30:04 "the reason why you think creativity only flows at random times is because the way you allowed it to flow is only at random times" Man you just speak liquid gold
I find when I start a new craft I feel like my efforts are childlike in nature. Lately I keep trying to remind myself that the reason it looks childlike is that I'm a beginner and generally children are also beginners. It's made a big difference in the amount of patience I have with a task.
Retaining that nature is also ideal too imo, your inner 'artist' is pretty much synonymous with your inner child from my experience and nurturing both will help you become more creative and balanced. The word 'pure' might be an apt way to describe the persisting childlike aspect present during free-flowing creative moments.
Not only that, but you really want to stop well before you get burnt out, while your energy level is still somewhat high and you still feel motivated to go on. You'll be ending your creative session on a high note and with a little bit of "hunger", which will make it easier for you to engage with your craft your next scheduled session.
Maybe. I never vdo that. I just start doing something and I often go on for weeks in a row without much break at all. It's works for me. But I have Asperger so I guess my brain wroks a little bit different. We often have a lot of energy don't get tired easily. I do recognize when I'm starting to get burned out though. So this is not a problem for me. I have several other problems though. like taking other people's criticism the wrong way, finding the right contacts, finding balance between doing something new and working on old projects etc.
@FlyingMonkies325 Yeah - That sounds familiar. 🙂 For me? The fear of losing my motivation before the project gets done. So then, I try to "sprint" as fast as I can in order to get to project completion, before motivation runs out. But typically, the "fuel" of feeling inspired still runs out too quick anyway. It might not sound like it yet, but I think the approach proposed by this video is addressing part of your concern, just not in a way we would have thought of on our own.
I used to think i wasn't creative after playing piano, violin and guitar for two years each. I didn't love them but I also wasn't patient. You don't need to be in the arts to be creative - you can be creative as a teacher, manager, and in many other professions. Hobbies as well
Very important message! The most thrilling creativity I’ve seen in my scientific background have been beautifully executed experiments and insightful data presentations. Creativity isn’t just for the arts. Everything can be improved with honing your creative senses and habits.
But there’s a difference between a field where you create your own works vs occupations with a more practical goal, as well as things like creating things in Minecraft, vs *Creating * Minecraft
6:20 'just practice' 5:50 answer 1? develop discipline 7:50 brain is efficient, dislikes adversity can train neurons fire, repeat: habits formed dont need to restrict/control impulse gratify 10:15 impulse is (+) energy, but then u get frustrated, then stop 11:28 looking for formula, how to sustain 'impulse' ❌ [explosion of creativity] + discipline = success 13:10 relying on firecracker over candle train your impulsivity 14:35 ! train your impulsivity starting on impulse, cant sustain 15:20 meditating: recognise the reason/focus, lvling up impulsivity 15:40 train attention on 1 thing, mind wanders, but try to focus on candle 15:55 wait for the wandering mind, watch the smoke, mind wanders, bring it back (mind pushup, return) 17:05 slow down your start: feel like doing it for 1000h/day? ❌ recognise u have a limited amount of fuel, set aside a specific time each day, ! space out creative energy to last, into habit formation 19:20 u need to have that creative energy LAST til u can recruit other parts of ur brain: building a schedule, habit formation 20:20 decouple actions from reward, so actions are not reward/impulse based - 3 checkboxes: " I did what I was supposed to do today, good job!" 25:30 mindset shift. diagnosing the problem: giving into impatient/creative impulses make u stuck
Funny how you do this when he literally said that "basically understanding it" is not what's going to help, but rather understanding the *_why_* is what will help.
i needed this video more than i ever, EVER thought. i genuinely thought this wasnt something people talked about and had no idea why i was feeling that way.
I think the thing that helped me the most when being creative is breaking things down into bite sized chunks. I used to have so many ideas floating around in my head an no skills to do it, and no idea where to start. But if you break everything down into tiny, tiny chunks, you have a clear path to follow. I break everything out into 30 minute chunks. If I don't think I can complete the chunk within a 30 minute session, then it means it's still too big. Then I break it down even smaller so it does fit in a 30 minute session. (In fact, when I first started this, and I wasn't used to working for even 30 minutes at a time, so I would break things down so far that I could literally fit it in 10 minute sessions. But now I have enough attention span to work for 30 minutes.) I put all of this into a To Do list and just grind away at it. Sometimes I'll get bored, and I take Dr K's advice from a previous video about being a Wind type person: It's okay! Just do something else (creative! not games) and come back later. And over the past year, I've felt like I've been the most productive I have ever been. And the thing that gives me motivation is looking back at my checklist and seeing each step I completed checked off, and getting the satisfaction that even if my project is still way too early to show anyone, I can feel the progress being made and I know where my trajectory is going. And I know that one day, I'm going to finish it and it's going to be amazing. (The Checklist is the secret sauce + in between 30 minute session I meditate for 5 minutes to relax, refresh, and prepare for the next 30 minute session) . And if I don't have the skill to do something, I'll just do what I can as a placeholder and come back later to fix it up better when I've picked up more skills. The important thing imo is to not get stuck in a learning loop, which is what used to happen to me. I'd learn and learn and learn and never create anything. So now I just acknowledge I don't have certain skills and just try to work around it temporarily. So I balance my day with a little bit of learning, but try to mostly focus on creating. Also another important part is giving yourself enough time to play + plan time for family time. So really on weekdays, I only get in about 1.5 to 2 hours of quality work. Because the rest is family time or video game time. I think it's important not to lie to yourself and think that you can work without play forever and ever. After all, you have to enjoy life. But 2 hours a day will make surprising amounts of progress over time! And if I'm still feeling burnt out, I will reduce my work time down to just 1 or less hours a day until I feel motivated again. But I try to at least maintain 30 minutes a day just to stay in the zone if that makes sense. I've noticed that if I go a few days without quality work sessions, my attention span deteriorates very quickly and it can be weeks before I pickup motivation again. So I try not to let any days slip without quality work.
The popular pomodoro time management technique breaks tasks into 20-25-minute chunks, followed by 5-minute breaks, and every 4 pomodoros you take one bigger break (15-20 minutes).
YES. A million times YES. Making things in chunks is the way to go to get better at anything. Little improvements, little practices, little creations, little by little each day, it takes a thousand littles to add up to one big. Chunks are definitely OP for grinding EXP on any skill, the way I do it with most things is like 2-3 hour chunks, cause the way my brain works it's very hard to stop or take a break until I've finished something, so I can't stop until I've finished that song or finished that art or fixed that coding bug. Making a short piece of music only takes a little while, and I can use those tiny 2 hour creations as practice and it compounds over time. I've made like 30 something tiny little songs that I use to practice different musical techniques and structure. Then I can apply all that compounded knowledge and experience into bigger things. It really works, and trying to do super huge big things to start always ends in failure, I know that from experience, so many times I've tried to start these huge projects when I don't have the skill for it yet, and they've all come crashing down after under a month of starting them, you gotta start small.
I'm an artist with ADHD, so naturally my interests are driven by impulse. I definitely wax and wane when it comes to completing work and posting to my socials, this has been really helpful to understand the core roots of this poster's issue and make everything click. What I found helps to curb the impulsive creative ideas is to keep an idea book, write down the thought, and then continue on with discipline.
Make your schedule visible (not on a digital device). Celebrate 🎉 3 steps along the way -> first your idea -> result after hard work -> show and get response from people (last past is something I struggle with). About the schedule: make a route with 3 dots (for example) so you prevent yourself from skipping when something is hard. Better to start with 2. Try to find more balance in thinking and doing.
@@iche9373keto is a diet designed to put your body into a starvation mode. Any benefits you get from ketosis are probably your brain being undernourished. Your brain only runs on glucose. There are definitely more well tested diet options like a healthy diet low in saturated fat sodium and sugar limiting processed foods as much as possible and trying to stick to whole foods. This actually has science behind it for overall wellbeing. This is my general speculation but if you have mechanistic data there may be a way to implement those same benefits but keto diets typically inherently exclude the chips and soda that people should stay away from anyway.
I can relate way too much. My issue hasn't always been impatience at every turn. More so my perfectionistic nature commbined with no fast way to accumilate information needed in order to get past the obstacle I'm facing. Spending hours just trying to find a video that can tell me how to get something working just kills the mood. I'm also extremely bad at following the red thread in information. It becomes the mmindset "i need to learn everything to be able to do anything".
Something to keep in mind is that there is no golden formula for creative habits. If you look at successful authors and their habits you'll find that they all have radically different schedules. So seek to find a habit that fits you, and don't assume there are specific correct habits - what matters is simply that the habit lends itself to your individual needs and productivity.
"You only have a right to the action itself and never to the fruits of that action. Do not make the rewards your motive and do not develop any attachment for avoiding action." Your comment at the end there reminded me of this verse. Thanks for the great content man. It's helping me understand my brain a bit and feel validated and hopeful.
I've been so bummed that I couldn't make a manga in my 20s that I've wanted to create since I was a teenager (I'm 36 now) I have more time for it now being childless and having all my friends turn into parents/moving away. I need this creative consistency to help my loneliness out so tysm Dr. K for this lecture! The 2 hour a day window is totally doable and easy to manage :)
You gotta focus on the process not the results. As soon as I focus on whatever the results are I hate everything I do. That’s when impatients sets in. Enjoying what you do even when you feel miserable doing it. You might not like that moment but there’s gratitude just in the fact that you’re doing it. The other big thing is write things down! If you have an idea when you are working on a different project don’t pursue it. Put it somewhere for safe keeping and then when you have some free time you can play with the idea a little bit. But that’s not what you’re committed too right now. Saving it for later doesn’t mean you have to throw away the joy it gives you it means it’s not a priority. So giving constraints and giving your mind a chance to slow down so even if you chose to follow what started as an impulse it is now an intentional choice. That’s helped me reach my goals.
I'm not being hyperbolic...this video is life-changing! This not only helped me understand that my impulsiveness was actually preventing me from practicing which prevented me from improving in my artwork...the theory applies to soo many other aspects in my life--life changing! Thank you for this video!
In regards to his last statement I think it’s also recognizable when someone is truly putting creative effort into a project. Too often I’ve seen people criticize a game, show, event,etc. because it feels like a corporate mandate. People can often feel when someone has put consideration and effort into a passion.
I've also struggled with this vicious cycle many many times, through dozens of hobbies and activities. Other factors that may exarcebate this problematic pattern are a perfectionist's mentality and an anxiety/fear of failure. A helpful mnemonic I've found is setting bite-sized, S.M.A.R.T. tasks/goals: Specific - the task must be specific. Measurable - the task needs to either be quantifiable or at least have an indicator of progress. Achievable - the task must be realistically achievable. Relevant - the task should contribute towards an overall progress. Time-limited - the task should be bound by time constraints, either a time schedule or deadline.
It has now been about 3 months since I've implemented this guidance in this stream and my creative productivity has completely flipped from brief spikes with long down time to a flat line of consistent creative productivity. Maintaining good consistent working habits and forcing myself to stop before hitting burnout keeps me going and happier doing the creative work when doing it. Thank you as always for your guidance!
ive been writing (as a hobby) for over ten years at this point and ive always had the same problems that OP described. i think that i'm decent (by now) and i dont hate my own writing, but still, i've never managed to finish anything. i could never commit to any story for long enough to see it through. recently ive made a few changes to my life and my writing habit has improved so much through this. i knew that if i ever wanted to finish anything as big as a book id have to build a strong writing habit. but that wasnt even what i started with. at the beginning of the year i started meditating, i started journaling, then later on i implemented some excercise into these daily habits, and once i was sure i was gonna keep going with all that, thats when i trusted myself enough to attempt to implement writing into that daily habit. at first only half an hour a day, no wort count goal. and thats been going great! now i trust myself even more and i recently started setting a word count goal of 1000 words. well, today was the first day and its super fucking hard ngl but i at least trust myself that i wont give up, even if i dont hit the goal every day which feels really good! :)
As a career creative, I highly recommend looking into the podcasts and books by Todd Henry. Accidental Creative is a great book by him, especially if you're starting out. Good luck out there.
Going to tack on Seth Godin here, check out any of his talks or interviews. It's presented as marketing but it's entirely about the purity of the creative process. Have heard Dr. K mention some things I've only heard Godin talk about so I wouldn't be surprised if he has read some of his books. Viewers of this channel will definitely appreciate Seth.
honestly a big issue, especially in our age of social media 24/7 (no it's not one of these rants), is that we compare to others way too much. to be blunt, no shit you lose motivation to do let's say drawing when you see someone better than you. but the unfortunate truth is that we'll suck forever. there will always be someone better than us. once we reach the peak of the first mountain, we'll see an even bigger one. save your work and look at it months later and you will see improvement. no you likely won't be the next michelangelo or Da Vinci and that is just fact. let's not beat around the bush with it. but you can be a better version of you from a few months ago. I've had so many moments of thinking to quit over the last 6 years of music, but whenever I look back I see that there was improvement. the improvement isn't a straight line, it's a curve. you learn a LOT early on, but as you know more, the visible and immediate improvement will dissapear but that is just what happens. keep a diary from stuff you've made whether it's music, drawing, scientific papers, engineering samples, whatever you do, and you will notice improvement
Very true. A good thing to remember also is that (most) people will only show their best work on social media to shine. You won't see the 1000 failed attempts they made to practice. It creates a false impression of "Everybody makes the perfect craft every time and I can't do shit". This video was very helpful, once again, thank you Dr K.
I think this is a topic that is not really explored often. The internet has changed comparisons from local communities to the entire world, and I believe it greatly changes your perspective and motivational feedback loops. It's very hard to create organic growth when you are constantly compared to giants without having gone through the same journey.
