5 Ways to Protect your Creativity

know you’ve seen some of these photos in the series, but I never shared most of them on the blog! I thought I’d talk about protecting your creativity – if you are a creative person, or, if you do something you love, to protect it so you still can enjoy it as a hobby. Every thing we love has it’s limitations, we can do it too much, spread ourselves too thin and feel completely robbed of the joy that thing once gave us. It’s all very normal.

I absolutely LOVE working with talented photographers when they reach out asking to collaborate, though I am selective on who I say yes to because, time  – and knowing both parties will get what they want out of it for respect of time and talent.  These images were taken by the talented Jennifer Bowen in this private home in Arcadia. I thought about this shoot and the creativity and wanted to talk about how these projects can spark them but also taking on the wrong projects can suck away our creativity.

Protecting your creativity from burnout

I’m in a very creative space right now thanks to a mix of having a break with friends, a new coffee brew mixture, and being pumped about Twilight’s next book, Midnight Sun coming out August 4. See my party planning here. I am creating way more content than I thought I would – and LOVING it. So I’m riding the wave while the motivation and excitement is here!

The other weekend Benjamin and I had our shot list – one consisted of my personal creativity fun which was a BLAST to shoot, and another was a very fun campaign I was excited to be a part of, it was a product I was passionate about. It was a great day of creating.

I also had on my list to shoot another product, but it wasn’t any obligation. But I thought I should, but I also charge for that.

It is OK to charge for your creativity, you should. It is also to OK to create because you want to for the sake of creating something that excites you and grows you. It is not OK to except to have high creativity levels all the time if you are constantly giving your creative energy to projects you shouldn’t.

So I told Benjamin we weren’t going to shoot it. Yes, even though I love the product and the company, it will show up in other ways as I share. But I don’t need to spend time thinking of how to be creative and shoot it and then talk about it when I have other projects I want to save it for.

5 ways to protect your Creativity

1. Be selective on the projects.
   This sounds obvious but really, many of us aren’t selective and then we do these projects we want to cry about before we do them because they aren’t a fit! Because we’re either doing it for the money or we feel obligated! If you are selective over how many or which products you take on, you will have more time and energy to be creative and put in your all. If I planned an elaborate dinner party every other night I’d be so stressed out and eventually the parties would be less extravagant. You can collaborate for the sake of creativity, that’s an OK thing to do because sometimes our current projects aren’t giving us that so we need to create and not get paid doing it, and that is also something you WANT to do opposed to feeling obligated to do.
2. Say no to low paying projects.
   Sometimes it’s ok to do these projects the money is tight and you’re not busy, many can advance our creativity skills – these can sometimes be trials. But, only do them if they excite you or you can learn from them, and, if you have time! If you have very little time or too much on your plate, don’t say yes to another thing that isn’t going to invest in you. Save that time for the right clients and projects.
3. Have a passion project to serve others.
   This is another way to use your gifts as the beautiful soul you are and pour into serving others outside of work. It’s not creative, but it’s soul changing. Maybe it’s veterans, helping sex-trafficking victims, education, homelessness, a bible study, a life experience near and dear to your heart that you start a ministry (what I’m currently doing behind the scenes). There are so many ways you can either volunteer or donate time or objects or spread awareness. What is your “thing”?
4. Have a hobby that doesn’t stress you out.
   I know, wait, there are hobbies that can stress you out? It can if it’s too complicated or you are too much of a perfectionist when you do it that you actually are over thinking it when you do it. Even though you are creative, you can have a different hobby! It can be creative, or it doesn’t have to be. For me, it’s gardening and it is creative but with lots of forgiveness as things often don’t go my way and it teaches me to go with the flow. It doesn’t stress me out, find a hobby that doesn’t make you feel stressed it’s supposed to calm you and make you happy. Fishing, cooking, gardening, photography?
5. Don’t think you need to be creative all the time – and you can enjoy NOT being creative.
   Some jobs don’t require so much creativity. Really, for me, studio headshots and corporate headshots are not creative. I love that. I love that I can show up and take a photo and get paid and I enjoy interacting with new people. They aren’t asking for me to make them look like supermodels or pose like a VOGUE cover, they just want a headshot and that’s my job. It’s more than OK to take these jobs because they pay the bills and they are easy and still enjoyable.

BONUS

I felt like I had to add this if you use social media for what you do – content creators have so many social media platforms to share content. You don’t have to have a presence everywhere. If blogging doesn’t excite you because writing isn’t your thing (it’s definitely mine), don’t feel obligated. Just because one person is killing it on a social media platform doesn’t mean you need to do it if you don’t think it fits well. Pick a few channels and focus on them. There are MANY ways to express your creativity and build an audience. Please remember breaks are good for you too – block off a week to veg, watch Netflix and take a break!

I love you guys and I love your creative brains! I love to see what you share and learn and I also want to see more of it so I hope this post helped you. If you have any stories or tips about conserving your creativity please post it in the comments! xx

Related: Overcoming Photography Burnout

 

Photography: Jennifer Bowen / Hair and makeup: Lizzy Marsh

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Diana Elizabeth has some IGTV videos coming up, who is she? Also, stay close to the blog some really good Twilight-y stuff coming up!