For most of my dating life, I dated people who made me feel a certain way. And then ultimately the feeling would diminish. When it diminished significantly (assuming the relationship was still going on) I would end things.
Now, I realize that while feelings are great, they’re not the foundation for a relationship. They might be the thing that initially gets me into liking someone, but feelings do not make a great base. Because feelings come and go. They diminish and increase.
And now I’m in a healthy relationship that usually brings me joy. Not all the time. No relationship produces joy constantly. That’s a wholly unreasonable expectation. There might be days or even weeks where I don’t ‘feel in love.’ But I know the relationship is solid and good.
So, I feel victorious in that I identified that I was obeying the whim of my feelings and then changed my behavior. And my relationship along with my overall life is much better for it.
Then today I realized there’s a parallel for this lesson elsewhere in my life: creativity.
I mostly create art when I feel like it. When inspiration hits me, I write down whatever it is and then I start to create.
If I have to go do something then I leave that idea there with full intent to get back to it and finish it. But what almost always happens is that when I am logistically able to get back to it, that feeling might not be there. So, I abandon it in hopes I’ll get back to it when I feel like it.
And that’s why I have literally thousands of ideas in different stages sitting on word documents incomplete.
In much the same way that I don’t end my relationship just because I don’t always ‘feel’ it, I am now trying to not abandon a creative project simply because I don’t ‘feel’ that same drive and inspiration I had when I first started it.
I don’t feel creative today. But today is the one day I have off to finish the rough draft of a pilot I’m writing. So, I’m going to stop writing this blog post, get over the fact that I don’t ‘feel’ inspired and get to work.
Anyone can be creative when they’re inspired. Professionals create whether the inspiration is there or not. Okay, back to work.
Thanks, y’all!