@@RialuCaos I've felt this so many times. Our biology is still sooo far from decently adapted to the technology we have to our present day. Love how you pointed out that we used to compare ourselves to local communities and now it's the entire world. The only cure I've found to this is to focus on the moment and on your art. Get into a feeling state instead of a thinking state. Thank god even tho I play very basic chord progressions (piano), it feels amazing if I put in some emotion into it and get entranced in the rythm of a youtube drummer playing alongside me. Sure there are people like jacob collier or a hundred thousand others that can play much more amazing stuff and my peers will probably get used to that quality and not think much of my stuff... BUT. As long as I don't linger thinking about it, I'm feeling good and, funnily enough, making technical progress. We're clearly pioneers of a both wonderful and brutal era that's 100% sure.
i have been in constant therapy for over 3 years and this one video literally explained things to me that not only make sense but completely shine light on alot of the issues i have been working on. Therapists are people and they don't always know best, but fuck it, this guy does.
Dammit. I've been dealing with this for a long time and i didn't expect thid vid will answer all my questions about why. This channel always comes in clutch. I'm ready for all the scientific explanation and stufies
"Slowing it down at the start" has been a life changing perspective shift on when I start anything new. And the best part is you can start as slow as you need to, to keep the habit going.
This talk has hit for me in a way that similar suggestions in the past haven't. I think the bit about "creative explosion = the good part" and trying to attach discipline to it instead of viewing both the creativity and the discipline as sides of the same problem was brilliantly put. Cheers for sharing these clips, they are literally lifechanging.
I feel this so hard. I'm an artist who is currently in a state of burnout after drawing consistently for a few years. I really want to get back into drawing my comic again, but at the same time I am very tired. There are still so many questions I need to answer about what I want to do with it and my relationship with art as a whole. I have to be really careful on how I go forwards and slowly ignite the fire again
Lol I get the same thing. It's always right as I'm about to start drawing i start feeling tired some reason. Like as if moving my arm it unbearable lol.
I speak from experience here: The remedy for this is acceptance of where you are at (you'll get better whether your thoughts beat you up about it or not), and playfulness. Enjoy what you're doing, have fun! It isn't that serious. Do the art for the joy of art and not for impressing others, and soon enough you will be impressive! But it isn't the point anyway, and the joy of creation and expression themselves are amazing rewards alone. I struggled with hating my current level in things for years, and I sometimes still do. But lately, things HAVE been clicking because I just accept where I'm at, and because of this I've been able to draw more often, I've been playing piano daily for over 7 months now, since early August and I can improvise a song, on the fly, in any key, and I can change keys fairly smoothly now, and I'm finally back in the habit of writing two pages a day. It's still art though and I know I have a lot to learn, but that's what keeps me coming back now!!!! I'm excited to see where I'll be in a month, a year, and more! And I can prove my piano-ness if you'd like, I'm not exaggerating. The book has been a four year project though so don't expect that anytime soon. The point is, accept your current state, and in order to enjoy yourself, stress about it as little as possible. Just let it be what it is, and YES absolutely experiment, take risks, be okay with sounding like shit. Everyone does. Even Yusuke Murata still constantly erases and that man is one of the greatest illustrators of all time.
The one thing that seems to be overlooked is chronic depression; which is a serious issue in our society, especially since Covid. I've known for a long time that the key is discipline, but pushing yourself to do something that, deep down, you don't want to do, is near impossible. Especially in the case of people with mental disorders which include impulse control as a symptom (such as autism).
This has been profoundly mind shifting. A heartfelt thank-you to all those who asked the questions that made this video what it was. Of course, thank-you too Dr. K
:D Michelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel was an interesting example to choose. He really, really didn't want to do it - wanted to focus on his sculptures instead - but the Pope wanted it so he had to get painting. Apparently there's a poem out there that he wrote about how much he hated the work!
I had the same thought and it also reminded me of what I consider a problem with art nowadays and how it is perceived - no wonder we all struggle with the concept of scheduling art when all we are told is that “art is supposed to come to you, listen to your muses, if it’s thought through it’s not art but design”. Same professors who said this stuff to us are those glorifying, indeed, a dude who did it for the money 😂
@@Trinity_505 yes and no, creative ideas come and go so you have to have a paper, sheet, canvas, musical instrument around always to write down the frame of it, so later with your scheduled habbit can build on.
I don't have the discipline for a tight schedule yet, but I do have a weekly quota to work on my projects, and that is helping immensely. 99% of the plot holes I had in a story, that had been making me procrastinate for the past years, got solved in 1 month by just sitting down and dedicating my energy into ironing them out, whereas before that I could just stop thinking about it and do something else, waiting for divine inspiration to come and solve my problems (which happened sometimes but it takes MONTHS of ruminating the idea). I'm still acting on impulse, but my impulse is modest, "I gotta get something off my weekly checklist". Yesterday I betrayed myself and stayed up late to play a game and got rewarded by it (cleared the missing goals in it), but at the very least I couple each goal I accomplish in a game with a short spurt of study from my textbook. My sleep schedule is skewed, but I learned something! Hopefully these obligatory pauses to study are also helping to train my brain not to be 100% slave to rewards.
Exact same problem I've been having for years. I've always had these big ideas for writing, game development, but always lose direction and start putting off goals until I forget about them entirely. Definitely going to take on your advice and work toward getting a system in place to maintain my creativity.
I really appreciate the 30 second tldw at the start. It's like 00:20 for me and I saw this video as I was about to put away my phone but it would've bugged me all night if I didn't get the answer. So getting a short and sweet summary at the start is very helpful.
As someone who’s trying to get back into music after a long hiatus this video was super relevant. All you can do is be consistent, try to set yourself up to be in the best position possible and let the chips fall.
I am a freelance artist and this hits really close to home for me. I chose a creative career, but am struggling so much to actually "Bloom". Every single one of your videos is so helpful and i'm grateful for that
I am 34 years old and finally going back to school to get an associates degree in music after getting a bachelor's degree for a "fallback career" when i was 18 and didn't know what I wanted. I think Dr. K may be missing a little nuance that I am hoping to provide mainly for people doing music. I am gonna say, in my early 20s, I was not mature enough to pursue a music degree because I was not able to navigate what I call the roller coaster of the dunning kruger effect. You start confident at the peak of stupidity and then as you learn more, your confidence takes a hit because you realize how little you know and how much you have to learn. In the meantime you are learning all of this skill and technique that you aren't really able to apply in a tangible way to receive the external validation you crave. If i can't read sheet music, I can't play a song, so it is just like the end of FFVII where you have to go walk around the world map and grind and grind and level up before you get the satisfaction of fighting the boss. This humbling process of realizing you don't know anything happens over and over and over again and you HAVE to learn how to recover from that devastating feeling and how to do it efficiently, and that is seriously the most important thing to learn, and if you had good parents you probably have a head start on that lol. My teacher also told me, when you are a little kid, when you learn how to play a simple chord, you get so excited, but as an adult, you need to see big progress and receive external validation before you recognize your efforts, so focusing on small wins is very important. Your internal monologue while you practice must be positive. You have to not just practice your creative endeavor, you have to practice being gentle to yourself, so when you mess up, dont tie that to your identity and say wow i suck i am never going to improve, you have train yourself to say WHOOPS and let's try that again instead of berating yourself. Practicing a good internal monologue is even more important than practicing your skills. Also, I recommend you learn HOW to practice. I didnt really have any strategy or goals when i was teaching myself, but there are neuroscience studies that demonstrate certain practice strategies are more effective than others. I.e. if you are playing something wrong over and over again you are just training yourself to play it wrong and building neural pathways to play incorrectly, so, slow down break down the parts and practice each part perfectly multiple times and practicing the parts at random or practicing songs at random rather than repeatedly helps you better prepare for a performance because you only get to play the piece once in a performance, not 6 times in a row, and how you play it the first time is more indicative of how you will perform. If you have a strategy and specific goals for practicing, you will have a purpose and an intent and much more effective practice. Start with something easy that you can be successful at and then dig into the more difficult tasks. Remember that when you sleep, your brain does a lot of work, and tomorrow when you wake up, you will magically be better. Seeing how I made improvements just by practicing and waking up the next morning even better is so motivating for me, but if I didn't know that simple fact, i probably wouldn't notice I was making progress and I would feel more discouraged. Put a reminder in your google calendar that will haunt you like the duolingo owl and when you dont practice for a few days remember you can start again. Just sit with your guitar in your lap for 5 minutes without even practicing and see what happens. Put yourself in the context of doing the work even if you don't feel like it to keep your habit forming. Make sure you keep something you feel successful doing on hand. Learn an easy fun song like smells like teen spirit or iron man, and when you feel like you have lost your passion for learning new things, go back and play your old reliables to uplift you, and make an effort to notice areas where you have improved. I think sometimes we start creative endeavors with an end goal in mind, like I want to be able to perform music in front of others, but to get to that beautiful day, i have to invest a lot of ugly practice and grinding into it, and I have to change my attitude that performing is not the important part, it is my ability to grind and to learn to love the torture of humbling myself over and over, because eventually, you get a reward, and you have to hold onto that reward so tightly and remember a reward awaits you, because the next time you feel like you are failing, you can call upon that past success and foster hope within yourself that you will find that success and that good feelong again. One of the most painful parts is working sooooo hard and feeling like you have nothing to show for it because you dont have any external validation and you MUST learn to validate yourself and be proud of yourself for something as simple as, you learned to put your finger in the perfect spot on the fret to produce a beautiful tone. You have to make it through the parts where you feel discouraged and lack confidence and say, so be it, and try again. You have to learn to love the process of realizing you know nothing and then be excited to learn more. Progress is never going to be linear, you will always have successes and setbacks, and valuing yourself enough to make it through the setbacks is vital As far as dr. K's advice about you have to have a habit to be your most creative, well, I have bipolar disorder with manic episodes where I feel the most confident and find writing songs the most enjoyable. When I have strong emotions or specific events occur, that's when I want to let those emotions out in my lyrics. So during these time periods i churn out like 7 songs in a month. If I were to sit down every day and make myself write songs I would be pissed off and annoyed and never write a song again because it only brings me satisfaction when I am inspired. I think making a habit of looking for inspiration around you, like observing things and imagining how you would describe them, or making a habit of writing down or recording your ideas when you have them and things like that is great, but there is no way you can make me write a song every day. Now I can practice my old songs and rework them or record them every day or work on my skills and technique, no problem, but I cant make inspiration a habit. I can, however have a methodical way of writing songs, i.e. come up with a creative line with a melody and record it on my phone, listen to it and come up with some more stuff, type it up on my computer, let it sit and rework it and then add structure and accompaniment, and I have developed a process for myself that makes it efficient and doable. I think having a methodology is important but trying to force yourself to be inspired daily is a little silly imo. There is definitely a distinction between a creative practice and inspiration that I think Dr. K is not making that is pretty important. Anyway this is just more specific advice from an old lady, take it or leave it. I liked this video a lot but I think there are a lot of self esteem and validation issues tied into being confident about being creative, like positive self talk that also need to be addressed that aren't exactly relevant to the person's question that perhaps need to be brought up.
Oh my god Dr.K thank you so much. This is something that I’ve dealt with for years. I juggle multiple hobbies such as music, photography and art and I always get these burst of energy for one or the other and then it doesn’t go anywhere tangible and burns out. Then I feel bad because I have confidence in my abilities and when it doesn’t go anywhere I feel bad because it feels like wasted potential.
Man, I really needed this talk like 3 years ago. This is all totally true, and I learned a lot of this just over time after I got out of school. To add to this, start small and simple. Start with making something short that you can finish in a few days. You can’t really commit to a novel if you’ve never written a short story. Having finished something is a huge confidence boost, and will get you up the ladder for future projects
A thing that immensely helped me is always observe your own pattern with things and be self aware, especially with your energy levels to avoid burnout and be somehow consistent with your schedule. Also, this is specific for artists but it might help others as well, if you have perfectionist tendencies and you see your work as average or not good enough, this will instantly put you in the "my work is not perfect so why show it to others, why post this to social media" mindset and that will make you not work on your passions anymore. I went to an art school and had really shitty teachers that kind of put me in this mindset, constantly criticizing, "no one will hire you if you don't do x, y, z", "your art has so many mistakes", "this makes me cringe" etc. and it really made me hate my own passions and not draw anymore cause I was constantly met with negativity. Luckily in the last couple of years I try to separate myself from that time and slowly get back to my roots, like why I even pursued art in the first place and found out that pacing myself really helps and not think that it's the end of the world if I made a tiny mistake. The great Bob Ross said once "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."
@@Narusasu98 Absolutely. I do wish schools and universities would pay attention to people they're hiring and not let their classes become extremely toxic. Then they wonder why they don't get employment rates in the industry after graduation.
This might be the most helpful video that i`ve watched on this channel so far. Thank you soo much for that and please keep doing what you do. I really appreciate it
This is extremely insightful, I have constantly made the impulsive decision to start a project, go at it with full passion, and then after it gets hard, I impulsively give up. After so many times I had given up, I realized I wasn’t doing something right, and I may have subconsciously gotten better at it through a few surface level methods, but consciously understanding should be really helpful in the future
Earned a sub. This is legitimately the most valuable advice I've ever heard about creative productivity -- I appreciate the focus on correcting behavior internally instead of merely changing our outward habits without correcting our faulty behavior. So simple, should be obvious, but it hits hard when you hear it.
