What Do You Do if Everything You Make is Crap?
I hope you don’t mind me being so crass.
But I’ve been going through a phase the past couple of weeks. I’m just not excited about anything I’ve made.
It’s disappointing.
It’s even a bit disheartening.
And I’m willing to bet at least some of you have been here before, too. Am I right?
What do you do when nothing you make delights you?
You know that lovely feeling when you look at what you’ve made and there’s a quickening, a sense of delight and enjoyment and perhaps exhilaration at your own creation?
I love that feeling!
But I’m not having it right now.
What I do know to do is to keep showing up.
I keep going to my studio or some mornings I get up and draw after my morning meditation.
I continue to make time for the work. I continue to make the work. Because there’s one thing that meditation practice (and observing lots of other creatives) has taught me. Consistency is key. You don’t give up because you have a bad day.
I know I will get through this.
I know more delightful work is on the other side.
I know I even made delightful work as recently as three weeks ago. (I checked my instagram feed for confirmation!)
I know I have a website full of projects, drawings and paintings I feel satisfied and pleased with.
I know this feeling can’t last forever. But sometimes it feels as though it will!
I have a box full of recent drawings that I want to discard, but I don’t have the heart to yet. I guess I’m hanging on to them as a drowning person hangs on to a life raft. It’s all I’ve got right now.
Which is why I am asking you – what do you do when everything you were making looks like crap?
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