What comes up for you when you think about your artistic side? Creativity, imagination, spontaneity, innovation and originality sound like appropriate synonyms. Self-discipline, on the other hand, is more associated with control, rigidity, routine. If you were to choose, what would you go for?
No need to choose, though, since self-discipline is a prolific base for artistic development. Here are five self-discipline points that will highly contribute to letting your artistic drive flow.
- Wake up at the same hour every day
There are some people in this world I hold in high regards. they wake up every single day at 5 AM. Now, this would be absolutely great if we’d all have the same level of commitment and motivation. Waking up early gives you a sense of having time, so you rarely have to rush through things. The less you rush, the more present you are and the more at ease your feels. A mind that is comfortable, also allows inventivity to spur. Now, if 5 AM sound a little bit too matinal, just set another hour that better fits your lifestyle. Just make sure you promise to follow this waking up schedule daily. Plus, forget about the snooze button. It is just procrastination in disguise. Enjoy quality time during the night and once it’s time to wake up, just wake up and start celebrating the day with a big smile on your face.
- Plan your day ahead
Make a list upon waking up. You can take five minutes during breakfast to write down what you’ll be up to today. Make sure to allocate enough time for your artistic endeavours. Be realistic and keep it simple at the beginning. Planning the day ahead helps you avoid taking a million decisions later. Should I go to the bakery now or work? What about some cleaning. None of it. If it’s on the list, your mind knows it’s time for that specific activity. You’ll not only commit easier to making it happen, but you might also enjoy more each activity that you’re doing.
Image credit: Peace Revolution
- Keep your eyes on the prize
I like goals. Thinking about your goals, visualising them, gives you the motivation and determination to move forward even when you don’t feel like it. So, define your goals, big and small, tangible and not. Be specific and feed energy and commitment into them every day. If you’re set to finally finish writing that book by the end of the year, connect to what it will feel like when you’ve done it. Keep that feeling and work each day on your goal from that emotion. Remind yourself to put each day an activity related to your goal on your to-do list. It’s for your own benefit. We all know how fulfilled we feel when we finally got done something that we’ve been working on for so long.
- Play, play, play!
In each day, there is time for work and time for play and even time for playfully working. Dedicating time to relaxing, unwinding doing something childish that will take your mind off for a while is a must. The artist within has to know boundaries, but also should enjoy life and the creative process. So, make sure to also address this need of just letting everything go and having fun.
- Make time for logistics
Paying the bills, buying the necessary for living, ordering the materials for work… all of this might not be the most fun activities, but we still have to take care of that. So, make time each week to also address these aspects. In doing so, you relief your mind from having to constantly think about getting this done so that you can hurry and pay the electricity bill or run to the shop before it closes.
And remember, keep the pace of the life you choose to live. If you’re more active and like running around doing all sorts of things, use self-discipline as a way to support you in having time and energy for all. If you like more taking your time, doing things with precision, self-discipline will support you in getting everything done.