6 practical ways to super charge your creative career

I was away recently at a course and one of the group exercises was acknowledging our ‘one true evil’, that one habit that gets in our way of really fulfilling our dreams.

Examples can be:

• Procrastination
• Perfectionism
• Last minute.com itus
• Enjoying the drama of your crazy friends and hence letting them take up all your free time.
• Allowing yourself to have all consuming over dramatic relationships that result in once a week screaming break up matches at 3am followed by hours of discussion with your friends and you get back together again the next day.
• Alcohol – anyone who knows me may raise an eyebrow at this one as they will know how much I love a party and my champagne. However 5 nights a week of social networking leaves little time for actual creative work
• Drugs – ditto. I’ve had too many years of watching friends and an ex chill out on smoking weed and not actually doing anything but talk about their plans.
• TV – Settling down in front of the television every night for Celebrity Big Brother or being so obsessed with your football team that you have to go to away games and watch all their competitors means no time for your dreams.
• Social media – hours, possibly accumulated years of cat videos on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Vine and my slight addiction, Instagram equally get in the way of your next project.

What is the one habit that if you could stop or replace you would really free up some time in your life and gain some forward motion?

These behaviours often boil down to 3 basic reasons

1. Not believing you are good enough
2. Not believing you are talented enough in your respective field
3. Thinking it’s too hard so why bother?

The dangers of this one true evil is it stops us fully going after our dreams, we therefore don’t put the necessary time, effort or belief into the projects we dream about. We talk about our next show or novel but never put the effort in to start producing it, other peoples careers seem so far away from what we think we can ever achieve that we don’t even start to try, we don’t do the daily habits of practise or creating or marketing that we need to.

i am writing this on set as the director Jonathan Bart is in the middle of his shoot for his feature film, the thriller ‘Fluid’. This is a Science Fiction film that he has been working on for a while, a huge undertaking of writing, re-writes, production, funding, daily/weekly/monthly focus forward to get to where we are today, filming in a lawyers office off Cannon Street.

To be a successful creative we need talent yes but more importantly we need persistence, an almost belligerent self-belief in our current project and a follow through to make sure we dream up, make, market what we create and then start the process all over again. Simon Callow, the actor, gave me a singularly great piece of advice Keep On Trucking

Michaelangelo put off painting the incredible Sistine Chapel for years until the Pope who had commissioned him basically forced him to do so. Michaelangelo knew how much work was ahead (years of bending upside down getting cramp and paint in his eyes was the least of it) but of course the finished product is still a wonder of the modern world. His procrastination nearly stopped us seeing that wonderful piece of art.
Banksy did not spend all his time chilling but getting out there and painting his amazing graffiti art for ultimately millions of people to see. Any majorly famous rock band got wasted and woke up with groupies yes, but that was after their gigs or recording sessions, their reward of nightly gigging to become not merely talented but brilliant performers. Shakespeare actually had to sit down and write and put on the plays for his merry band of players!

The Shakespeare statue in Leicester Square, London

My one true evil, the habit that gets in the way of my various projects is a lack of daily consistency, I am the queen of all or nothing. I procrastinate and if I don’t have a deadline nothing gets done. I wrote an Edinburgh show on the way up in the car once with my guitarist laughing at me in horror. I’d booked the venue, the accomodation, done press & photos and rehearsed the band yet actually had not done anywhere near enough work on the actual show. Time and time again I rely on my ability to pull it off on the night. Yes I learn other people’s scripts exactly but I don’t practise my American accent every day nor do my voice work. I just trust the work I have done in the past & the fact I am brilliantly quick at learning. I put off video auditions til the absolute last minute rather than doing it with plenty of time to reflect and redirect.

I guess at some deep level it must a lack of belief in myself in being amazing, I know I have the skills to always pull off good enough but brilliant makes me think of trying too hard. But in a world where athletes spend months training to shave a tenth of a second off their running times to win gold, I can now accept the truth that if I could put the daily work in that the finished project may actually be far better than my normal last minute rush.

I have done years of singing and vocal daily practice but unless I now have a gig coming up then I don’t do that daily work. Muscle strength (the ability to fill a large theatre) needs to be worked at as does vocal dexterity (again it’s a muscle) and really knowing the pieces (I may have to sing at short notice for an audition). Sure I can pull it out the bag but if I am competing against someone who can hit all the crazy notes I can but actually practises daily, she will have the edge.

The truth is I know, as we all do at some level, as to what is stopping us, it is finding the strength to win over ourselves on a daily basis. Recognising the issue is step one, battling yourself is a daily probably lifetime battle.

Three scientifically proven ways that can help your willpower and daily help you win over your one true evil are;

1. Sleep – plenty of it!
2. Meditation – I chant twice a day and if I miss my evening gongyo then I notice a real lack of discipline in my evenings!
3. Daily exercise – all those endomorphins make you feel so good that you end up doing more things that make you feel fundamentally great like writing your 1000 words that day of your novel as opposed to short term good like eating chocolate!

Plus try:

1. Make a small but vital resolution of a new daily habit. Get into a 15 minute a day say at 5pm practise habit. It could be writing your script without fail every day, vocal practise, accent practice, marketing your project, surfing the internet to look for creative work opportunities… It is so worth it ! They say it takes 21 days or 6 weeks to form a habit, it depends on which research you go for, but the truth is once it is a daily habit then it becomes an automatic action like brushing your teeth.
2. Get your streak on: try ticking off on a calendar your new habit as you do it daily, whatever you are trying to put into your life. Try your very best to even keep going at weekends & holidays. A line of unbroken ticks can really make you keep your habit. When you fail or miss a day start a new streak! The danger is when life gets in the way of your schedule: I am very disciplined at going to the gym but once I fall out of my routine if I am traveling etc, then it takes me a few weeks to get back in. So recording your streak can really help!
3. Determine you will action your new daily habit before your one true evil every day whether it’s television, Facebook or the pub. Go, write, practise, train and then meet your friends half an hour later, or record your True Blood TV show and watch it after your practice!

What is your one true evil, that if you could overcome this in yourself you would really see a huge difference in your productivity & happiness?
Let me know!