I'm an artist and i got sooo stuck multiple times precisely cause of thinking it's only gonna be good if i react on the creative impulses. As if having a schedule or doing art when i didnt "feel like it" would taint the artwork making it less authentic/powerful, and me drawing when i didn't want to would be "bad" both for me and the art, but now i realize how that line of thinking just fucked me over time and time again and hindered a lot of absolutely worthwhile creative pieces from being created, and also a lot that may not have been as great, but man it'd at least have been -something-. When you started explaining, i remembered an experience i had long ago which hit me so hard because it illustrated exactly what you explained, and up until this video i didn't give any thought; it was when i was small, i was consistently drawing for years, everyday, and in the ocean of drawings were multiple that stood out, which may have never done so if i wasn't as focused back then, not relying on my impulse, but just on plain habit and trained muscle memory. There was a time where all i wanted was to be able to draw a fookin horse like a god, in armor, plain, any horse race, because it felt like i'd unlock the power of the universe itself if i could do it well (i really loved horses ok). I had a lazer determination to make it happen, because i just adored horses so much. I bought books on animal anatomy, redrew other artists in my eyes flawless horses, and went to a stable to study them in real life (and to pet and ride them). After tons of really bad drawings later, it became less bad, then good, and eventually i became a horse drawing god, no matter what angle it was from (and now i forgot most of how to do it RIP). I repeated the same with other animals, and later even humans - the improvement rate was rediculous, and some pieces i like up to this day still. If I'd just relied on impulse and tried to randomly draw a horse every now and again with no structure at all, that'd never have been able to happen. But now, years after i somehow expected it to work just because i once had this long period of practice, so i got lazy in my approach thinking i can skip all the essential steps and mental training... and then i wondered why i failed so hard, for way too long. Oh brain why u do this Thank you big time Dr K!
A lot of people believe this because they believe structure and discipline are like prisons for an artists creativity, when really those are the two things that will make you a better artist
Basically if you have no time to watch the entire video, here's a quick summary. The main problem of this creativity problem is lack of consistent practise. This is due to burning out, if you want consistency you have lower the amount of energy you spend in order to do the thing. This can be achieved by enjoying what you do or don't over work yourself.
The second half of the video explains the "wait for it to rain" mindset vs the "build a well" mindset, and how you can't fake it and expect to build up a habit. Watering with a gallon for a few weeks is just as much the problem as leaving the plants to wither after losing motivation. Showing restraint when we start is how we build up real momentum and give ourselves the best shot at doing whatever needs to be done when things get tough.
Creativity is awesome, but it needs solid skills to bring it to fruition. Many people like their creativity, but not the work and patience it requires to make it a reality.
I think ever since I got my first smartphone in about 2015 my habit of drawing has really gone out the window in favor of the instant gratification of social media. The last few months I've been desperately trying to ween myself off it. When I was young I created for the pleasure of creating, without any expectation of sharing it, and I was at my most productive and creative. Now every time I create, my mind wanders to that expectation of sharing it and getting rewarded with attention, and it becomes difficult to stay focused on my task. I just want to post it and get feedback as quickly as possible. The quality and quantity of my work has really waned, because I'm constantly interrupting myself to check socials. I guess the solution is to learn to stop giving into that impulse to check socials for feedback, and to get back into the habit of creating and staying focused. Actions decoupled from reward, as you said. It's so hard though.
Dude this is so eye opening. I’ve struggled so hard to figure out why I often quit on things that I was initially hyped to pursue whether it comes to writing or making beats. I thought I needed both discipline and that burst of creative energy but I was so wrong and now it makes sense why it was a wrong mindset to have.
15:18 now this is an example of my impulsivity taking action, where now I’m writing this comment… but I understand how meditation helps. You see, just a few nights ago I was put into Jail over some garbage that wasn’t even my fault, got out after two days but… I was under the impression I was going to get a Felony. A year in jail. As someone with Autism, this idea shook me. I was sitting in a room with a desk, a metal toilet/sink combo thing, and a crappy bed. They gave me two sheets, a blanket, a book to read, my paperwork and a few sheets of printer paper, 4 small pencils with no erasers, hygiene stuff, a towel, a rag, and the most interaction I’d get out of the day would be food coming in through a slot in the metal door. And when I tell you that it was hell, that is a severe understatement. I went though perspectives that I haven’t seen since I was locked in a dark room as a child, the silence enveloped me and tore into me like wolves. I had brief moments of realization on why I was thinking that way, which I understood perfectly… but because of that, my mind would wander into thinking about things I couldn’t control; Never seeing my dad’s wonderful face or getting to say I love you before going to bed, never getting to enjoy the Sun or enjoy the little things I took for granted like TH-cam and picking out foods I liked, missing out on holidays and celebrations, never getting to go to my cabin… and worst of all, I wasn’t even sentenced yet. I couldn’t even attempt to rationalize with the fact of staying in jail for a year, because I wasn’t even sure of how long I’d be there for. Look, I can say whatever I want about how I felt in there. Everyone who goes experiences it differently depending on the mentality they bring there… but the problem with me is, I was truly alone. For the first time in YEARS, I was alone in my head. No games to mindlessly drive and fight into to subdue my pain, no videos to watch to absorb and ignore the rest of reality, and nobody to hear my voice. At least when I was alone in my room at home, if things started to get a bit too real for me in my head… I could escape. But there…. …I was fucking stuck. Locked. Trapped. Gone. And everything emptied around me, my head would spin into itself… and hell, I’ll admit, I could envision images and dreams more clear and concise than I could ever do before.. and I feel like it’s because of this exact thing. I was subconsciously performing meditation to try and stabilize myself and provide that gap that I felt was missing… ….I could truly hear the voices in my head come clear, I could see the images deep inside my mind that I wanted to see, and most importantly… I was synced with my own direction of the universe. Of course, I was still living in mortal terror and existing in a perpetual nightmare… but the only real moments I felt I could barely tolerate the cell, were when I was either drawing(which I’ll add I actually improved with in there) or lying down attempting to sleep. Anything else simply brought me back to the thoughts of home and regret. Look, if there’s anything I can recommend to you all, DO SOME FORM OF MEDITATION!! IT IS LITERALLY THE ONLY WAY MY PSYCHE COULD TOLERATE THAT HELL HOLE… IT IS FUCKING MISERABLE, AND DON’T YOU DARE THINK OTHERWISE. **YOU LOSE EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE.** Don’t squander your gifts, embrace them. You won’t master it by today or tomorrow. Maybe not ever, but you need to have control to exist and thrive. Otherwise, you will NEVER leave the pit you dig yourself into.
I think that I finally created a habit of reading books and I've done that by only reading 10 pages each day. The point is, there is NO excuse not to. I can find plenty of excuses not to read 50, or a 100 pages, but 10 is something I can usually do in 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour (depending on the content and whether I write notes). It isn't extremely difficult to create habits, but one thing that Dr. K said absolutely stands true. Waking up one day and saying FROM THIS DAY ON, I'M READING BOOKS and catching a tailwind and reading 150 pages in a day just does not translate into a habit. So decompose the tasks, do small bits of work every day instead of large chunks in periods of motivation.
A youtuber I follow who does a lot of deep reading of heavy, dense classics puts his target at one page for the same reason. One page is nothing, and everything over one page is a bonus and our brain likes those kinds of rewards. "Yay I did even better than expected" kind of thing.
I'm a webtooner and I always tried so hard that i burnout out in 6 months to a year so i decided go slowly ignore all the impulses to be the best and beat all the competitivo and just do it because I like to
One thing that goes with breaking things down that's helped me is always leaving something to look forward to for the next day. If you leave with a sense of "completeness" then why would you come back? I think part of why this person struggled to stick with things passed the practice phase is they stopped having goals or direction.
So very useful... this made me realise the **why** behind my not making progress on all the many creative ideas I have. I had already come to recognise that I should "park" an idea... note it down so I don't lose the inspiration, but not necessarily race off to research, design it etc. This fills out the rest of the picture... the "bursts" of creativity are the issue and I **really** need not the hyperfocus that I fall into, but limited consistent application so I don't "burn out" the creative sparks/enthusiasm/motivation. Kind of like "spoon theory" but for creativity.
So, I am a former horse trainer (dressage, low level jumping, mostly training colts and "dangerous" horses that others had abandoned). All my training life I trained horses by "magic" -- I chose high strung, very intelligent horses (some with a strong sense of self and willingness to fight) and we seemed to have a "connection" sufficient that my horses quickly learned to move off of very slight cues and body movements - such as going where I looked (obviously, you are making very slight changes in your body when you do this, but do not really notice -- the horse does). Because I loved training horses I was very persistent - so there was drudgery of repetition, repetition, repetition. But I loved horses and training and I could do it. I have thought of my mind in the same terms: "This is the horse I was given to ride and I'm not going to get another, so I better learn how to ride it." So, I've been working all my life to learn to ride this beast. I'm 68 now. Just got diagnosed with ADHD (co-morbidities are anxiety, depression, CPTSD and PTSD along with a personality type that seems to be rare). I had a professional life where I earned many awards. I have always had excellent friends (some, equally ADHD and successful). I am now trying a new approach to riding this beast -- finding the emotion I have learned to bury all my life, letting it pool out in private and then "riding" that emotion in action. Using the source of excitement and staying atop it. We'll see how it goes.
Resetting my routines and habits after coming out an unhealthy long term relationship is difficult but being patient with my healing process is a major key. This video is true gem to getting my alignment back on track
This man is a genius and always seems to be releasing videos that I need when I need them, it makes sense now and perfectly describes the issue I've had.....now to form these good habits! Thanks Dr K!
I haven't finished the video yet, but the first thing that came to mind after listening to the post is that the medium they use is the problem. People don't realize that you don't have to write a whole book, you can write scripts, short stories, blogs, fashion articles, or poems. Etc. You can paint your ideas, draw them, make ...Idk, a theatre play with it, built sculptures to express it, take pictures and make a collage. What I am trying to say is that if you like the process, you will keep doing it and evolve because you want to express something, and you'll naturally reach a point when you need info you don't have so you'll have to find a way because you want to and not because you think you should. Or you'll try and try until something works. There's a big difference. I taught myself some English, but got better at it because of the people who took the time to correct me on the internet! I wanted to write so badly, I took constructive criticism and didn't give an f to feel bad about it. I wanted people to understand it so now I evolved. I am not perfect, but you get what I am saying, right? Those people didn't. Don't try to beat a dead horse and try other ways that are not boring for you, that you want to keep doing over and over. It can be cooking, or freaking sculptures made out of bushes. Do something new with something that already exists. Like...paint over the sculpture. Idk, invent a new thing that you adore. Don't limit yourself to what's popular...cause that might just not be your thing and you're wasting your time and squandering your potential. Like, I love writing, but I hate writing anything that is not my story. I swear...it's weird. I like how paintings look and I think I would be good at it because I got a visual brain and a vivid imagination (it'd also be faster than writing in most cases, trust me). But to learn how to do it feels like...my god, climbing a snowy mountain while naked. Learning about writing is exciting cause I want to use it. Read other books, it's fun. Not all. Like, I don't enjoy editing all the time, I hate having to pick apart every single word I used and stuff, but I find it rewarding at the end because I enjoy making it better, and it ends up making me happy even if I hate it at the beginning. So I keep doing it because I know how much better everything will be after I pick apart every single thing. Hope this helps.
I can't say for sure yet as I'm just now trying to implement some of the techniques, but this video just helped me understand so much more that my impulses are so strong. I feel like I've just been poisoning my mind with media and content and training my impulses unintentionally to be lazy. To constantly go from one thing to the next. Thank you for this video sincerely from the bottom of my heart. It just puts a lot in perspective.
I get that, I get like a tingle in my hands to do something whether its writing or drawing but once I get to pencil and paper I just cant set anything down.
I have a mix of experience in the realm of putting things into action vs just dreaming about doing stuff. I'm 39 now and have learned to embrace it. For example, instead of judging myself, I write my ideas down as they come, and then put them aside and forget about them. My clue that I will continue to do something is that it comes back over and over again by itself. One way I've changed a dream into a reality is that after years of being interested in massage therapy, I registered for a program and now, less than a year later, am working full time in that field and am loving every second of it. Plus, it allows me to be as creative as I want, and provides me with a pretty decent paycheck.
This is it. This is the video that could change a LOT of people‘s lives. I think I understood what you were saying as true the moment I remembered that having RESTRICTIONS to your creative outlet - or CONDITIONS - it can bloom BEST. I know I can write. But I have no motivation to. When I joined a local theatre group where we had to write our own play, I could barely stop creating. The conditions were other people, a certain group, a certain project, a certain genre. The strongest restriction was a certain subject. Suddenly I wasn’t writing for a vacuum anymore. I even wrote a song ffs and I have never done that before in my life! So I think my tip for everyone here is: Join a group that has literally ANYTHING to do with art or join up with a friend and put restrictions on your art, like, you have to write a story containing these three words your friend has come up with. Or paint a painting about a certain subject etc etc. It’s just so much easier because if you can do anything, you feel like you have to do the ultimate, the absolute best. With conditions and restrictions you only have to do the best with what you‘ve got.
thanks for the relevant video, im always frustrated that i cant translate my ideas into something tangible. sucks that i want to be an artist too, i really need to put my own ideas out there someday
It reminds me of the quote that I saw somewhere " Never trust a person that is more excited of being successful than about thing they want to be successful at"
I once knew a man who owned a pet shop. He started a pet shop because there wasn't one in the area, and he wanted to line his pockets, not because he liked animals. He crammed so many animals in the store, in order to be able to sell to as many people as possible, that the animals got sick and started to die. I tried to educate him about their needs (he needed to give them more space, so they'd have less stress), but he refused to listen. In his mind, the fewer animals he had, the less money he would make. So instead, he began losing money on dying animals. And animal lovers like myself stopped shopping there, because we didn't want to support someone who didn't care that he was killing animals out of greed. His business went under. Imagine that.
