The Power of Personal Projects
While I don’t think we should worry too much about what others think of us, I do feel that occasional self-reflection is healthy to make sure you are showing up as the person you are striving to be (another topic for another post). In my consistent effort to be the person I strive to be, I realized I had been holding myself back on launching various creative personal projects for fear of being seen as unable to focus or impulsive. And while the person I strive to be (ahem…the person I am!) IS able to focus and IS quite focused and disciplined, I had to tell myself that I could also throw creative projects to the wind as often as I wanted without any negative impact to myself.
In a related post, we explored the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. If you haven’t read that post, you can find it here.
If you’re reading this and are a creative person, you may understand what I am talking about here- all the judgements we have about our creative process that often thwarts our own creative growth. For example, “I can’t launch this project until it’s ready.” or “I’m going to wait until the time is right to start this project.” or “I just need to study this one more thing before I can do this project.” or “No one will care about it anyway.”. Sound familiar?
If this sounds like you, then I highly recommend his book right here: "The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin.
It helped me open the lens on the creative process to a more healthy and sustainable perspective. It helped me learn to give myself full permission to let creativity take me for a wild ride if I was suddenly swept up in inspiration. It also helped me see creative projects as being different from each other, having different beginnings, ends and durations of time. For example, some projects start as ideas and can stay as an idea for literally years before it manifests. While other projects may launch and be successful in a few short weeks. So if one personal project could just not get off the ground, I learned to let it go without taking it as a personal failure or inability to follow through.
Learning to start creative projects as inspiration comes in (without being concerned about their duration) is quite liberating because it keeps creative energy flowing.
So why is this important?
Because sometimes the day-to-day does not provide opportunities for creativity or play and can be quite monotonous. Sometimes work tasks may be uninspiring, challenging or difficult. Sometimes our communities and households can feel strange and stifling.This may lead to feelings of disconnection and mental atrophy. A positive creative escape by way of a personal project keeps the mind flowing and the energy and internal fire burning brightly. Thus making us better for ourselves, families and communities. Through personal projects we tap into the energy of play and untapped wonder. We may even see a glimpse of progress in a personal project that we have not been able to see in our work-life. With a personal project we get a sense of giving time to a passion that may represent a different side of us outside of our work-selves, family-selves and community-selves.
What if you don’t have time for a personal project? Here’s my approach:
Start small. Like really, really small.
Choose something you’ve always been interested in or curious about.
Scratch at the surface of that interest and curiosity and ask yourself, “Would this be fun to learn about”.
Give yourself a quick 30 minute dig around the internet looking up anything to do with that interest (if you have more than 30 minutes, by all means!)
If you’re still feeling keen, think about how you can give yourself 1 hour a week to devote some attention to this curiosity.
Don’t even think about where it may lead to, just keep showing up for it a little bit each week.
And there you have it- a personal project launched and in motion. If you find out early on that you’re not as into it as you originally thought you would be, drop it and repeat steps 1-6 over again with another curiosity or interest that has been quietly asking for attention.
In my own experience, the personal projects I have launched have taught me so much about my own capabilities. They’ve opened doors and opportunities beyond my own imagination. They’ve provided important connections that I was never going to make in traditional networking attempts and have given me access to new friendships and communities I may never have met otherwise. Lastly, they have given me a consistent connection to creative energy that I require as a creative person. I also have learned to trust that when the creative energy takes a pause, to wait patiently and trust that it will come back when the time is right, without frustration or force.
So if you are feeling like a personal project may be on your horizon, I highly recommend you shine a bit of light on it and give it a fair chance. If you’d like to reach out for support along the way, please do! I’d love to hear about what you’re brewing!
Thanks for reading,
Diane
