The Three P's -The Creative Process pt. 2

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as of late is to finish what I start. If I’m writing a short story I need to give it an ending, even if it’s a crappy one. If I’m painting a landscape I need to render all the layers not stop at the mountains. I’ve been learning that leaving projects half finished and not fully realized is unhealthy for my creative process. 


Often times when projects, whether paintings or writings, get left unfinished it comes down to one of three things. Either because I don’t know where to take the project and I’m not sure what to do, or I know exactly what I want it to look like and I can’t figure out how to make it look the way I want. It’s either poor planning or its perfectionism and procrastination. They say that comparison is what kills creativity, but poor planning, perfectionism, and procrastination are what stop creativity in its tracks. 


Procrastination comes in all shapes and sizes. When it is just procrastinating that’s the problem it take the self discipline to chose to get out of it. It’s a simply answer but self discipline takes work, and it takes time to build the skill. However procrastinations is often hiding a deeper issue or problem. It will be hiding either the poor planning or perfectionism. 


Poor planning often leads to procrastination, and sometimes it’s just a stubbornness but there are times where walking away for the painting is the best thing you can do. So long as you can remember to come back to it, so long as you don’t leave it for too long. Before I give myself permission to walk away I try a different perspective first; and only after that doesn’t work will I let myself take a break. But it takes a lot of me to convince myself to come back to a project, so I’m learning I need to come back to things regularly and give it some of my brain space so at least I’m thinking about it.


Now perfectionism is the hardest one to overcome. Perfectionism can and will manifest anywhere in your life that you let it. It’s a deeper issue that can’t be fixed over night, it takes a willingness to deal with it. It won’t go away until you want it to. How I’ve learned to deal with it in myself is to lower the stakes. I take a project and say, “This doesn’t have to ever see the light of day, we aren’t going to worry about it being out best, we are going to do it to have fun.” Creating some art to have fun breaks the perfectionism in its tracks. Now it’s not full proof because what about when it is something that needs to see the light of day, it’s a commission or it’s for the blog ect. When it comes to those that’s where I’ve learned the long term process is required. The perfectionist mentality comes from somewhere, it’s part of a bigger issue or from an older pain. I’ve found that to be the hardest part of the process in dealing with perfectionism.


Learning to place a value on finishing the things you start is the first part. It’s something that all artists and creative types deal with, picking things up and putting them down and never arriving a conclusion. I don’t have a full proof way of solving this issue, this inequity, but I know that learning to value the ending, the finishing, is the place to start. 

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