Okay, but how does one discipline to keep _up_ the discipline? I've tried to keep up habits _knowing_ it'll easier but it feels like it never does. All it takes is for me to miss a day or have a depressed day/week and, poof, the habit is gone and I no longer want to pick it back up (it seems like too much work). I guess that's my impulse speaking... Too bad meditation is itself something I need discipline for. I wonder if I should just focus on getting the meditation down (at the expense of all the other stuff I want/need to do). Because it seems like every final answer ends up being meditation, lol.
Watch youtube videos about what you are interested in when you dont have the energy to actually do it yourself. Put yourself wherever you do the work and just sit there and don't do anything so you are still making a habit of preparing yourself to do it. Get a mentor or someone who can hold you accountable or take a class you have to attend. Meet other people who are interested in the same stuff. Get another hobby like gardening that requires you to build a habit and participate in it every day so you build the grit to maintain any kind of habit. When you brush your teeth every day, make part of your routine afterwards to do the thing you want to do. Count down from 5 and when you get to 1, get up and go do the thing. Most importantly do the thing especially when you don't feel like doing the thing and do it however crappily you can and tell yourself you accomplished a goal and did a good job. Depressed times are hard, forgive yourself for giving up, talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend who wanted to give up on something where they had amazing potential. I think you can do it, i am not sure if any of this will help but a weird stranger believes in you.
I totally know where you're coming from, but I feel like I've turned a corner with it. Here are the thoughts/concepts that helped me the most: 1.) know your "why," and if you don't have a "why" or it's not compelling enough, you don't have to do it. I know it's cheesy, but I put notes in places where I'll see them when I'm working on my new habit, to help me remember WHY I'm working on developing or maintaining it. For example, instead of setting an alarm and labeling it "work," I'll label it with the financial goal I'm working toward, or the feeling I'm seeking by becoming more financially secure. If you can't locate a compelling reason why you want to develop a certain habit, then it's time to do some introspection. Are you pursuing it because YOU want to, or because society has told you you should? If it's solely a society thing, you don't have to pursue it, AND you don't have to feel guilty about it. 2.) consistency = more often than not, NOT daily. Ive gotten caught in the trap of "well, I broke my streak, guess I have to wait until Monday/next month/Jan 1 to start again" many times. Redefining "consistent" to account for slip-ups has been insanely helpful for me, cuz ya know, life happens sometimes and you're gonna miss a day. The key is to not beat yourself up about it so you can get back on track tomorrow, without any drama. If you account for days off in your definition of "consistency" then there's nothing to beat yourself up about :) 3.) you HAVE to work on your identity while you're building new habits too. If you don't do this, you're doomed to fail. It feels really awkward at first, but for example if you're building a workout habit, it's going to be easier if you start thinking of yourself as someone who works out, or someone who's into fitness. What would a gym rat do? That's what you're gonna do, because you're a gym rat now. You don't have to go around telling people you're a gym rat, but play with the new identity in your head for the first little while until the habit "sticks". 4.) yes, the general wisdom for habit formation is to work on one at a time rather than making over your whole life at once. I would personally recommend doing meditation first, because as you mentioned - it'll make a lot of other things easier. But you can choose something else if you'd prefer. It doesn't actually matter that much - what matters more is not getting stuck worrying about choosing the "right" habit to start with 😉 5.) try giving yourself an "out." This is one that really works well for me. I'll tell myself "I'm gonna focus on doing this new habit for the next month. If, after this month, I don't like it or it's not working, I get to stop. But for this month, I have to really give it my best effort so I can properly see if it'll work for me long term." this permission to quit after a certain amount of time helps me feel less overwhelmed about the idea of having to do my new habit every day for the rest of my life. It isn't for the rest of my life - it's just for this month. 6.) finally, try to make your new activity enjoyable even if it isn't that fun. I've kept a consistent journaling habit for the past several years because I invest in really nice paper, fountain pens, and fun inks. The experience of writing is something I look forward to. Right now I'm working on building better work habits, so I've been working outside in my backyard because it lifts my mood, which makes it easier for me to focus. You'll be surprised at how much the little details like this make a HUGE difference. Hopefully some of these ideas help. I know it can be really overwhelming though, so take what you like and leave the rest 💗
@@leotardbanshee Aw, thank you! I like the idea of watching videos of someone doing the work. I've noticed that helps me get motivated with organization so maybe if I schedule it right, I could build a habit that way? Worth a try.
This video actually just got me so emotional holy cow. I actually just started tearing up and crying from all the realization and understanding that seeped in, and felt a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders.
I think another really important aspect to this is to think about WHY you’re creating and making art. If you’re doing it for fame or to make money etc. you’ve already failed. You have to absolutely LOVE what you do and do it purely for the passion.
I agree but, what about someone who isn't motivated by anything? I only get motivated by impulse, like this video shows. How do I know what my passion is if what motivates me are my random impulses, not actual motivations? How do we learn what our passion truly is?
@@capuchinosofia4771 In my case, I have so many things competing for my attention, that its easy for impulses to win. I think the more we simplify our lives and make it easy for us to hold space without "needing" to do anything (mindfulness meditation), the more space we allow for true motivation to grow. Impulse is like a weed that kills motivation.
Something that really helped me as an artist was to set very small check boxes. I started with draw a line in the morning before anything else and draw a line right before I go to bed. This evolved into a page of lines, then a page of circles, and then boxes and so on. Another thing that helped a lot of to do something that was not art related as a trigger. I do several things now like get a glass of water and light a candle, these things tell me it is time to sit and practice my craft. The last thing I did was change my environment to be ready for drawing. Anywhere I thought I might sit for an extended amount of time I placed a sketchbook or just loose paper and drawing utensils. This included the dinning room table, end tables in the living room, nightstand, desks, and any car I thought I would end up being in. Often times for me the barrier to entry is just getting set up to start, getting rid of this specific resistance has helped me more than almost anything. This episode is still really insightful for me and I will be doing some adjustments to continue in my craft.
I really needed this one. I’ve been passionate about music for years, and I finally purchased a DAW license. Super pumped yet too nervous to touch it all month. I’m commonly described as a perfectionist, and I need to learn to be comfortable with making mistakes as I progress. I believe in your creative endeavors, people. Don’t let others discourage you and keep that passion! Stay focused on your goal!
would really love to hear about the "wind type" mind (was it called "vata"?) here and how it differs because i really think it was productive for me to use "bursts of creativity/motivation" to work in said creative form but by switching/rotating the projects i have in this particular form. im confused with the following too :( does anyone mind helping? from the healthygamergg wiki: "When someone [vata] gets stuck, the most common advice given to them by people is to pick up one thing and just focus on that. That is very bad advice for a Vata" while on the pitta motivation type that wiki says "the brightest candle burns out the fastest" in connection to that type.
I directed my creativity to a new form of drumming - speedrumming. It’s tested my patience like no other craft and has resulted in 40+ gaming/drumming WRs. I’m about to hit 2 yrs developing this craft and I hope people can enjoy my runs for years to come. Good luck to anyone reading this.
But how does this not contradict with your other video about motivation styles? You talked about being Wind, Fire, Earth types, but what you talk about here probably only works for Earth types who can handle the slow but sustainable progress, but what OP is describing sounds more like a wind/vata type to me? I don't know maybe I misunderstood that video (or this one). Hope someone can clear this up for me.
I will say that since February my mind has changed how it works quite a bit. I moved countries and work a more consistent schedule. I feel that my new work schedule and life reset has made me less ADHD and given me time to be creative. I liked drawing as a kid but gave up on digital art and animations when I was a kid because my computer that had all of my artwork disappeared. I recently bought a new tablet for media and work and I bring it to my work, I work teaching kids and making curriculums. During the day we have 2 times where we switch between classes and we have daycare for a little over an hour and I just tried drawing what the kids want me to, I have found myself to draw a lot better than when I was a kid and could actual sit down and try to figure out how theart program works without giving up. I also study study concepts by myself around things like physics and philosophy. I read more and started writing too. I think what I have come to appreciate delayed gratification that I get from working on certain curriculums through the weeks or helping kids learn English they compare how they have improved. I still have impulses yes but I can control them a bit to work with me not against me. It almost feels like my brain is calmer
adhd and producing music is a blessing and a curse ahaha hyperfocus for hours sometimes but other times can't bring myself to sit down and actually work on music
To add to my previous comment, I also came to realize over the years, and through having tried and failed at so many things, that my real reason for wanting success in whatever area, was that I wanted to be accepted, to be appreciated by others and to be respected. Once I got that it was about how I wanted to feel, I started letting go of the "how" and rather, started focusing on "what" actually really gave ME a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Total game changer. Now, I still feel some regret about not having lived out some of my biggest dreams, but I am at peace with that and am grateful for where I am now, because it's a lot further than where I was just 1 year ago. And there are also many things that I've accomplished that I didn't have labelled as "big dreams" and that still happened, effortlessly and easily. It's easy to overlook those things and dismiss them, but I believe that that's a big mistake.
I've recently realized that overexciting is really bad for productivity because it always leads to burnout and depression. Your video here was very helpful because it gave context and explained thoroughly with examples. Thanks!
From the perspective of someone who does creative work for a living, if you want to make something "creative," like making a film, writing a book, starting a youtube channel, etc., you are being more than just an artist. You're making a product. You also have to be your own director, producer, engineer, researcher, (the list goes on.) Which means that production management is a skill you will have to learn if you want to successfully create something. You need to understand the scope of your project, and then create a plan of action. What is your skill level? What materials do you need? What is your budget? How much time will it take? What are your current mental and physical limitations? When can you fit work time into your daily schedule? Once you figure out all of those things, you need to think about breaking your goal down into small steps and then make a habit of setting aside a certain amount of time every day to work on it. Like Dr K said, if you're not even used to doing this, then maybe you should start with something small, like the equivalent of doing one push-up after dinner every single day. Then it just becomes a thing that you do, like brushing your teeth every day.
Thank you for the step by step detailed response! It is SO helpful for someone like me (ADHD) to be walked through the full process in detail. Saved me SOOO much time trying to white knuckle may way thru figuring it out on my own. As you said, all the writing videos and even Sanderson's entire walkthru wasn't enough to make that connection.
This is also me. Started and stopped so many things because I reached hard mode and decided it wasn't for me. I knew I needed to do stuff but my mind was like a brick wall. Thank you so much for clearing up a lot of things as they have made my mind accept these more than the "Just do it!" stuff.
I blacksmith for a hobby. When I things I have seen over the years is this: people want a result, and not the process. If you come into my Smithy, and you want to forge a sword, that's great. But it will take you three years of unremitting effort to develop the skills to forge a sword properly. No one wants to hear that. They want a sword. If you want a sword, go buy one. But if you want the process, if you love hammering for the sake of hammering, then you will become the kind of Smith who can make a sword. Too many want to result without the intervening months and years of effort. Developing any skill takes time and effort. My suggestion to most is this: narrow your focus, decide what you really want. Then undertake the steps to achieve that thing. The problem with the impulsivity is it bounces all over the map. This week you want to forge a sword. Next week you want to learn guitar. The week after you wanna fly an airplane. Pick one. Do it. Execute.
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
30:04 "the reason why you think creativity only flows at random times is because the way you allowed it to flow is only at random times"
Man you just speak liquid gold
I find when I start a new craft I feel like my efforts are childlike in nature. Lately I keep trying to remind myself that the reason it looks childlike is that I'm a beginner and generally children are also beginners. It's made a big difference in the amount of patience I have with a task.
children are beautiful beings :)
@@peaksofblue uuuuuuuuhhhhh
@@peaksofblue uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Retaining that nature is also ideal too imo, your inner 'artist' is pretty much synonymous with your inner child from my experience and nurturing both will help you become more creative and balanced. The word 'pure' might be an apt way to describe the persisting childlike aspect present during free-flowing creative moments.
@@peaksofblue Sundowner, is that you?
Setting a time limit is SO important. When you tell yourself, "I am going to spend the whole day being creative!" you either burn out or do nothing.
Me
Not only that, but you really want to stop well before you get burnt out, while your energy level is still somewhat high and you still feel motivated to go on. You'll be ending your creative session on a high note and with a little bit of "hunger", which will make it easier for you to engage with your craft your next scheduled session.
Maybe. I never vdo that. I just start doing something and I often go on for weeks in a row without much break at all. It's works for me. But I have Asperger so I guess my brain wroks a little bit different. We often have a lot of energy don't get tired easily. I do recognize when I'm starting to get burned out though.
So this is not a problem for me. I have several other problems though. like taking other people's criticism the wrong way, finding the right contacts, finding balance between doing something new and working on old projects etc.
@FlyingMonkies325
Yeah - That sounds familiar. 🙂
For me?
The fear of losing my motivation before the project gets done.
So then, I try to "sprint" as fast as I can in order to get to project completion, before motivation runs out.
But typically, the "fuel" of feeling inspired still runs out too quick anyway.
It might not sound like it yet,
but I think the approach proposed by this video
is addressing part of your concern,
just not in a way we would have thought of on our own.
Me on photoshop all day
I used to think i wasn't creative after playing piano, violin and guitar for two years each. I didn't love them but I also wasn't patient. You don't need to be in the arts to be creative - you can be creative as a teacher, manager, and in many other professions. Hobbies as well
Very important message! The most thrilling creativity I’ve seen in my scientific background have been beautifully executed experiments and insightful data presentations. Creativity isn’t just for the arts. Everything can be improved with honing your creative senses and habits.
"Those that can't do, teach, and those that can't teach, teach gym" - Jack Black from School of Rock
Two years each seems patient..
