Things that stop you form creating and what to do about it

There are two massive things that will stop you from creating the content you want and I’m going to share how you can make that happen.

I’m not going to sugar coat this. Creating content is hard. Getting started on a project I hard, not the actual creation. The sooner you let that sink in and internalize it the sooner you’ll be making stuff!

Let me explain.

Perfectionism is the root of all creative struggles

As a creator you might have a notebook full of ideas of things you want to make. Heck you might even have most of the prep work done for it but then you start getting in your head and thinking about the things you don’t have.

You start to think that what you do have to make isn’t good enough and because it isn’t good enough in your mind you don’t actually get out and take the photograph, start the video, or write the post.

I’m here to tell you to stop 🛑 thinking you have to be perfect. Shake it off and know that this is just a journey that needs to be taken one project at a time. Some might be magnificent and others just might suck. 

And that’s okay!

The Unexpected Virus

I produce content on a daily basis for the university I work with. I’m post content for clients, and I work on projects for my church and for my family and with that comes baggage.

This baggage is what I like to call the professionalism virus.

It’s symptoms include gear lust, over consumptions of content that is classified as research, talking about ideas, and lack of publishing.

Don’t believe for second that this only infects professionals. Oh no this can often manifest themselves in budding creatives, and novices who know enough and have done enough to know that it’s a skill that they can be good at.

If you haven’t had to deal with this yet you will.

It’s like that annoying mosquitos at a summer picnic that just always seem to be hanging around and ultimately  got the better of you.

What to do about it

Here are a few steps that I’ve found that have helped me to get out of the professionalism virus:

1.  Set limitations – you have to set limitations for the project you’re trying to accomplish because when limitations are set you’re more likely to not only follow through on the project but will be inspired to find interesting solutions to achieve your desired results. The key here is that you must RELLY commit to these limitations. 
   1.  For examples I told myself I had to write this post in an hour and have it scheduled by end of day.
2. Something must be published in 5 days from the moment you realized you’ve been infected with the virus. 

3. Numbers don’t matter – In the process of making your content you’re not thinking about what people might think about your work or if it’s up to your standards. You’re doing it for you. You’re doing it to hit the glorious publish button and sitting bask to just enjoy your own work. 
4. Being proud of the good enough – This part is key. Write down why you love making what you just made and why you want to make more of it. This exercise just helps remind you of the ultimate perspective of why you started creating content in the first place. If you started creating to make money then you started for the wrong reasons.

This exercise just helps remind you of the ultimate perspective of why you started creating content in the first place.

Hope this article helps you over come one of the many pitfalls we as creators face on a regular basis.