E33. What I've Learned About Maintaining a Consistent Creative Practice
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During my decades as creative writer, my greatest struggle has been consistency of habit. I always had to force myself to sit down and write on a daily basis. I started and abandoned writing projects constantly (four novels, at least that many blogs). When I started up my creative business in 2020, I knew that needed to change. I had to find a way to maintain consistency because my plan was to grow my business through weekly blog posts and later through weekly podcast episodes. If I have to miss a week sometimes, fine - life happens. But I wanted to hit that weekly target as much as I possibly could (and in fact I haven't missed a week yet). And the nature of the way I work means I don't batch (do a bunch of posts or episodes over the course of a few days). I have to be able to be creative week after week.
So how do I do it? In this episode I tell you everything I've learned so far about how to maintain that inspiration to create for the long periods of time needed to do large projects like a novel or a business venture. The key is understanding the difference between different kinds of resistance and between resistance and forcing it. And to never, ever force it. How do you keep resistance from turning into forcing it? Listen and find out!
This episode's accompanying blog post can be found here.