But there’s a difference between a field where you create your own works vs occupations with a more practical goal, as well as things like creating things in Minecraft, vs *Creating * Minecraft
I don't play Dungeons and Dragons, but I know very creative people who are paid *GOOD* money to host campaigns.
6:20 'just practice'
5:50 answer 1? develop discipline
7:50 brain is efficient, dislikes adversity
can train
neurons fire, repeat: habits formed
dont need to restrict/control impulse
gratify
10:15 impulse is (+) energy, but then u get frustrated, then stop
11:28 looking for formula, how to sustain 'impulse'
❌ [explosion of creativity] + discipline = success
13:10 relying on firecracker over candle
train your impulsivity
14:35 ! train your impulsivity
starting on impulse, cant sustain
15:20 meditating: recognise the reason/focus, lvling up impulsivity
15:40 train attention on 1 thing, mind wanders, but try to focus on candle
15:55 wait for the wandering mind,
watch the smoke, mind wanders, bring it back (mind pushup, return)
17:05 slow down your start:
feel like doing it for 1000h/day?
❌
recognise u have a limited amount of fuel,
set aside a specific time each day,
! space out creative energy to last, into habit formation
19:20 u need to have that creative energy LAST til u can recruit other parts of ur brain: building a schedule, habit formation
20:20 decouple actions from reward,
so actions are not reward/impulse based
- 3 checkboxes: " I did what I was supposed to do today, good job!"
25:30 mindset shift. diagnosing the problem: giving into impatient/creative impulses make u stuck
+
+
Thank you! Much better than getting into the thick of it with 30+ minutes of audio
Funny how you do this when he literally said that "basically understanding it" is not what's going to help, but rather understanding the *_why_* is what will help.
I never would have had the patience or idea to type all that out just for some strangers, but you did. So thank you.
i needed this video more than i ever, EVER thought. i genuinely thought this wasnt something people talked about and had no idea why i was feeling that way.
same
same
same
same, had been this way my entire life but thought it was just me
Same
I think the thing that helped me the most when being creative is breaking things down into bite sized chunks. I used to have so many ideas floating around in my head an no skills to do it, and no idea where to start. But if you break everything down into tiny, tiny chunks, you have a clear path to follow. I break everything out into 30 minute chunks. If I don't think I can complete the chunk within a 30 minute session, then it means it's still too big. Then I break it down even smaller so it does fit in a 30 minute session. (In fact, when I first started this, and I wasn't used to working for even 30 minutes at a time, so I would break things down so far that I could literally fit it in 10 minute sessions. But now I have enough attention span to work for 30 minutes.) I put all of this into a To Do list and just grind away at it. Sometimes I'll get bored, and I take Dr K's advice from a previous video about being a Wind type person: It's okay! Just do something else (creative! not games) and come back later. And over the past year, I've felt like I've been the most productive I have ever been. And the thing that gives me motivation is looking back at my checklist and seeing each step I completed checked off, and getting the satisfaction that even if my project is still way too early to show anyone, I can feel the progress being made and I know where my trajectory is going. And I know that one day, I'm going to finish it and it's going to be amazing. (The Checklist is the secret sauce + in between 30 minute session I meditate for 5 minutes to relax, refresh, and prepare for the next 30 minute session) .
And if I don't have the skill to do something, I'll just do what I can as a placeholder and come back later to fix it up better when I've picked up more skills. The important thing imo is to not get stuck in a learning loop, which is what used to happen to me. I'd learn and learn and learn and never create anything. So now I just acknowledge I don't have certain skills and just try to work around it temporarily. So I balance my day with a little bit of learning, but try to mostly focus on creating.
Also another important part is giving yourself enough time to play + plan time for family time. So really on weekdays, I only get in about 1.5 to 2 hours of quality work. Because the rest is family time or video game time. I think it's important not to lie to yourself and think that you can work without play forever and ever. After all, you have to enjoy life. But 2 hours a day will make surprising amounts of progress over time!
And if I'm still feeling burnt out, I will reduce my work time down to just 1 or less hours a day until I feel motivated again. But I try to at least maintain 30 minutes a day just to stay in the zone if that makes sense. I've noticed that if I go a few days without quality work sessions, my attention span deteriorates very quickly and it can be weeks before I pickup motivation again. So I try not to let any days slip without quality work.
The popular pomodoro time management technique breaks tasks into 20-25-minute chunks, followed by 5-minute breaks, and every 4 pomodoros you take one bigger break (15-20 minutes).
YES. A million times YES. Making things in chunks is the way to go to get better at anything. Little improvements, little practices, little creations, little by little each day, it takes a thousand littles to add up to one big. Chunks are definitely OP for grinding EXP on any skill, the way I do it with most things is like 2-3 hour chunks, cause the way my brain works it's very hard to stop or take a break until I've finished something, so I can't stop until I've finished that song or finished that art or fixed that coding bug. Making a short piece of music only takes a little while, and I can use those tiny 2 hour creations as practice and it compounds over time. I've made like 30 something tiny little songs that I use to practice different musical techniques and structure. Then I can apply all that compounded knowledge and experience into bigger things. It really works, and trying to do super huge big things to start always ends in failure, I know that from experience, so many times I've tried to start these huge projects when I don't have the skill for it yet, and they've all come crashing down after under a month of starting them, you gotta start small.
What kind of Meditation do you do inbetween your 30 Minute Session? Just generell Mindfulness or anything specific?
Kinda sound like gamedev XD
Can you describe some examples of "chunks"?
I'm an artist with ADHD, so naturally my interests are driven by impulse. I definitely wax and wane when it comes to completing work and posting to my socials, this has been really helpful to understand the core roots of this poster's issue and make everything click. What I found helps to curb the impulsive creative ideas is to keep an idea book, write down the thought, and then continue on with discipline.
How has it been working so far?? Any extra tips?
Make your schedule visible (not on a digital device). Celebrate 🎉 3 steps along the way -> first your idea -> result after hard work -> show and get response from people (last past is something I struggle with). About the schedule: make a route with 3 dots (for example) so you prevent yourself from skipping when something is hard. Better to start with 2. Try to find more balance in thinking and doing.
OP, I love this
Do a keto diet to deal with your ADHD
@@iche9373keto is a diet designed to put your body into a starvation mode. Any benefits you get from ketosis are probably your brain being undernourished. Your brain only runs on glucose. There are definitely more well tested diet options like a healthy diet low in saturated fat sodium and sugar limiting processed foods as much as possible and trying to stick to whole foods. This actually has science behind it for overall wellbeing. This is my general speculation but if you have mechanistic data there may be a way to implement those same benefits but keto diets typically inherently exclude the chips and soda that people should stay away from anyway.
I can relate way too much. My issue hasn't always been impatience at every turn. More so my perfectionistic nature commbined with no fast way to accumilate information needed in order to get past the obstacle I'm facing. Spending hours just trying to find a video that can tell me how to get something working just kills the mood. I'm also extremely bad at following the red thread in information. It becomes the mmindset "i need to learn everything to be able to do anything".
So you just described my brain.
Could you please get out now? Thx. 😅
@@ninadiamant8937 No, ur brain had a very nice couch.... I live here now! XD
@@FlashySenap
Can we at least share that damn couch?
@@ninadiamant8937 You can have one spot but the blankets are mine!
@@FlashySenap ok ok. I'm bringing the duvet. 😅
this video is a good example of the importance of "how/why it works" as opposed to just "what works"
Something to keep in mind is that there is no golden formula for creative habits. If you look at successful authors and their habits you'll find that they all have radically different schedules. So seek to find a habit that fits you, and don't assume there are specific correct habits - what matters is simply that the habit lends itself to your individual needs and productivity.
But the authors I’ve learned about do have schedules, even if wildly different, and they maintain them consistently.
"You only have a right to the action itself and never to the fruits of that action. Do not make the rewards your motive and do not develop any attachment for avoiding action." Your comment at the end there reminded me of this verse.
Thanks for the great content man. It's helping me understand my brain a bit and feel validated and hopeful.
I've been so bummed that I couldn't make a manga in my 20s that I've wanted to create since I was a teenager (I'm 36 now) I have more time for it now being childless and having all my friends turn into parents/moving away. I need this creative consistency to help my loneliness out so tysm Dr. K for this lecture! The 2 hour a day window is totally doable and easy to manage :)
Hope you make it. Id be keen to check out on what u make!
Same! Be sure to share what you create!
Why not pay someone to do it for you. ?
@@handsanitizer2457 dear SandHanitizer, the whole point is doing it by themself !
All power to you! Im 21 right now and also trying to work on my manga
Doctor K is really out here helping people to achieve their full potential, I impulsively love this guy.
You gotta focus on the process not the results. As soon as I focus on whatever the results are I hate everything I do. That’s when impatients sets in.
Enjoying what you do even when you feel miserable doing it. You might not like that moment but there’s gratitude just in the fact that you’re doing it.
The other big thing is write things down! If you have an idea when you are working on a different project don’t pursue it. Put it somewhere for safe keeping and then when you have some free time you can play with the idea a little bit. But that’s not what you’re committed too right now. Saving it for later doesn’t mean you have to throw away the joy it gives you it means it’s not a priority. So giving constraints and giving your mind a chance to slow down so even if you chose to follow what started as an impulse it is now an intentional choice. That’s helped me reach my goals.
I feel like each and every one of Dr. K's videos are targetted directly at me. I'm not even joking. It's eerie.
This guy... always posting videos on subjects the exact moment I need them most. Thanks Dr. K!
I'm not being hyperbolic...this video is life-changing! This not only helped me understand that my impulsiveness was actually preventing me from practicing which prevented me from improving in my artwork...the theory applies to soo many other aspects in my life--life changing! Thank you for this video!
In regards to his last statement I think it’s also recognizable when someone is truly putting creative effort into a project. Too often I’ve seen people criticize a game, show, event,etc. because it feels like a corporate mandate. People can often feel when someone has put consideration and effort into a passion.
It’s one of those feelings you can’t quite name but you just know it when you see it, it’s kinda weird in that way.
I love when something is so scuffed that you can see a story being told in the making!
heavily agree.
@@peaksofblue dwarf fortress
"The brain is kind of like an animal, and it does what it's trained to do." That's really well put.
I don't agree.
I've also struggled with this vicious cycle many many times, through dozens of hobbies and activities.
Other factors that may exarcebate this problematic pattern are a perfectionist's mentality and an anxiety/fear of failure.
A helpful mnemonic I've found is setting bite-sized, S.M.A.R.T. tasks/goals:
Specific - the task must be specific.
Measurable - the task needs to either be quantifiable or at least have an indicator of progress.
Achievable - the task must be realistically achievable.
Relevant - the task should contribute towards an overall progress.
Time-limited - the task should be bound by time constraints, either a time schedule or deadline.
Guess my pe teacher was right about SMART goals
Same man, I always do this too
It has now been about 3 months since I've implemented this guidance in this stream and my creative productivity has completely flipped from brief spikes with long down time to a flat line of consistent creative productivity. Maintaining good consistent working habits and forcing myself to stop before hitting burnout keeps me going and happier doing the creative work when doing it. Thank you as always for your guidance!
hows it been going for you lately ?
ive been writing (as a hobby) for over ten years at this point and ive always had the same problems that OP described. i think that i'm decent (by now) and i dont hate my own writing, but still, i've never managed to finish anything. i could never commit to any story for long enough to see it through.
recently ive made a few changes to my life and my writing habit has improved so much through this. i knew that if i ever wanted to finish anything as big as a book id have to build a strong writing habit. but that wasnt even what i started with. at the beginning of the year i started meditating, i started journaling, then later on i implemented some excercise into these daily habits, and once i was sure i was gonna keep going with all that, thats when i trusted myself enough to attempt to implement writing into that daily habit. at first only half an hour a day, no wort count goal. and thats been going great! now i trust myself even more and i recently started setting a word count goal of 1000 words. well, today was the first day and its super fucking hard ngl but i at least trust myself that i wont give up, even if i dont hit the goal every day which feels really good! :)
As a career creative, I highly recommend looking into the podcasts and books by Todd Henry. Accidental Creative is a great book by him, especially if you're starting out. Good luck out there.
Going to tack on Seth Godin here, check out any of his talks or interviews. It's presented as marketing but it's entirely about the purity of the creative process. Have heard Dr. K mention some things I've only heard Godin talk about so I wouldn't be surprised if he has read some of his books. Viewers of this channel will definitely appreciate Seth.
Today I had a kinda sad day creatively and emotionally, I study marketing and am working as freelance, so thanks for the recomendation
honestly a big issue, especially in our age of social media 24/7 (no it's not one of these rants), is that we compare to others way too much. to be blunt, no shit you lose motivation to do let's say drawing when you see someone better than you. but the unfortunate truth is that we'll suck forever. there will always be someone better than us. once we reach the peak of the first mountain, we'll see an even bigger one. save your work and look at it months later and you will see improvement. no you likely won't be the next michelangelo or Da Vinci and that is just fact. let's not beat around the bush with it. but you can be a better version of you from a few months ago. I've had so many moments of thinking to quit over the last 6 years of music, but whenever I look back I see that there was improvement. the improvement isn't a straight line, it's a curve. you learn a LOT early on, but as you know more, the visible and immediate improvement will dissapear but that is just what happens. keep a diary from stuff you've made whether it's music, drawing, scientific papers, engineering samples, whatever you do, and you will notice improvement
Very true. A good thing to remember also is that (most) people will only show their best work on social media to shine. You won't see the 1000 failed attempts they made to practice. It creates a false impression of "Everybody makes the perfect craft every time and I can't do shit". This video was very helpful, once again, thank you Dr K.
This my god, the endless mountains of quality art on artstation and other such sites makes my little pencil sketches and mini-stories feel like trash.
