Our creative voice is a lively blend of beliefs, fears, experiences, creative tension and the choices we make along the way – all rolled into one. This mixture of chaos and beauty helps us dig in to find our truth and ways to share it.
In the middle of all these moving parts, it can be hard to pinpoint your true creative motivation. Motivation is a feeling that inspires a heart-felt or idealistic way to take action, as much as it’s sparked by the need to change or expand past fears and reach out into new challenges.
To move beyond the surface and learn more about your core creative motivations is an invitation to get past “just because I feel like it” – although that’s one essential aspect of creativity.
Getting in touch with the driving force of “why” makes space for you to tune in, listen deeply, and act on what your heart tells you to make, say, do and more by honoring intuition over the ego. Go beyond the mind and jump into your “why”, the heart-felt, gut instinct behind your creative choices, how they fulfill you, what they can teach, or how they spark inspiration. This is the ultimate act of creativity despite the results or outcome.
If you are questioning why you are in a rut, bored, creating various iterations of the same art, content or relationships over and over, or simply want to understand your own creative motivations on a deeper level, why not get in touch with the roots of your creative voice?
5 Ways to Tap into What Motivates your Unique Creative Voice
The creative process is not limited to the times you choose to be actively creative. It’s the influence of your entire day and dream time, each and every day. This means you have a pretty regular invitation to take notice of what’s unfolding and use it to your advantage to learn more about yourself.
Here are 5 ways to open up to your true creative motivators:
Learn to spot, understand and not judge your own brand of fear.
Fear – we all have it, but can you look at it from an objective place of love? Can you see it as an opportunity to move into healing, releasing or connecting with something that allows you to move deeper into understanding yourself or sharpening the song of your creative voice? Do you have a sense of where the fear is coming from and why?
Start by simply noticing when your “fear flag” shows up, and say hello. Then, make a few notes to yourself about the where, when and who was present. Next, slowly work on understanding it through meditation, journaling or coaching. Once it loosens up, you can practice non-judgment around the fear and expand your creative way of working with it compassionately.
Take time to examine the underlying reasons behind why you are motivated to create something specific.
Part of creativity is visualization, seeing and sensing exactly what you want to bring to life. One by-product of visualization is attachment. What you see in your mind is perfect because it hasn’t been challenged by real world realities or other people and we want it to look exactly like that image. Yet, when you get caught up the vision and are unclear about your motivation, you lose perspective or miss opportunities to improve on it.
An idea grows because there is a clear motivation behind why you want it and the purpose it will serve for you or others To help you stay focused on something that’s in alignment energetically and personally, it’s essential to know your bottom line motivation. It will keep you rolling forward when you hit challenges or boredom nips at your heels.
Actively look at where you spend your time – and be honest about whether or not it’s rewarding for you.
As a curious gal, I can get easily distracted. I like to learn, explore and focus on things I enjoy doing. Yet, I also know when I need to get clear on my priorities, because not everything IS a priority to create. So while I would much rather be reading, I also need to write social media posts to promote Creative Katrina, or, I need to work on the nuts and bolts of a bigger project when online pics of animals capture my eyeballs. Seriously, who wouldn’t rather look at this sweet face?
However, as an empath and HSP, I need to plan for more downtime and space out breaks to keep me balanced and creating in a healthy way. In addition, I know I have natural avoidance behaviors that keep me from using time wisely. So, what’s a girl to do? Well, I ask myself – “Is this the best or most rewarding way to spend my time right now to support my creativity and self-care?” Sometimes play and rest wins out, other times I get back to cracking on the task at hand, even if I’m bored. Boring tasks need to get done some time, and when it’s finished, it can feel pretty damn rewarding, freeing up energy for creative expression.
Are you stuck in production mode, neglecting to sit with the creative whispers bouncing around in your heart?
Being a prolific creator can feel pretty damn satisfying, but what happens when you lose focus and forget about your initial motivations? When you cross this threshold it’s important to take stock in the change of flow and tune into whether or not it still honors or supports your creative voice. If it turns out work is work and money is the motivator, then find other creative outlets. However, being busy means we sometimes neglect to engage in the personal reflection time essential to feeding and shaping our creative voice. Honor yourself by crafting a mindful balance between producing and the playful part of creating, allowing you to step into a clearer more refined creative voice over time.
Do something the little kid in you loved, and write down why you loved it.
As kids we are directly connected to our sense of creative adventure. Every interaction is something playful and each step is just for fun. To get back in touch with what motivated you back then, why not try some of the same things now? A great example of this is adult coloring books. It’s a carefree pastime that allows people to reconnect with something simple, the act of coloring, as well as the power of color, a wonderful creative motivator.
By taking something you loved and doing it as an adult you allow yourself permission to reconnect with the motivation behind it. You get to revisit the love of an interest and see on a deeper level why you are motivated to do something similar now, or how it fell by the wayside and can be revived in your life.
Part of being creative is making choices that honor you as best you can, day to day. When we practice going deeper and farther to honor what the creative voice wants to share, we are practicing our true purpose – finding our clearest, most honest and rewarding self-expression.
To read a little more on this topic, check out my previous post on Is your Creative Voice Ready for a Change? You can also check out my podcast, Overcoming the Fear of Being Yourself on my podcast, Flirting With Enlightenment.