so on a regular basis, and the returns come. They may not come immediately, or consistently – good results may be elusive, or haphazard – but making a habit of producing on a regular basis is the only road available to those who choose the creative path.

IMAGE: Portrait by Lisa Congdon. https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/09/06/what-is-creativity/