The importance of exercise & discipline

I’m about to use the E-word and the D-word (exercise & discipline). If either of those words offend you… Just avert your eyes and put a Post-it over the offending content.

Has your writing life be come flabby and dull?  Are you staring at blank pages or screens and are quickly distracted by that cute kitten (their numbers are legion) on YouTube?

You, my friend, need to pay attention to your inner writer.

Think of your creative side like a muscle. If you don’t use it, you’ve lost momentum. Which leaves you feeling flabby on the creative front.

Before anyone gets annoyed or sad, this happens to everyone. Life is busy. We are constantly making choices about how we spend that precious commodity – time.

The things you can’t do is let the kids starve, shirk responsibilities, or barricade your bedroom door (at some point you’ll need to come out for food or potty breaks).

Here are a some suggestions to tone that creative muscle:

1. A daily 15 minute brain-dump. Take fifteen minutes and clear all that mental clutter out of your head. Set the alarm earlier, use your lunch time, take an extended bathroom break – do what ever it takes to give yourself time.
2. Go on a retreat. Some times, you just have to get away. Far, far away. Perhaps a grand tour through the galaxy. If you can’t take in the galactic sights, maybe look at what is local. I spent the weekend at the Porches.  Being there revved my creative gear and got me back on track with a couple of projects I’m working on. Another thought is to find a comfortable hotel, with room service, and give yourself a couple of days. Find someone to house sit for. Anything to give you that space you need to work that creative muscle.
3. Set you goals. Don’t let the g-word get in your way. Set a time to complete a project. It doesn’t necessarily need to be submission perfect. Having a project ready to go to beta’s for review is freeing.
4. Gather like kind of people around you. Creating an exercise program for your creative muscle means you need to include people who want to express their creativity too.
5. Give yourself time-outs on social media and television. It’s easy to get sucked into a TV show, Twitter conversation, Facebook feud or chat, texting, or the lovely images on Instagram. If you set out media free times in your day, you will start to lose the flab and create some definition in those muscles.

All these suggestions require you (and me) to make your creativity a priority in your life. We are constantly reminded to exercise and develop discipline. Exercising our creative muscles won’t get us the body of a Greek god or goddess. It will give us a pretty amazing inner-self that will help with our focus.

You are worth the time and effort it takes to build your creative physique. Get to it and WRITE!