“100 Days of Girl, Stop…” by Erika Lynne Jones
This week I noticed the 100 Days Project was starting up again. I was getting myself ready to participate, but instead of excitement, I felt a little anxiety. In case you haven’t heard, the 100 Days project is an annual gathering of creative minds who challenge themselves to commit to 100 days of creating and sharing their work online. Why? because doing anything consistently for 100 days evokes discipline, growth, focus. All things I need more of. You can also create something great like a song, a book or a fit body. The possibilities are unlimited.
But something didn’t feel so right about starting or in my case continuing the a 100 Days project I had started a couple of months ago. Back in February I got really excited about sharing my poetry so I started 100 Days of Poetry by Erika. My thought was that I’d get a jump-start on this year’s 100 days. But something about committing to the 100 days kind of dried up my flow a bit. I think instead of thinking about one day at a time my mind goes into thinking: I have to do this 100 times and that’s too hard or too much. I end up panicking and I stop enjoying the creative process. Last year I started a project around my organic baby care website, sharing facts and illustrations about the topic. After about 30 days I stopped doing it. The funny thing is I could see myself not finishing this current project before I even got started. I know that many people start their 100 day quests don’t finish them and are okay with it, but deep down inside I really wanted to figure out what was keeping me from doing something I love so much (writing and illustrating) on a daily basis.
So instead of ignoring my feelings and forging ahead with the project (as I’ve done many times in the past) I heard myself say, “Girl, stop … and listen to your heart.”
I gave myself time to air out a lot of excuses about why consistent creative time wasn’t happening. At the end of the day they all had this theme:
I have so many other commitments and responsibilities, and this limits my time to make art I was really proud of.
In other words I’ve been afraid. Afraid that if I don’t have two hours to create a masterpiece each day it won’t turn out “good enough.” I really am not a fan of the all or nothing approach to life, because in the end you come up with nothing. Believing I need two hours to create worthy work has meant many days of procrastinating on projects. Many days of not getting any practice. Many days of delayed growth as an artist.
To address this I tried to think of the bare minimum I’d need to create something I would feel comfortable sharing. I know some do it in 5 minutes, but to be real with myself I allotted 20 minutes to create and 5 minutes to share. It still feels like a lot, but it’s a starting point. So I marked “Creative Time” on my weekly schedule at about the same time each weekday and a different time on the weekends. I’m excited to see how thinking about doing art for a shorter amount of time one day at a time works for me.
I know I’m not ready to commit to 100 days just yet. While I’ve made time and space in my head, I want to see how it all flows. Once I find my rhythm I’ll show up more and more until I don’t think about it. In other words it will become a habit. Once it does I think committing to a 100 Day project will be fun and rewarding.
Now that I realize it’s a new habit that I’m after, I feel empowered to make the change I seek. I’ve been giving myself about 40 days to create a new habit (or dismantle a bad one). I try to focus on building one new habit at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed. This is how I wrote my book proposal, weaned myself from sugar, and how I’m learning to increase my water intake, and plan to increase my workout regimen. Gradually I’ll do the same with adding Creative Time to my day.
As I take this journey and discover even more ways to make creativity a habit I’ll be sure and share them with you. If you like that idea, tune in, by subscribing here on my blog where I will continue writing about my creative process and follow me on Instagram, if you are the visual type.
How about you.
Have you managed to make a habit out of creating something everyday?
If so I would love to hear about it.
Also are you participating in the 100 Days Project?
If so feel free to share what you’re working on in the comments so we can all follow along.
Blessings,
Erika Lynne Jones
