How I stopped being frustrated with time and did more of the things I love
Time is a tyrant. That dang clock keeps ticking, and the years pass in an out-of-focus blur. There are times we feel trapped. Here is what helped me break out of this prison called time.
The Problem
I have so much more that I want to do: writing, painting, and creating new courses to inspire creativity in others, to name a few. There needs to be quality time with the people I love too. Add in, I am old by anyone’s standards and time pressure has taken on a larger significance. Full disclosure: I didn’t always handle this well. It had the makings of a frustrated smelly stew and I had difficulty swallowing it.
What follows has positively impacted how I live — making life more than palatable. Life tastes good now, and it has to do with goals.
About Big Goals
Big goals are lovely. Big goals are exciting. Big goals grab the imagination.
Big goals alone are useless.
You know the goals I mean. ‘I’m going to write a book.’ ‘I’m going to learn to paint.’ ‘I want to learn to dance.’ ‘I’d love to be able to play piano.’
Many folks have a calling to spend more time being creative. This calling is in the deepest core of who we are. Sadly these goals get set aside and never happen.
Regret
So we sit in front of the screen and let the drug of mindlessness numb our hopes and dreams. While somewhere inside a voice is fading into the distance sighing, ‘I’d sure like to write that book.’ or ‘I wish I knew how to paint.’ If we allow this to continue, we will be choking on the smoky flames of regret.
The week before she died at age 95, my Mom said to me, ‘I should have jitter-bugged.’ The jitter-bug was a wild dance style. Partners threw each other around a lot, and it was popular when Mom was a teen. That’s a long-reaching regret!
Practically, this problem boils down to not finding the chunk of time that we assume is needed. Secondly, we don’t have the energy when the time does open up. There is something that helps with both.
The Key Ingredient
That one vital ingredient you need to improve your chance of reaching the big goal is; little goals. It works for me, and in over 25 years of teaching, I have seen it work for others.
Little goals or little steps can wake up that reluctant brain and bring your dreams to life.
It’s amazing what can be done in just 30 minutes. Your day might allow for that kind of time slot, especially once you experience it. It can be super worthwhile.
The Hacksaw in a Cake — Practical Tips
With just those few minutes, you can achieve a small step goal. For example…
Sit down and make some chapter headings for your book. Or sit down and write one page. Don’t try to make it perfect.
Editing can be a different 30-minute time slot later. Just write, because once you get into the creative mode, you will want to be there again.
When you enjoy something you will find the energy to do it. Give yourself the satisfaction of making a small attainable goal, and celebrate when you have done it.
Otherwise, it’s like saying you want to go to New York, but never arranging transportation.
Painting is the same. It will surprise you how much can be accomplished in 30 minutes. Don’t try to make it perfect. Just get the brush moving. Next time you can refine what happened.
You don’t have to wait for bigger blocks of time, do a little step. For example…
Planning a new painting? Pick up a pencil and do a quick sketch. That’s a small step.
Or pick up some charcoal and put a few lines on the canvas. Start small and take some easy steps. Next time quickly block in the main shapes in color.
After that, work on just one area in the painting for a little while. You may be surprised by how good this feels, little by little.
I have done this, and it can work. The painting above, Edge of the Field, 30″ x 24″, was done during a hectic time. Often 30 minutes was all I had. It took a couple of months, step by little step.
One More Tip
Here’s an oddity from my creative habits. A bonus tip that may work for you too.
I paint more often if I have more than one painting on the go. That way, if I feel stuck on one, I can move to the other one. Then next time, I have a fresher take on the first work and happily continue there.
Some creators benefit from having more than one creative project in progress. This can work for writing, painting, or whatever your creative urge calls you to do. You can switch around which one you choose for your 30-minute time.
Life Will Get in The Way
Instead of thinking of the more mundane aspects of life as an interruption for what you would rather be doing, think of them as a creative incubation period. A time for the gray matter to be ready for the next small time slot on your creative project.
Most of us can’t avoid it. Life gets in the way of art.
The art will patiently wait. But it won’t have to wait as long if you can accept doing it with smaller goals.
Bigger Time Slots
The cool thing about these little goals becoming a habit is that they make you ready if life sends you occasional bigger chunks of creative time. That’s my experience.
There are diverse ways this happens. It could be your live-in critic watching you reach your small goals and accepting that your creative work is important to you. It could simply be your own heart recognizing that fact. Attaining little goals makes the bigger time slots more likely to happen too.
Takeaway
Don’t despise the small steps. This is the path to your big goals. Writing a book, painting well, or learning to dance, creative work is done best in little steps.
Ironically, the times that life gets in the way of creativity are often precisely when we would benefit most from a refreshing space, even for a few minutes. Catch those minutes when you can, and escape the tyrant of time. Can you break your creative dream into small steps? I hope you can, and that it brings you freedom and joy.
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