Self-Discipline and being Creative On Demand
I’m having one of those mornings where I struggle with making myself sit at my desk. Everyone is always telling me how wonderful it must be to be self-employed and work at home, and in some ways they are almost always correct. It is a wonderful way to work if you are already a somewhat solitary soul and prefer peace and quiet while working. It is also, however, one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Being off for the first year and a half of my son’s life has made it even more difficult to dive back in. Not difficult because I don’t want to do it, but in that the amount of self-discipline required to get up, go to work (in your home office, coffee shop, etc.) can be so very hard to do.
I set my own deadlines right now, so what is it going to matter if I have a lazy day today, due to a cold. Healing from the cold is more important, right?
Yes and no. Healing is always important. Napping on the couch when I am mostly find, just stuff… well, it does sound nice, but I know I probably shouldn’t do it. (Instead, I’ll sit here and write this blog post :D).
Habits are vital to a Freelance Artist, I think, and often harder to keep up. We have to decide to get up at a certain time, to write a certain amount each day, to edit each week, to change out of our PJs into at the very least lounge wear. We set the goals, limits and deadlines and thus, have the freedom to change those very things. That freedom can doom us, though, and bring a budding career to a screeching halt in moments.
And then you add what makes my job even more difficult. I don’t sit at my computer every day taking research and turning it into papers like I used to do, although, I still do that to help pay bills.
No, now I sit at my computer and attempt to be creative ‘on demand’. Research is SO MUCH EASIER.
So, here I sit at my desk, on a day when I would much rather be curled up on the couch watching episodes of a favorite TV program, and write.
Maybe I’ll go stare at my Poetry manuscript again. It will put its self together on its own, right?
