‘Creativity is a habit & the best creativity is a result of good work habits’

It is a Saturday afternoon, I have a show tonight and I have been struggling with Saturday-itus all day. That feeling of laziness, end of week tiredness – that ‘It is a Saturday I should be able to rest’ cry, I have managed to get down the gym to do a half hearted workout and now post late lunch I am flicking through Twyla Tharp’s great book The Creative Habit. I have read it a few times but I come back always for inspiration, I have opened the page on

“It is the perennial debate, born in the Romantic era, between the beliefs that all creative acts are born of
(a) some transcendent, inexplicable Dionysian act of inspiration, a kiss from God on your brow that allows you to give the world The Magic Flute,
or (b) hard work.
If it isn’t obvious already, I come down on the side of hard work. That’s why this book is called The Creative Habit. Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell.”

So there we are, how can I say it better myself?  I know I need the habits of good nutrition, daily exercise, chanting, doing warm ups etc but it is amazing how the schedule dictates me rather than me dictating the daily schedule. The more I work creatively the more I know I need the strength and the focus I get from great habits.
I get fat in rehearsals by not training and then sitting down on the evenings eating chocolate in a bid to get lines learnt, then my habits slip further when I am in a show… I have learnt to start learning lines on the treadmill (studies show how much such repetitive exercise such as walking, cooking can hep the brain remember) and  I don’t have a drink every night after each show.
But still Twyla’s advice is sage, born of decades of triumphs and discipline. I got myself to the gym because I need the release and the strength, I will keep walking forward.
I had a late night on Thursday, largely due to my own mismanagement of my own time and forgetting an early appointment with a friend, yes it is hard to go to sleep straight away but there are some people who I know I shouldn’t see if I just need rest and recuperation. Not their fault, mine I choose. I chose who I see and the energy they bring into my life. They might bring the crazy, but I can chose to not open the door. I do know better but sometimes I choose to forget.

My habits are the little things that define my life, both good and bad ones. They will also define the success I have in a very real way. Am I prepared enough, fit enough, on it enough for a last minute audition or when someone sees me randomly in a show one night.

So I am choosing a focused and relaxed weekend, I will do some important relaxing and also some positive creative moves forward. I have a showreel I need to start thinking on the edit and people to invite for the last 2 weeks of the show. Tonight we are celebrating as one of the actress has got a fab job (I cant reveal where yet) at the end of this run but it will be one glass of bubbly and home to rest.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Header Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.

<div><strong><strong>Post 59 of Dream, create and make money in the arts</strong></strong></div>
<div>This is a <a href=”https://loveyourcreativity.com/Topics/series-on-becoming-a-successful-creative/”>series</a> of blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make. You can read the series in order <a href=”https://loveyourcreativity.com/2013/05/03/how-to-be-successful-dream-create-make-money-in-the-arts-1/”>Part One</a> or just pick and choose a topic that interests you.</div>