How to Start your Creative Hobby the RIGHT Way

This whole blog’s theme, creativity, has already been talked about from every angle possible. I’m sure many people know what they like, how creative hobbies are good for them, how important it is to have a side hustle, but still they think to themselves - Nope, that’s just not for me.

There is a bunch of factors that go into why we aren’t all amazing artists, actors, writers, musicians. But I believe that apart from consistency, there is one more key to one’s success in a creative endeavor - their mindset in the very beginning. That’s why some of the biggest players in some creative niches actually have a long history of successes and failures and still kept pushing, that’s why many famous artists actually start drawing after their 20s and aren’t child prodigies. As I’ve argued before, and as is further explained in the book I’m currently reading (actually listening to, I’m an audiobook guy now), ‘The Motivation Myth‘ by Jeff Haden, you can’t simply rely on the initial spark of motivation to carry you throughout the whole journey, now can you rely on constant motivation every day. There are a lot more discipline and strategy into achieving any long-term goal, and I’ll show you some of my insights in 3 key points.

If you somehow got the wrong idea about me, yes, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, but that was never a main pursuit of mine, nor was I particularly good. I only started seeing progress once I began drawing daily and actually interacting with other artists and being influenced by their styles.

Now, enough ramble, here’s the main dish (a three-course meal as always)!

1. Go in with a Vision

Now, if you just took up drawing, for example, without the grand view of becoming the next Picasso, that’s totally legit. I don’t think we need to monetize every bit of work we do, as tempting as the concept sounds. Some hobbies should be just hobbies, and that’s perfectly fine.

But if you have the subtle urge to do more, to actually advance and be able to proudly share your creations, you need a big fire inside you. A fire you’ll constantly need to reignite and support because otherwise, you’d find it really hard to keep up with the daily grind.

The fun part in every project lies mainly in 2 points - the point before you start and the point after you’ve finished. Before you start a hobby or a passion project, you spend a ton of time planning, visualizing, dreaming. After you’ve managed to get it off the ground, on the other hand, you are so thrilled with the results that you realize it’s all worth it.

However, in the longest portion of the time - the time you actually spend working and hustling - you’ll probably be feeling the least excited. When you wake up early to exercise for the very first time, you may feel some rush of adrenaline, afterwords it honestly gets a bit mundane. There’s only so much you can do to make the work process interesting, after one point you just need some willpower and to go with your (work)flow. So all in all, having a goalpost far in the distance is important. Something that simply and elegantly explains why exactly you’re hustling. Is it for money? For exposure, for a personal sense of satisfaction? If you have this grander idea behind your not-so-grand daily tasks, it would make it easier to stick in the long run.

2. Do the reps

Another gym metaphor incoming, you’ve been warned.

Even the most creative work, drawing, singing, anything similar, can be boiled down to a series of simple tasks that follow one after the other. And when you sit down to actually practice, that’s all there is to do. The more you manage to get your process into a streamlined flow, the easier it would be for you to go through it again and again.

For real, it can get mundane at times, but that’s where the grander vision from the previous key point comes in. You know why you’re sitting down to scribble and doodle, and even if the end result isn’t the prettiest thing on earth, you know it’s a stepping stone to your masterpiece (hopefully one of many). Maybe Picasso could rely on pure luck and talent to make every piece of his a marvel, but the rest of us will have to do more reps. (And still, I assure you poor Pablo probably painted quite a few pieces he didn’t like as well.)

3. Systems for Winners

Something I’ve heard quite a few times as a ‘productivity trope’ is the obsession with tools and apps. While it is true that it’s not the best idea to optimise the last 1% of your efficiency instead of simply doing the thing you’re suppposed to, it can’t be denied that those apps and systems exist for a reason.

You may have heard of the Pomodoro technique - quite a simple routine to get you in the flow. You sit down and work for 25 minutes, then you rest for 5. After repeating this a few times, you take a longer break. Now, you don’t have to follow the rules strictly, the point is to get you to work under a bit of a time pressure, you know the next half an hour has a high chance of being productive, and especially when you’re a beginner in a given craft, that’s crucial. Immediate gratification is a drug and a half, but since we’re all so wired to it, why not use it to your favour? A friend of mine actually gave me a pretty good explanation as to why programming seems so fun to a beginner - you see immediately if your code works or not, ensiring an instant dopamine hit and good feedback. Maybe this is a bit harder to provide with different hobbies, but it’s very important to keep yourself happy and in good spirits even in the more boring parts.

So I highly recommend finding your personal weird habits and experimenting with them, just to make the start of your new project as energised and charged as possible!

Hope this blog post makes you excited for your next project! Share in the comments what you’re currently working on, I’m curious to see ^^