Embrace Imperfection and Make Time for Creative Pursuits
There are countless reasons not to show up for your most sacred, soul-nourishing creative work. One of the most common protests we tell ourselves and each other is “I don’t have the time!”
And it’s true, we don’t have the time. Or rather, we have the time but we’re living in a culture that will happily soak it all up in the name of productivity and perfectionism. As a writer and creative myself, I face this push and pull every darn day, and I hope to share one of the sacred tools that helps me rebel against these unseen forces.
Why is this creative endeavor so important?
Before you can get into bending time, you have to know why this creative endeavor is so important to you. Whether you’re writing a book, building a new offer in your business, or pushing paint across the canvas, without an anchor or way of remembering why your work matters, it’s easy to get pulled off your center.
The anchor is the bigger reason your work matters. It’s a vital tool for confronting the habits of pushing your own important projects to the bottom of your to-do list. Because let’s be honest, the to-do list never ends!
But what exactly is on that to-do list in the first place? Why is heeding the siren call of the laundry basket more urgent than reclaiming five, 15, or even 30 minutes to connect with your sacred work in the world?
Saying yes to your creative desires is an act of creative bravery and the most nourishing way to care for yourself.
Here’s an exercise to try:
Choose one important project you’re working on right now. It doesn’t matter if it’s just started, halfway done, or you’re nearly at the finish line. Now, write a few statements about why this particular project is so meaningful.
Let anything and everything show up on the page. There are no wrong reasons. In fact, this is usually the first place that perfectionism gets you off track. If you try to find a perfect reason to justify the time you’re spending on your project, you’ll continue activating a steady stream of self-doubt that prevents you from making progress towards your vision.
You don’t have to do anything with your reasons and they don’t need to be shiny or poetic. Just let them simmer, and continue revisiting them every time you work on your project. You can add more reasons as you go if you feel called, but the main intention of this exercise is to simply trust your own creative desire and allow that to be enough.
Saying yes to your creative desires
Showing up to work on things that matter to you is an act of creative bravery. I will even dare to say it’s the most nourishing way to care for yourself. Answering the call of your creativity also opens a portal for bending time. Here’s what I mean by bending time.
Most of us feel like we’re tossed around by time, and that the hours and minutes slip through our fingers. Time goes so fast, and we wonder why the days feel so full, yet we never find time to focus on our deeper work.
In my experience, one of the key ingredients to changing this pattern is deeply trusting and saying yes to your creative desires. When you spend more of your time doing things you love, suddenly the day opens up with a kaleidoscope of juicy goodness. You feel more content and more satisfied.
There are two steps in this process: saying yes to your desire, and being willing to show up in itsy bitsy windows of time.
Saying yes to your desires happens when you’re willing to dance with magic and wonder. You give yourself permission to connect with something bigger than yourself and to expand your creative channel. When we focus only on practical tasks and hustle-culture productivity, it’s all too easy to live a life with the quality of a dried up paper bag. Life gets dry and crunchy, flat and unappealing.
When you wonder whether it’s really that important to do your creative work, consider remembering that just like a wee little flower, you also need water to blossom. To me, writing and creating is the water that quenches my soul. Can you answer that same question? What quenches your soul?
Bending time with micro creativity sessions
Now that you’ve said yes to your desire and acknowledged both its existence and importance, it’s time to show up, even in the smallest blocks of time. This is where too many of us get tangled up in high expectations and overthinking.
As a writer, I often imagine that what will allow me to finish my next book is having endless hours of free time to write. But in reality, some of my best work happens in 7 minute windows when I’m between client sessions, or waiting in the school parking lot to pick up my kids in the afternoon.
Waiting for the perfect time to do your creative work is another way of letting perfectionism win. And perfectionism’s main job is to keep you in line with the dominant culture of productivity, over-giving, and self-sacrifice.
So if you want to join me in the Rebellious Order of Recovering Perfectionists, start making your work in these itty-bitty, in-between times. (Yes, I just made up that name and maybe it should be a real thing!?)
There’s one more thing you have to know about this practice to truly bend time. You must be deeply present. That’s the big secret. It’s the quality of your attention that bends time. This looks like limiting distractions, consciously telling your self-doubt or inner critic to kindly let you be, and fully surrendering to the glowing flow of your creative channel.
I call it bending time because this deep presence radically alters the quality of each second so it somehow counts more. It has a depth of experience that lasts, that opens you up, and leaves you feeling full instead of depleted.
Build your time bending habit
We must be honest with each other, so I will tell you that building my time bending habits did not happen overnight. It’s been a years-long journey of slowly but surely shifting my relationship with my creative work, and continually returning to these practices even when I fall out of these habits.
But this practice of ditching perfectionism and bending time is really an ongoing cycle. When you accept that this work isn’t done, you can give yourself grace and compassion. You’re going to have days or even weeks where the to-do list really does take over.
The biggest shift to make is gently bringing yourself back to that sense of purpose and desire. You just have to keep saying yes to the part of you who is asking for you to lead that nourishing retreat, finish that brilliant program, or publish that transformational book you’ve been carrying in your heart.
Perhaps the best thing to do is share these ideas with your creative kindred spirits so you can remind each other to bend time and keep showing up for your creative life. We can help each other remember that we must ditch our perfectionism, say yes to our callings, and trust our creative desires.
Because this I firmly believe - the world needs your magic, and time is ready to bend for you to make that happen.
To purchase your copy of Leah’s new book, Awakening the Visionary Voice, visit www.leahcherrykent.com/awakening-the-visionary-voice
TLDR:
Leah Kent is a book coach and author who helps wisdom keepers and visionaries write and publish transformational books about their work in the world. To receive writing inspiration and self-publishing guidance, visit www.leahkent.net
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