I think this is a topic that is not really explored often. The internet has changed comparisons from local communities to the entire world, and I believe it greatly changes your perspective and motivational feedback loops. It's very hard to create organic growth when you are constantly compared to giants without having gone through the same journey.
@@RialuCaos I've felt this so many times. Our biology is still sooo far from decently adapted to the technology we have to our present day. Love how you pointed out that we used to compare ourselves to local communities and now it's the entire world.
The only cure I've found to this is to focus on the moment and on your art. Get into a feeling state instead of a thinking state. Thank god even tho I play very basic chord progressions (piano), it feels amazing if I put in some emotion into it and get entranced in the rythm of a youtube drummer playing alongside me. Sure there are people like jacob collier or a hundred thousand others that can play much more amazing stuff and my peers will probably get used to that quality and not think much of my stuff... BUT. As long as I don't linger thinking about it, I'm feeling good and, funnily enough, making technical progress.
We're clearly pioneers of a both wonderful and brutal era that's 100% sure.
i have been in constant therapy for over 3 years and this one video literally explained things to me that not only make sense but completely shine light on alot of the issues i have been working on. Therapists are people and they don't always know best, but fuck it, this guy does.
Dammit. I've been dealing with this for a long time and i didn't expect thid vid will answer all my questions about why. This channel always comes in clutch. I'm ready for all the scientific explanation and stufies
"Slowing it down at the start" has been a life changing perspective shift on when I start anything new. And the best part is you can start as slow as you need to, to keep the habit going.
This talk has hit for me in a way that similar suggestions in the past haven't. I think the bit about "creative explosion = the good part" and trying to attach discipline to it instead of viewing both the creativity and the discipline as sides of the same problem was brilliantly put. Cheers for sharing these clips, they are literally lifechanging.
great to hear. There is a reason that when we light a fire for warmth as we sleep, we want a "slow burn" not a bonfire
I feel this so hard. I'm an artist who is currently in a state of burnout after drawing consistently for a few years. I really want to get back into drawing my comic again, but at the same time I am very tired. There are still so many questions I need to answer about what I want to do with it and my relationship with art as a whole. I have to be really careful on how I go forwards and slowly ignite the fire again
Lol I get the same thing. It's always right as I'm about to start drawing i start feeling tired some reason. Like as if moving my arm it unbearable lol.
I speak from experience here: The remedy for this is acceptance of where you are at (you'll get better whether your thoughts beat you up about it or not), and playfulness. Enjoy what you're doing, have fun! It isn't that serious. Do the art for the joy of art and not for impressing others, and soon enough you will be impressive! But it isn't the point anyway, and the joy of creation and expression themselves are amazing rewards alone.
I struggled with hating my current level in things for years, and I sometimes still do. But lately, things HAVE been clicking because I just accept where I'm at, and because of this I've been able to draw more often, I've been playing piano daily for over 7 months now, since early August and I can improvise a song, on the fly, in any key, and I can change keys fairly smoothly now, and I'm finally back in the habit of writing two pages a day. It's still art though and I know I have a lot to learn, but that's what keeps me coming back now!!!! I'm excited to see where I'll be in a month, a year, and more! And I can prove my piano-ness if you'd like, I'm not exaggerating. The book has been a four year project though so don't expect that anytime soon.
The point is, accept your current state, and in order to enjoy yourself, stress about it as little as possible. Just let it be what it is, and YES absolutely experiment, take risks, be okay with sounding like shit. Everyone does. Even Yusuke Murata still constantly erases and that man is one of the greatest illustrators of all time.
I once went through a period where I did the opposite of what my impulse was in any given situation. It was strangely helpful.
The one thing that seems to be overlooked is chronic depression; which is a serious issue in our society, especially since Covid. I've known for a long time that the key is discipline, but pushing yourself to do something that, deep down, you don't want to do, is near impossible. Especially in the case of people with mental disorders which include impulse control as a symptom (such as autism).
This has been profoundly mind shifting. A heartfelt thank-you to all those who asked the questions that made this video what it was. Of course, thank-you too Dr. K
:D Michelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel was an interesting example to choose. He really, really didn't want to do it - wanted to focus on his sculptures instead - but the Pope wanted it so he had to get painting. Apparently there's a poem out there that he wrote about how much he hated the work!
Lmao he was really doing it for the money xD
I had the same thought and it also reminded me of what I consider a problem with art nowadays and how it is perceived - no wonder we all struggle with the concept of scheduling art when all we are told is that “art is supposed to come to you, listen to your muses, if it’s thought through it’s not art but design”. Same professors who said this stuff to us are those glorifying, indeed, a dude who did it for the money 😂
@@Trinity_505 yes and no, creative ideas come and go so you have to have a paper, sheet, canvas, musical instrument around always to write down the frame of it, so later with your scheduled habbit can build on.
I don't have the discipline for a tight schedule yet, but I do have a weekly quota to work on my projects, and that is helping immensely. 99% of the plot holes I had in a story, that had been making me procrastinate for the past years, got solved in 1 month by just sitting down and dedicating my energy into ironing them out, whereas before that I could just stop thinking about it and do something else, waiting for divine inspiration to come and solve my problems (which happened sometimes but it takes MONTHS of ruminating the idea).
I'm still acting on impulse, but my impulse is modest, "I gotta get something off my weekly checklist".
Yesterday I betrayed myself and stayed up late to play a game and got rewarded by it (cleared the missing goals in it), but at the very least I couple each goal I accomplish in a game with a short spurt of study from my textbook. My sleep schedule is skewed, but I learned something!
Hopefully these obligatory pauses to study are also helping to train my brain not to be 100% slave to rewards.
Exact same problem I've been having for years. I've always had these big ideas for writing, game development, but always lose direction and start putting off goals until I forget about them entirely. Definitely going to take on your advice and work toward getting a system in place to maintain my creativity.
I really appreciate the 30 second tldw at the start. It's like 00:20 for me and I saw this video as I was about to put away my phone but it would've bugged me all night if I didn't get the answer. So getting a short and sweet summary at the start is very helpful.
As someone who’s trying to get back into music after a long hiatus this video was super relevant. All you can do is be consistent, try to set yourself up to be in the best position possible and let the chips fall.
Now this is something I can really get behind, Dr. K!
This is truly germane to my entire life. Nothing but ideas and no drive to finish them.
This video gives me one of those rare moments when you learn that something you thought was only you, actually happens to other people too.
this video solved in 30 minutes what my therapist didnt in 2 years. thank you so much :)
I am a freelance artist and this hits really close to home for me. I chose a creative career, but am struggling so much to actually "Bloom". Every single one of your videos is so helpful and i'm grateful for that
I am 34 years old and finally going back to school to get an associates degree in music after getting a bachelor's degree for a "fallback career" when i was 18 and didn't know what I wanted. I think Dr. K may be missing a little nuance that I am hoping to provide mainly for people doing music. I am gonna say, in my early 20s, I was not mature enough to pursue a music degree because I was not able to navigate what I call the roller coaster of the dunning kruger effect. You start confident at the peak of stupidity and then as you learn more, your confidence takes a hit because you realize how little you know and how much you have to learn. In the meantime you are learning all of this skill and technique that you aren't really able to apply in a tangible way to receive the external validation you crave. If i can't read sheet music, I can't play a song, so it is just like the end of FFVII where you have to go walk around the world map and grind and grind and level up before you get the satisfaction of fighting the boss. This humbling process of realizing you don't know anything happens over and over and over again and you HAVE to learn how to recover from that devastating feeling and how to do it efficiently, and that is seriously the most important thing to learn, and if you had good parents you probably have a head start on that lol. My teacher also told me, when you are a little kid, when you learn how to play a simple chord, you get so excited, but as an adult, you need to see big progress and receive external validation before you recognize your efforts, so focusing on small wins is very important. Your internal monologue while you practice must be positive. You have to not just practice your creative endeavor, you have to practice being gentle to yourself, so when you mess up, dont tie that to your identity and say wow i suck i am never going to improve, you have train yourself to say WHOOPS and let's try that again instead of berating yourself. Practicing a good internal monologue is even more important than practicing your skills.
Also, I recommend you learn HOW to practice. I didnt really have any strategy or goals when i was teaching myself, but there are neuroscience studies that demonstrate certain practice strategies are more effective than others. I.e. if you are playing something wrong over and over again you are just training yourself to play it wrong and building neural pathways to play incorrectly, so, slow down break down the parts and practice each part perfectly multiple times and practicing the parts at random or practicing songs at random rather than repeatedly helps you better prepare for a performance because you only get to play the piece once in a performance, not 6 times in a row, and how you play it the first time is more indicative of how you will perform. If you have a strategy and specific goals for practicing, you will have a purpose and an intent and much more effective practice. Start with something easy that you can be successful at and then dig into the more difficult tasks.
Remember that when you sleep, your brain does a lot of work, and tomorrow when you wake up, you will magically be better. Seeing how I made improvements just by practicing and waking up the next morning even better is so motivating for me, but if I didn't know that simple fact, i probably wouldn't notice I was making progress and I would feel more discouraged.
Put a reminder in your google calendar that will haunt you like the duolingo owl and when you dont practice for a few days remember you can start again. Just sit with your guitar in your lap for 5 minutes without even practicing and see what happens. Put yourself in the context of doing the work even if you don't feel like it to keep your habit forming.
Make sure you keep something you feel successful doing on hand. Learn an easy fun song like smells like teen spirit or iron man, and when you feel like you have lost your passion for learning new things, go back and play your old reliables to uplift you, and make an effort to notice areas where you have improved.
I think sometimes we start creative endeavors with an end goal in mind, like I want to be able to perform music in front of others, but to get to that beautiful day, i have to invest a lot of ugly practice and grinding into it, and I have to change my attitude that performing is not the important part, it is my ability to grind and to learn to love the torture of humbling myself over and over, because eventually, you get a reward, and you have to hold onto that reward so tightly and remember a reward awaits you, because the next time you feel like you are failing, you can call upon that past success and foster hope within yourself that you will find that success and that good feelong again. One of the most painful parts is working sooooo hard and feeling like you have nothing to show for it because you dont have any external validation and you MUST learn to validate yourself and be proud of yourself for something as simple as, you learned to put your finger in the perfect spot on the fret to produce a beautiful tone. You have to make it through the parts where you feel discouraged and lack confidence and say, so be it, and try again. You have to learn to love the process of realizing you know nothing and then be excited to learn more. Progress is never going to be linear, you will always have successes and setbacks, and valuing yourself enough to make it through the setbacks is vital
As far as dr. K's advice about you have to have a habit to be your most creative, well, I have bipolar disorder with manic episodes where I feel the most confident and find writing songs the most enjoyable. When I have strong emotions or specific events occur, that's when I want to let those emotions out in my lyrics. So during these time periods i churn out like 7 songs in a month. If I were to sit down every day and make myself write songs I would be pissed off and annoyed and never write a song again because it only brings me satisfaction when I am inspired. I think making a habit of looking for inspiration around you, like observing things and imagining how you would describe them, or making a habit of writing down or recording your ideas when you have them and things like that is great, but there is no way you can make me write a song every day. Now I can practice my old songs and rework them or record them every day or work on my skills and technique, no problem, but I cant make inspiration a habit. I can, however have a methodical way of writing songs, i.e. come up with a creative line with a melody and record it on my phone, listen to it and come up with some more stuff, type it up on my computer, let it sit and rework it and then add structure and accompaniment, and I have developed a process for myself that makes it efficient and doable. I think having a methodology is important but trying to force yourself to be inspired daily is a little silly imo. There is definitely a distinction between a creative practice and inspiration that I think Dr. K is not making that is pretty important. Anyway this is just more specific advice from an old lady, take it or leave it. I liked this video a lot but I think there are a lot of self esteem and validation issues tied into being confident about being creative, like positive self talk that also need to be addressed that aren't exactly relevant to the person's question that perhaps need to be brought up.
Oh my god Dr.K thank you so much. This is something that I’ve dealt with for years. I juggle multiple hobbies such as music, photography and art and I always get these burst of energy for one or the other and then it doesn’t go anywhere tangible and burns out. Then I feel bad because I have confidence in my abilities and when it doesn’t go anywhere I feel bad because it feels like wasted potential.
I'm crying. Thank you. My entire life I've wondered why I'm this way.
Man, I really needed this talk like 3 years ago. This is all totally true, and I learned a lot of this just over time after I got out of school. To add to this, start small and simple. Start with making something short that you can finish in a few days. You can’t really commit to a novel if you’ve never written a short story. Having finished something is a huge confidence boost, and will get you up the ladder for future projects
A thing that immensely helped me is always observe your own pattern with things and be self aware, especially with your energy levels to avoid burnout and be somehow consistent with your schedule.
Also, this is specific for artists but it might help others as well, if you have perfectionist tendencies and you see your work as average or not good enough, this will instantly put you in the "my work is not perfect so why show it to others, why post this to social media" mindset and that will make you not work on your passions anymore.
I went to an art school and had really shitty teachers that kind of put me in this mindset, constantly criticizing, "no one will hire you if you don't do x, y, z", "your art has so many mistakes", "this makes me cringe" etc. and it really made me hate my own passions and not draw anymore cause I was constantly met with negativity.
Luckily in the last couple of years I try to separate myself from that time and slowly get back to my roots, like why I even pursued art in the first place and found out that pacing myself really helps and not think that it's the end of the world if I made a tiny mistake. The great Bob Ross said once "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."
It's a shame when stupid bitter teachers risk destroying beautiful carreers.
@@Narusasu98 Absolutely. I do wish schools and universities would pay attention to people they're hiring and not let their classes become extremely toxic. Then they wonder why they don't get employment rates in the industry after graduation.
