To be a successful creative you have to make the time and do the hard work first.
The artist who works long hours in the day just to pay the bills still comes home at night and paints until she can’t keep her eyes open. The writer who has a family to look after does the work required to help them be happy and healthy and then writes from 1 am until 3 am each day in pursuit of his passion.
It’s the same story for entrepreneurs, designers, illustrators, film makers, photographers, craftspeople, and anyone else who creates.
You can come up with all of the excuses in the world for why you don’t have time to do creative work, but then you’ll be just like everyone else: unsuccessful at pursuing your creative endeavors. If you really want to be successful, you’ll do what it takes to reach that point.
Think about it. We’re all given roughly the same opportunity to work for our success. Sure, some people are given the tools and money and time to pursue their creative passions without much effort, but that’s only a small minority. Even then, those who don’t have to work tirelessly for years to achieve creative success seem to never have the same quality of work as those who do.
So let’s get on the right trail and set the sail straight here: if you really want to succeed, it’s not going to be easy. It takes countless nights of tirelessly hammering the stone to create a statue worth mention. For some of us, the hard work will last for many years.
Myself included. I’m now approaching the five year mark of relentlessly pursuing creativity to become an expert in understanding what it is and how we can use it. But I know that the work pays off because I’ve seen how it has for hundreds of artists and craftspeople and inventors and writers before me.
Creating is not easy, it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time. That’s just the way it is. Take it or leave it.