Connecting With Our Creativity: Part 3 – Motivation

I’m going to be real with you friends – this post was originally intended to be about perfectionism and how it can hold us back from fully engaging our creativity. But here’s the thing – I’m just not a perfectionist! Like, AT ALL. Good enough is my mantra. I have too many things I want to do and if I spend all my time getting something perfect, that is time lost for the next thing I want to do. Anyone that has known me for 5 minutes can attest to this.

So….guest post on perfectionism anyone??? Message me, I’d truly love to hear from you and learn your ways.

Here’s what I do know. Sometimes I just don’t feel like doing the thing. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to look at it. I don’t want to engage with it at all.

What I would rather do?

• Watch “Audrey” on Netflix.
• Wander aimlessly around my yard checking for budding branches on my grape vines and blossoms on my peach trees.
• Eat dark chocolate (72% please).
• Take a nap.

Motivation seems a fickle friend over whom we have little influence. When we are graced with its presence, the ink flows freely, the notes string together easily, the neurons in our brains fire away as ideas spring to life. When motivation dies out, so goes our energy.

What are some of the factors that impact how motivated we feel?

• Internal Wiring: Certain personality types are naturally more high energy and highly driven. These are the Enneagram 3s and 8s among us, for example. The Enneagram 5s and 9s (9 here!) tend to have a lower energy level, and once depleted, can take significant time to build back up. This is a hard one. Our society holds up the highly motivated and driven as the ideal. Billions of dollars are made by naturally high energy people selling personal improvement plans to naturally lower energy people. Perhaps we would all be better off being honest about how we are wired and identifying the unique strengths that come along with that.
• Seasons: I notice a significant increase in my motivation at the beginning of spring and fall in particular, and summer and winter to a lesser extent. There is something about the change of seasons, a blank slate that breathes potential into the air. On the flip side, there are seasons of life when motivation ebbs. Anyone juggling toddlers and newborns? Struggling with chronic illness? Dealing with an ongoing frustration that doesn’t ever seem to resolve?
• Mental Health: This one is huge. It’s easy to feel guilt over a lack of motivation when there is something deeper going on like anxiety or depression. A recent piece, “There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing”, helped me put language to the lackluster, distracted, tired way I have felt for months. The author describes languishing as a sense of stagnation and emptiness. You’re not depressed, but you’re not flourishing either. The Simpson’s “meh” pretty well sums it up.

There are countless 10 step programs out there with the promise to increase your motivation, maximize your output, and harness your creativity. This isn’t one of them.

Here is what I want to tell you.

Try softer.

Pay attention to your body. What is it telling you? Does it need a nap? Therapy? Lunch with a friend? A hike?

It is when we listen and connect with ourselves that we connect with our creativity. It flows out of our authenticity. It can flow just as beautifully from pain and imperfection as from vitality and wholeness.

As we listen and give ourselves what we need, we begin to wake up again. Our senses come back to life. We look around and notice what we have missed.

And therein lies our motivation.

What causes your motivation to ebb and flow? What wakes you up friends? Tell us in the comments.

Sending love this week,

Alicia