This might be the most helpful video that i`ve watched on this channel so far. Thank you soo much for that and please keep doing what you do. I really appreciate it
This is extremely insightful, I have constantly made the impulsive decision to start a project, go at it with full passion, and then after it gets hard, I impulsively give up. After so many times I had given up, I realized I wasn’t doing something right, and I may have subconsciously gotten better at it through a few surface level methods, but consciously understanding should be really helpful in the future
Earned a sub. This is legitimately the most valuable advice I've ever heard about creative productivity -- I appreciate the focus on correcting behavior internally instead of merely changing our outward habits without correcting our faulty behavior. So simple, should be obvious, but it hits hard when you hear it.
I'm an artist and i got sooo stuck multiple times precisely cause of thinking it's only gonna be good if i react on the creative impulses. As if having a schedule or doing art when i didnt "feel like it" would taint the artwork making it less authentic/powerful, and me drawing when i didn't want to would be "bad" both for me and the art, but now i realize how that line of thinking just fucked me over time and time again and hindered a lot of absolutely worthwhile creative pieces from being created, and also a lot that may not have been as great, but man it'd at least have been -something-.
When you started explaining, i remembered an experience i had long ago which hit me so hard because it illustrated exactly what you explained, and up until this video i didn't give any thought; it was when i was small, i was consistently drawing for years, everyday, and in the ocean of drawings were multiple that stood out, which may have never done so if i wasn't as focused back then, not relying on my impulse, but just on plain habit and trained muscle memory.
There was a time where all i wanted was to be able to draw a fookin horse like a god, in armor, plain, any horse race, because it felt like i'd unlock the power of the universe itself if i could do it well (i really loved horses ok). I had a lazer determination to make it happen, because i just adored horses so much. I bought books on animal anatomy, redrew other artists in my eyes flawless horses, and went to a stable to study them in real life (and to pet and ride them). After tons of really bad drawings later, it became less bad, then good, and eventually i became a horse drawing god, no matter what angle it was from (and now i forgot most of how to do it RIP). I repeated the same with other animals, and later even humans - the improvement rate was rediculous, and some pieces i like up to this day still.
If I'd just relied on impulse and tried to randomly draw a horse every now and again with no structure at all, that'd never have been able to happen. But now, years after i somehow expected it to work just because i once had this long period of practice, so i got lazy in my approach thinking i can skip all the essential steps and mental training... and then i wondered why i failed so hard, for way too long. Oh brain why u do this
Thank you big time Dr K!
A lot of people believe this because they believe structure and discipline are like prisons for an artists creativity, when really those are the two things that will make you a better artist
Ive just realise that "burst of creative energy" is what people usually call an "inspiration". Im amazed how well Dr K navigates people emotions
Basically if you have no time to watch the entire video, here's a quick summary.
The main problem of this creativity problem is lack of consistent practise. This is due to burning out, if you want consistency you have lower the amount of energy you spend in order to do the thing. This can be achieved by enjoying what you do or don't over work yourself.
Thank you for this summary.
god bless you my child
thank for the good 👍
The second half of the video explains the "wait for it to rain" mindset vs the "build a well" mindset, and how you can't fake it and expect to build up a habit. Watering with a gallon for a few weeks is just as much the problem as leaving the plants to wither after losing motivation. Showing restraint when we start is how we build up real momentum and give ourselves the best shot at doing whatever needs to be done when things get tough.
@@peaksofblue preach
Thank you bro
Creativity is awesome, but it needs solid skills to bring it to fruition. Many people like their creativity, but not the work and patience it requires to make it a reality.
I think ever since I got my first smartphone in about 2015 my habit of drawing has really gone out the window in favor of the instant gratification of social media. The last few months I've been desperately trying to ween myself off it. When I was young I created for the pleasure of creating, without any expectation of sharing it, and I was at my most productive and creative. Now every time I create, my mind wanders to that expectation of sharing it and getting rewarded with attention, and it becomes difficult to stay focused on my task. I just want to post it and get feedback as quickly as possible. The quality and quantity of my work has really waned, because I'm constantly interrupting myself to check socials. I guess the solution is to learn to stop giving into that impulse to check socials for feedback, and to get back into the habit of creating and staying focused. Actions decoupled from reward, as you said. It's so hard though.
Dude this is so eye opening. I’ve struggled so hard to figure out why I often quit on things that I was initially hyped to pursue whether it comes to writing or making beats.
I thought I needed both discipline and that burst of creative energy but I was so wrong and now it makes sense why it was a wrong mindset to have.
15:18 now this is an example of my impulsivity taking action, where now I’m writing this comment… but I understand how meditation helps.
You see, just a few nights ago I was put into Jail over some garbage that wasn’t even my fault, got out after two days but… I was under the impression I was going to get a Felony. A year in jail.
As someone with Autism, this idea shook me. I was sitting in a room with a desk, a metal toilet/sink combo thing, and a crappy bed.
They gave me two sheets, a blanket, a book to read, my paperwork and a few sheets of printer paper, 4 small pencils with no erasers, hygiene stuff, a towel, a rag, and the most interaction I’d get out of the day would be food coming in through a slot in the metal door.
And when I tell you that it was hell, that is a severe understatement. I went though perspectives that I haven’t seen since I was locked in a dark room as a child, the silence enveloped me and tore into me like wolves.
I had brief moments of realization on why I was thinking that way, which I understood perfectly… but because of that, my mind would wander into thinking about things I couldn’t control;
Never seeing my dad’s wonderful face or getting to say I love you before going to bed, never getting to enjoy the Sun or enjoy the little things I took for granted like TH-cam and picking out foods I liked, missing out on holidays and celebrations, never getting to go to my cabin… and worst of all, I wasn’t even sentenced yet.
I couldn’t even attempt to rationalize with the fact of staying in jail for a year, because I wasn’t even sure of how long I’d be there for.
Look, I can say whatever I want about how I felt in there. Everyone who goes experiences it differently depending on the mentality they bring there… but the problem with me is, I was truly alone.
For the first time in YEARS, I was alone in my head. No games to mindlessly drive and fight into to subdue my pain, no videos to watch to absorb and ignore the rest of reality, and nobody to hear my voice. At least when I was alone in my room at home, if things started to get a bit too real for me in my head… I could escape.
But there….
…I was fucking stuck. Locked. Trapped. Gone.
And everything emptied around me, my head would spin into itself… and hell, I’ll admit, I could envision images and dreams more clear and concise than I could ever do before.. and I feel like it’s because of this exact thing. I was subconsciously performing meditation to try and stabilize myself and provide that gap that I felt was missing…
….I could truly hear the voices in my head come clear, I could see the images deep inside my mind that I wanted to see, and most importantly… I was synced with my own direction of the universe.
Of course, I was still living in mortal terror and existing in a perpetual nightmare… but the only real moments I felt I could barely tolerate the cell, were when I was either drawing(which I’ll add I actually improved with in there) or lying down attempting to sleep. Anything else simply brought me back to the thoughts of home and regret.
Look, if there’s anything I can recommend to you all, DO SOME FORM OF MEDITATION!! IT IS LITERALLY THE ONLY WAY MY PSYCHE COULD TOLERATE THAT HELL HOLE… IT IS FUCKING MISERABLE, AND DON’T YOU DARE THINK OTHERWISE.
**YOU LOSE EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE.**
Don’t squander your gifts, embrace them. You won’t master it by today or tomorrow. Maybe not ever, but you need to have control to exist and thrive. Otherwise, you will NEVER leave the pit you dig yourself into.
I think that I finally created a habit of reading books and I've done that by only reading 10 pages each day. The point is, there is NO excuse not to. I can find plenty of excuses not to read 50, or a 100 pages, but 10 is something I can usually do in 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour (depending on the content and whether I write notes).
It isn't extremely difficult to create habits, but one thing that Dr. K said absolutely stands true. Waking up one day and saying FROM THIS DAY ON, I'M READING BOOKS and catching a tailwind and reading 150 pages in a day just does not translate into a habit. So decompose the tasks, do small bits of work every day instead of large chunks in periods of motivation.
A youtuber I follow who does a lot of deep reading of heavy, dense classics puts his target at one page for the same reason. One page is nothing, and everything over one page is a bonus and our brain likes those kinds of rewards. "Yay I did even better than expected" kind of thing.
@@nicoler5713 You are absolutely correct. That's exactly how I feel.
I'm a webtooner and I always tried so hard that i burnout out in 6 months to a year so i decided go slowly ignore all the impulses to be the best and beat all the competitivo and just do it because I like to
One thing that goes with breaking things down that's helped me is always leaving something to look forward to for the next day. If you leave with a sense of "completeness" then why would you come back? I think part of why this person struggled to stick with things passed the practice phase is they stopped having goals or direction.
So very useful... this made me realise the **why** behind my not making progress on all the many creative ideas I have. I had already come to recognise that I should "park" an idea... note it down so I don't lose the inspiration, but not necessarily race off to research, design it etc. This fills out the rest of the picture... the "bursts" of creativity are the issue and I **really** need not the hyperfocus that I fall into, but limited consistent application so I don't "burn out" the creative sparks/enthusiasm/motivation. Kind of like "spoon theory" but for creativity.
So, I am a former horse trainer (dressage, low level jumping, mostly training colts and "dangerous" horses that others had abandoned). All my training life I trained horses by "magic" -- I chose high strung, very intelligent horses (some with a strong sense of self and willingness to fight) and we seemed to have a "connection" sufficient that my horses quickly learned to move off of very slight cues and body movements - such as going where I looked (obviously, you are making very slight changes in your body when you do this, but do not really notice -- the horse does). Because I loved training horses I was very persistent - so there was drudgery of repetition, repetition, repetition. But I loved horses and training and I could do it. I have thought of my mind in the same terms: "This is the horse I was given to ride and I'm not going to get another, so I better learn how to ride it." So, I've been working all my life to learn to ride this beast. I'm 68 now. Just got diagnosed with ADHD (co-morbidities are anxiety, depression, CPTSD and PTSD along with a personality type that seems to be rare). I had a professional life where I earned many awards. I have always had excellent friends (some, equally ADHD and successful). I am now trying a new approach to riding this beast -- finding the emotion I have learned to bury all my life, letting it pool out in private and then "riding" that emotion in action. Using the source of excitement and staying atop it. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you for sharing! c:
Resetting my routines and habits after coming out an unhealthy long term relationship is difficult but being patient with my healing process is a major key. This video is true gem to getting my alignment back on track
This man is a genius and always seems to be releasing videos that I need when I need them, it makes sense now and perfectly describes the issue I've had.....now to form these good habits! Thanks Dr K!
I haven't finished the video yet, but the first thing that came to mind after listening to the post is that the medium they use is the problem.
People don't realize that you don't have to write a whole book, you can write scripts, short stories, blogs, fashion articles, or poems. Etc. You can paint your ideas, draw them, make ...Idk, a theatre play with it, built sculptures to express it, take pictures and make a collage. What I am trying to say is that if you like the process, you will keep doing it and evolve because you want to express something, and you'll naturally reach a point when you need info you don't have so you'll have to find a way because you want to and not because you think you should. Or you'll try and try until something works. There's a big difference.
I taught myself some English, but got better at it because of the people who took the time to correct me on the internet! I wanted to write so badly, I took constructive criticism and didn't give an f to feel bad about it. I wanted people to understand it so now I evolved. I am not perfect, but you get what I am saying, right? Those people didn't.
Don't try to beat a dead horse and try other ways that are not boring for you, that you want to keep doing over and over. It can be cooking, or freaking sculptures made out of bushes. Do something new with something that already exists. Like...paint over the sculpture. Idk, invent a new thing that you adore.
Don't limit yourself to what's popular...cause that might just not be your thing and you're wasting your time and squandering your potential. Like, I love writing, but I hate writing anything that is not my story. I swear...it's weird. I like how paintings look and I think I would be good at it because I got a visual brain and a vivid imagination (it'd also be faster than writing in most cases, trust me). But to learn how to do it feels like...my god, climbing a snowy mountain while naked. Learning about writing is exciting cause I want to use it. Read other books, it's fun. Not all. Like, I don't enjoy editing all the time, I hate having to pick apart every single word I used and stuff, but I find it rewarding at the end because I enjoy making it better, and it ends up making me happy even if I hate it at the beginning. So I keep doing it because I know how much better everything will be after I pick apart every single thing.
Hope this helps.
I can't say for sure yet as I'm just now trying to implement some of the techniques, but this video just helped me understand so much more that my impulses are so strong. I feel like I've just been poisoning my mind with media and content and training my impulses unintentionally to be lazy. To constantly go from one thing to the next. Thank you for this video sincerely from the bottom of my heart. It just puts a lot in perspective.
The advice and hair in this video are stellar. Thank you.
I get that, I get like a tingle in my hands to do something whether its writing or drawing but once I get to pencil and paper I just cant set anything down.
I have a mix of experience in the realm of putting things into action vs just dreaming about doing stuff. I'm 39 now and have learned to embrace it. For example, instead of judging myself, I write my ideas down as they come, and then put them aside and forget about them. My clue that I will continue to do something is that it comes back over and over again by itself. One way I've changed a dream into a reality is that after years of being interested in massage therapy, I registered for a program and now, less than a year later, am working full time in that field and am loving every second of it. Plus, it allows me to be as creative as I want, and provides me with a pretty decent paycheck.
This is something I really needed to hear! Can’t thank you enough Doc!
