The Underestimated Benefits of Creative Consistency
This is a familiar piece of advice to anyone who is creative: the typical creative process is not punctuated with bursts of genius, but rather a long-term development of a permanent work habit. Consistency is not important for everything, but certainly for everything.
With a multitude of landmines ready to derail even the most talented people, “appearing” on a regular basis provides undeniable benefits. Some of these benefits are often overlooked.
For those looking to be successful this year, let’s keep in mind all the benefits we have at our disposal when we have an enviable attendance record:
Consistency breeds consistency
A person in motion remains in motion if they are not affected by a drunken Netflix session. The creative mind is very much like a machine. Too much work – and you overload it, too little – and a decrepit state of rusty thinking awaits you. Maintain a continuous process by allowing it to run stably and never letting the mental web settle.
When you are consistent it means you never have to restart. “I’m back to the rhythm of life,” are the famous last words spoken by countless people on a schedule as reliable as the weather. Continuous progress keeps morale high, maintains full enthusiasm, and increases your investment in the project – no one wants to break the chain once the results are achieved .
Consistency is more important than goal setting
When Scott Adams stated that “ goals are for losers, ” the Internet went berserk. He tried to emphasize that the process is more important than the goal – what you do every day matters more than what you plan to achieve.
You can strive to become a famous author, or you can pour a thousand words a day on a page, whether it’s hell or flood. You can try playing Für Elise on the piano by March, or you can develop a habit that regularly forces you to stand in front of the keys for thirty minutes after work.
Consistency is an essential part of creativity
Writing not only conveys ideas, but also creates them. The same can be said about all creativity. As Bruce Lee says, there is a risk that “if you spend too much time thinking about something, you will never get it.” The opposite is rarely true, because in order to do something, you need to think about it. Consistent work will lead you to where good ideas can find you.
Constant work gives constant inspiration. Ideas are not a predefined bucket that you have to live in for fear of drying out. Work creates a state that unites new ideas. This is often called thecreative ear : when you regularly work on something you love, walls come crashing down and seemingly insignificant moments awaken inspiration. Just remember to give yourself some space. Fire only burns when it has room to breathe.
Consistency reduces pressure to be flawless
Carrying a burden that even Atlas would not envy, creative people allow their fickle routines to trap them in a mindset that requires every work to be vibrant. Expectations are hard when they are not thrown off all the time – not just from your audience (“Better wait …”), but also from those you ask yourself.
Create something one day on a blue moon and people will expect something as new and awe-inspiring as the blue moon. Consistency relieves you of this burden. The more you create, the more you need to throw away or give to the world; as Hemingway would say, “I write one page of a masterpiece on ninety-one pages of shit. I’m trying to throw shit in the trash bin. ” I hope you create enough stuff to be thrown away, because even a genius produces a few mishaps.
Required Constraints for Consensus Forms
Exposure to George Lucas Syndrome starts with too large a canvas. When you have to work backwards from your schedule, consistent creation naturally creates constraints – you better have a system to complete work at regular intervals.
You cannot plan for understanding, so the concern is that it will make your work repetitive. The mistake here is that it is believed that a common theme, style, or process makes the work mundane – creativity thrives on constraints .
I love the ASAPscience videos, although they all use the board and are always dedicated to science ( here’s one ). When done correctly, consistency tends to be repeatable rather than repeatable.
From a talk by Dr. Peter Myers, Data Scientist at Moz
Find your average speed
Every time I write the word “you” know that I am talking to myself. (And I hope I can serve as an instructive example for you.)
In the past year, I stumbled upon many of the above errors. My writing on my site has slowed to a snail’s speed and I have published less than ten essays.
To be honest, I created very consistently with my other work in Help Scout . But everything I mentioned limited my ability to write personal essays: I felt the pressure to always publish the “big”, I had no schedule or template, and no work was done to give me additional ideas.
The post I published was well received, but I started to strain myself working at manic speeds and depressive speeds – I wrote a long essay with dozens of studies in motion blur, only to get out of high later and not publish anything for months.
What should have worried me was my average speed.
On average, my writing progress has been slow last year. Compound interest produces more meaningful results than individual fluctuations, but I was chasing the metaphorical “blue moon” mentioned above.
It’s easy to apologize if we’re not sticking to a realistic average speed. Big, leaps and bounds will not bring lasting results – consistency will.
If you come up with any solutions this year, I hope you will join me in pursuing a simple goal of consistently appearing in public. I will be here and you?
The Underrated Benefits of Creative Consistency | Sparring Mind