This is it. This is the video that could change a LOT of people‘s lives. I think I understood what you were saying as true the moment I remembered that having RESTRICTIONS to your creative outlet - or CONDITIONS - it can bloom BEST. I know I can write. But I have no motivation to. When I joined a local theatre group where we had to write our own play, I could barely stop creating. The conditions were other people, a certain group, a certain project, a certain genre. The strongest restriction was a certain subject. Suddenly I wasn’t writing for a vacuum anymore. I even wrote a song ffs and I have never done that before in my life! So I think my tip for everyone here is: Join a group that has literally ANYTHING to do with art or join up with a friend and put restrictions on your art, like, you have to write a story containing these three words your friend has come up with. Or paint a painting about a certain subject etc etc. It’s just so much easier because if you can do anything, you feel like you have to do the ultimate, the absolute best. With conditions and restrictions you only have to do the best with what you‘ve got.
thanks for the relevant video, im always frustrated that i cant translate my ideas into something tangible. sucks that i want to be an artist too, i really need to put my own ideas out there someday
It reminds me of the quote that I saw somewhere " Never trust a person that is more excited of being successful than about thing they want to be successful at"
I once knew a man who owned a pet shop. He started a pet shop because there wasn't one in the area, and he wanted to line his pockets, not because he liked animals. He crammed so many animals in the store, in order to be able to sell to as many people as possible, that the animals got sick and started to die. I tried to educate him about their needs (he needed to give them more space, so they'd have less stress), but he refused to listen. In his mind, the fewer animals he had, the less money he would make. So instead, he began losing money on dying animals. And animal lovers like myself stopped shopping there, because we didn't want to support someone who didn't care that he was killing animals out of greed. His business went under. Imagine that.
I swear to God Dr k, these video titles are always calling me out lmao
"If you want light throughout the night you don't want to light a firecracker" 13:34.
Absolute pure shining gold! 🤣🤣🤣
Okay, but how does one discipline to keep _up_ the discipline? I've tried to keep up habits _knowing_ it'll easier but it feels like it never does. All it takes is for me to miss a day or have a depressed day/week and, poof, the habit is gone and I no longer want to pick it back up (it seems like too much work). I guess that's my impulse speaking... Too bad meditation is itself something I need discipline for.
I wonder if I should just focus on getting the meditation down (at the expense of all the other stuff I want/need to do). Because it seems like every final answer ends up being meditation, lol.
THIS! This is my exact problem as well, and the more time passes, the more depressed and unwilling I am..
Exactly the same.
Watch youtube videos about what you are interested in when you dont have the energy to actually do it yourself. Put yourself wherever you do the work and just sit there and don't do anything so you are still making a habit of preparing yourself to do it. Get a mentor or someone who can hold you accountable or take a class you have to attend. Meet other people who are interested in the same stuff. Get another hobby like gardening that requires you to build a habit and participate in it every day so you build the grit to maintain any kind of habit. When you brush your teeth every day, make part of your routine afterwards to do the thing you want to do. Count down from 5 and when you get to 1, get up and go do the thing. Most importantly do the thing especially when you don't feel like doing the thing and do it however crappily you can and tell yourself you accomplished a goal and did a good job. Depressed times are hard, forgive yourself for giving up, talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend who wanted to give up on something where they had amazing potential. I think you can do it, i am not sure if any of this will help but a weird stranger believes in you.
I totally know where you're coming from, but I feel like I've turned a corner with it. Here are the thoughts/concepts that helped me the most:
1.) know your "why," and if you don't have a "why" or it's not compelling enough, you don't have to do it. I know it's cheesy, but I put notes in places where I'll see them when I'm working on my new habit, to help me remember WHY I'm working on developing or maintaining it. For example, instead of setting an alarm and labeling it "work," I'll label it with the financial goal I'm working toward, or the feeling I'm seeking by becoming more financially secure.
If you can't locate a compelling reason why you want to develop a certain habit, then it's time to do some introspection. Are you pursuing it because YOU want to, or because society has told you you should? If it's solely a society thing, you don't have to pursue it, AND you don't have to feel guilty about it.
2.) consistency = more often than not, NOT daily. Ive gotten caught in the trap of "well, I broke my streak, guess I have to wait until Monday/next month/Jan 1 to start again" many times. Redefining "consistent" to account for slip-ups has been insanely helpful for me, cuz ya know, life happens sometimes and you're gonna miss a day. The key is to not beat yourself up about it so you can get back on track tomorrow, without any drama. If you account for days off in your definition of "consistency" then there's nothing to beat yourself up about :)
3.) you HAVE to work on your identity while you're building new habits too. If you don't do this, you're doomed to fail. It feels really awkward at first, but for example if you're building a workout habit, it's going to be easier if you start thinking of yourself as someone who works out, or someone who's into fitness. What would a gym rat do? That's what you're gonna do, because you're a gym rat now. You don't have to go around telling people you're a gym rat, but play with the new identity in your head for the first little while until the habit "sticks".
4.) yes, the general wisdom for habit formation is to work on one at a time rather than making over your whole life at once. I would personally recommend doing meditation first, because as you mentioned - it'll make a lot of other things easier. But you can choose something else if you'd prefer. It doesn't actually matter that much - what matters more is not getting stuck worrying about choosing the "right" habit to start with 😉
5.) try giving yourself an "out." This is one that really works well for me. I'll tell myself "I'm gonna focus on doing this new habit for the next month. If, after this month, I don't like it or it's not working, I get to stop. But for this month, I have to really give it my best effort so I can properly see if it'll work for me long term." this permission to quit after a certain amount of time helps me feel less overwhelmed about the idea of having to do my new habit every day for the rest of my life. It isn't for the rest of my life - it's just for this month.
6.) finally, try to make your new activity enjoyable even if it isn't that fun. I've kept a consistent journaling habit for the past several years because I invest in really nice paper, fountain pens, and fun inks. The experience of writing is something I look forward to. Right now I'm working on building better work habits, so I've been working outside in my backyard because it lifts my mood, which makes it easier for me to focus. You'll be surprised at how much the little details like this make a HUGE difference.
Hopefully some of these ideas help. I know it can be really overwhelming though, so take what you like and leave the rest 💗
@@leotardbanshee Aw, thank you! I like the idea of watching videos of someone doing the work. I've noticed that helps me get motivated with organization so maybe if I schedule it right, I could build a habit that way? Worth a try.
This video actually just got me so emotional holy cow. I actually just started tearing up and crying from all the realization and understanding that seeped in, and felt a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders.
I think another really important aspect to this is to think about WHY you’re creating and making art. If you’re doing it for fame or to make money etc. you’ve already failed. You have to absolutely LOVE what you do and do it purely for the passion.
Great point, look up the "Power of Intention" by Wayne Dyer to dive deeper here.
I agree but, what about someone who isn't motivated by anything? I only get motivated by impulse, like this video shows. How do I know what my passion is if what motivates me are my random impulses, not actual motivations?
How do we learn what our passion truly is?
@@capuchinosofia4771 In my case, I have so many things competing for my attention, that its easy for impulses to win. I think the more we simplify our lives and make it easy for us to hold space without "needing" to do anything (mindfulness meditation), the more space we allow for true motivation to grow. Impulse is like a weed that kills motivation.
There's a beast inside you that feeds off of pen and ink/paint/film/melodies/actions, and if you don't give it what it wants, it consumes you instead
Something that really helped me as an artist was to set very small check boxes. I started with draw a line in the morning before anything else and draw a line right before I go to bed. This evolved into a page of lines, then a page of circles, and then boxes and so on.
Another thing that helped a lot of to do something that was not art related as a trigger. I do several things now like get a glass of water and light a candle, these things tell me it is time to sit and practice my craft.
The last thing I did was change my environment to be ready for drawing. Anywhere I thought I might sit for an extended amount of time I placed a sketchbook or just loose paper and drawing utensils. This included the dinning room table, end tables in the living room, nightstand, desks, and any car I thought I would end up being in. Often times for me the barrier to entry is just getting set up to start, getting rid of this specific resistance has helped me more than almost anything.
This episode is still really insightful for me and I will be doing some adjustments to continue in my craft.
Right on the money with this one.
I really needed this one. I’ve been passionate about music for years, and I finally purchased a DAW license. Super pumped yet too nervous to touch it all month. I’m commonly described as a perfectionist, and I need to learn to be comfortable with making mistakes as I progress.
I believe in your creative endeavors, people. Don’t let others discourage you and keep that passion! Stay focused on your goal!
would really love to hear about the "wind type" mind (was it called "vata"?) here and how it differs because i really think it was productive for me to use "bursts of creativity/motivation" to work in said creative form but by switching/rotating the projects i have in this particular form.
im confused with the following too :( does anyone mind helping?
from the healthygamergg wiki: "When someone [vata] gets stuck, the most common advice given to them by people is to pick up one thing and just focus on that. That is very bad advice for a Vata" while on the pitta motivation type that wiki says "the brightest candle burns out the fastest" in connection to that type.
I directed my creativity to a new form of drumming - speedrumming. It’s tested my patience like no other craft and has resulted in 40+ gaming/drumming WRs.
I’m about to hit 2 yrs developing this craft and I hope people can enjoy my runs for years to come.
Good luck to anyone reading this.
But how does this not contradict with your other video about motivation styles? You talked about being Wind, Fire, Earth types, but what you talk about here probably only works for Earth types who can handle the slow but sustainable progress, but what OP is describing sounds more like a wind/vata type to me?
I don't know maybe I misunderstood that video (or this one). Hope someone can clear this up for me.
I will say that since February my mind has changed how it works quite a bit. I moved countries and work a more consistent schedule. I feel that my new work schedule and life reset has made me less ADHD and given me time to be creative. I liked drawing as a kid but gave up on digital art and animations when I was a kid because my computer that had all of my artwork disappeared. I recently bought a new tablet for media and work and I bring it to my work, I work teaching kids and making curriculums. During the day we have 2 times where we switch between classes and we have daycare for a little over an hour and I just tried drawing what the kids want me to, I have found myself to draw a lot better than when I was a kid and could actual sit down and try to figure out how theart program works without giving up. I also study study concepts by myself around things like physics and philosophy. I read more and started writing too. I think what I have come to appreciate delayed gratification that I get from working on certain curriculums through the weeks or helping kids learn English they compare how they have improved. I still have impulses yes but I can control them a bit to work with me not against me. It almost feels like my brain is calmer
Don't go in the comments searching for timestamps. Sit trough the whole video, practice patience and discipline.
The finest gravitated use of creativity is disciplined action consistently turns visualizations into reality.
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Well said sir.
im crying
Its art
This is hands down one of the best videos I’ve ever listened to as an artist / content creator. Thank u for this.
the colors and pop ups are so distracting
yes same here
adhd and producing music is a blessing and a curse ahaha hyperfocus for hours sometimes but other times can't bring myself to sit down and actually work on music
I'm so glad these videos are free accessible to the wider community, I'm learning so much about myself.
To add to my previous comment, I also came to realize over the years, and through having tried and failed at so many things, that my real reason for wanting success in whatever area, was that I wanted to be accepted, to be appreciated by others and to be respected. Once I got that it was about how I wanted to feel, I started letting go of the "how" and rather, started focusing on "what" actually really gave ME a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Total game changer. Now, I still feel some regret about not having lived out some of my biggest dreams, but I am at peace with that and am grateful for where I am now, because it's a lot further than where I was just 1 year ago. And there are also many things that I've accomplished that I didn't have labelled as "big dreams" and that still happened, effortlessly and easily. It's easy to overlook those things and dismiss them, but I believe that that's a big mistake.
I've recently realized that overexciting is really bad for productivity because it always leads to burnout and depression. Your video here was very helpful because it gave context and explained thoroughly with examples. Thanks!
i love it when dr. k nails one of my major life problems in a 30 minute video.
From the perspective of someone who does creative work for a living, if you want to make something "creative," like making a film, writing a book, starting a youtube channel, etc., you are being more than just an artist. You're making a product. You also have to be your own director, producer, engineer, researcher, (the list goes on.) Which means that production management is a skill you will have to learn if you want to successfully create something. You need to understand the scope of your project, and then create a plan of action. What is your skill level? What materials do you need? What is your budget? How much time will it take? What are your current mental and physical limitations? When can you fit work time into your daily schedule? Once you figure out all of those things, you need to think about breaking your goal down into small steps and then make a habit of setting aside a certain amount of time every day to work on it. Like Dr K said, if you're not even used to doing this, then maybe you should start with something small, like the equivalent of doing one push-up after dinner every single day. Then it just becomes a thing that you do, like brushing your teeth every day.
Thank you for the step by step detailed response! It is SO helpful for someone like me (ADHD) to be walked through the full process in detail. Saved me SOOO much time trying to white knuckle may way thru figuring it out on my own.
As you said, all the writing videos and even Sanderson's entire walkthru wasn't enough to make that connection.
This is also me. Started and stopped so many things because I reached hard mode and decided it wasn't for me. I knew I needed to do stuff but my mind was like a brick wall. Thank you so much for clearing up a lot of things as they have made my mind accept these more than the "Just do it!" stuff.
I blacksmith for a hobby. When I things I have seen over the years is this: people want a result, and not the process. If you come into my Smithy, and you want to forge a sword, that's great. But it will take you three years of unremitting effort to develop the skills to forge a sword properly. No one wants to hear that. They want a sword. If you want a sword, go buy one. But if you want the process, if you love hammering for the sake of hammering, then you will become the kind of Smith who can make a sword. Too many want to result without the intervening months and years of effort. Developing any skill takes time and effort. My suggestion to most is this: narrow your focus, decide what you really want. Then undertake the steps to achieve that thing. The problem with the impulsivity is it bounces all over the map. This week you want to forge a sword. Next week you want to learn guitar. The week after you wanna fly an airplane. Pick one. Do it. Execute.