Creativity and Mental Health are linked.
On those tough mental health days, my creativity hits a roadblock. I feel slow, start putting things off, and my mind wanders around aimlessly; it's like I'm not thinking about anything at all. I go completely blank. But on my good mental health days, I'm like a creative dynamo, bursting with ideas that spill onto the pages of my notebook, whether they're words or sketches.
The opposite holds true too. When I'm having a fantastic day full of creative juices, I feel pretty good about myself. I don't doubt my abilities, I'm not too hard on myself, and I take pride in what I'm creating. However, when I'm not doing anything creative, my mind starts to wander off.
The Creative's Dilemma
As creatives, we are often driven by ambitious dreams and ideas. It’s in our nature. However, this very ambition can become a double-edged sword when we set unrealistic goals, leading to stress, burnout, and anxiety, which can severely affect our mental health.
While it's important to aim for artistic excellence, it's just as crucial to take care of your mental well-being along the way. It all boils down to setting realistic goals.
Self-Reflection
Welcome to your digital therapy, for digital creatives who can’t afford a therapist or don’t have the time to visit with one.
Begin your journey toward setting realistic goals by engaging in honest self-reflection. Take time to assess your current mental state and where you’re at in your creative journey.
Are you feeling overwhelmed or drained by your current goals?
Are these goals sustainable in the long run?
What do I mean by sustainable in the long run? I tried to run a marketing agency on my own, doing all the website design, social media marketing, graphic design, branding, and blog writing. Sure, I had a goal of 100K in a year, but doing all the work in house by myself instead of outsourcing caused me to shoot myself in the foot. Figuratively. I ended up not having free time,my work began to slip off, I just couldn’t keep up with it.
Understanding your emotional and psychological landscape is the first step in recognizing when your goals may be causing more harm than good. Acknowledge that your creative journey is not a sprint but a marathon, and having good mental health is important to having success with your goals.
The Power of Self-Reflection
Self-reflection is a cornerstone of personal growth and effective goal setting. It involves taking a step back to assess your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and in return you get the following:
- Clarify Your Desires: It helps you understand what you truly want to achieve. By digging deep into your aspirations, you can set goals that resonate with your core values and motivations.
- Identify Obstacles: Self-reflection allows you to identify potential obstacles or barriers that might hinder your progress. This awareness empowers you to plan proactively to overcome challenges.
- Enhance Self-Awareness: Understanding your strengths and weaknesses is essential. It enables you to leverage your strengths and work on areas that may need improvement.
- Adjust Your Course: Self-reflection provides the flexibility to adjust your goals as needed. If your initial objectives no longer align with your evolving aspirations, you can recalibrate your path.
For me, self reflection has allowed me to understand what exactly I want from any one of my projects. It’s not about making a buttload of money, but instead, I want to have a creative output that truly allows me to be myself, a place where creatives don’t feel alone through their journey. I have clear set goals, as ambitious or as broad as it may sound, and all it took was sitting by myself and reflecting on myself and the creative idea that’s been sitting in my mind for the past couple of months.
Define Your Priorities
Identifying your top priorities, both within your creative projects and in your personal life, is a critical step.
What truly matters to you?
By aligning your goals with your core values and desires, you reduce inner conflict and stress.
The Why
Prioritization is a fundamental skill. Why? It allows you to have a better understanding of the level of importance of your goals and tasks. There may be tasks you have on your todo list that are just buffers to make you feel like you’re doing stuff, there may be others that are too complex and broad that it’ll sit on your todo list without ever being checked off. Prioritizing helps create tasks that are not only achievable but create a sense of accomplishment as well. Here’s some other pros attached to it:
- Minimizes Being Overwhelm: Creative professionals often juggle multiple projects and responsibilities. Most of us run our creative projects alongside our 9-5 gig. Prioritization helps you focus on what matters most, reducing the feeling of being overwhelmed. Now I mention the job, don’t drop the ball there, but keep track of your off hour tasks and eliminate bad habits to make the most of it.
- Enhances Focus: By identifying your top priorities, you can direct your energy and attention toward tasks that align with your values and long-term objectives. The more tasks you check off your lists, the more motivated you are to complete your project.
- Boosts Efficiency: Prioritization streamlines your decision-making process. It helps you determine which tasks to tackle first, ensuring that you make the most of your time and resources.
- Facilitates Goal Achievement: When you prioritize your goals, you increase your chances of success. You can allocate your efforts strategically to accomplish what matters most.
To illustrate the significance of prioritization, consider a scenario where a creative professional has two primary goals: completing a novel and launching a freelance design business. Both goals are important, but they require different levels of commitment and time. It’s all about what future matters to you.
It’s not picking one or the other, you can dedicate time for all of them, however if you decide to focus on the novel, you’ll lose out on the financial security that comes from creating a freelance design business. Same goes for dedicating time towards the business, you might not achieve that personal authority status that a novel might offer for you. It’s up to you to balance your time towards the goals most important to you. Don’t overwhelm yourself, remember to balance ambition and mental well-being.
Break It Down
Large, complex projects or long-term goals can often feel overwhelming. Breaking them down into smaller, more manageable tasks or milestones is a strategy that not only makes your goals more achievable but also provides a sense of accomplishment as you reach each milestone.
For example, you want to create a portfolio website with your past project. Instead of just jotting down on your task list “Build website”, you break it down into the basics - selecting a domain name, designing the layout, creating content, and optimizing for search engines. What works for me is dropping it further down and separating it into the different pages such as the home page, about us, portfolio, individual client pages, and contact us page.
Each of these smaller tasks becomes a manageable step in the larger goal of your project.
Decomposition
Let’s get to the why decomposing tasks is important for your mental health:
- Reduced Overwhelm: I’m going to constantly refer to this until it’s engraved in your brain. When you face a large, daunting goal, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Task decomposition transforms that big goal into a series of manageable steps, making it less intimidating.
- Increased Clarity: Reduce Ambiguity. Instead of worrying what to do next, with the small steps, you’re able to better divert your focus towards building near perfect prototypes, rather than building an incomplete project.
- Motivation and Momentum: Completing smaller tasks provides a sense of achievement and builds momentum. Each accomplishment fuels your motivation to tackle the next task.
- Effective Planning: Task decomposition allows for more precise planning. You can allocate time, resources, and effort to each task with greater accuracy.
Be Specific and Measurable
Vague goals such as "be successful" or "become famous" are challenging to measure and achieve. Plus, at least for me, you probably don’t want to be famous - you just want to leave a dent in this planet we call home.
Instead, make your goals specific and quantifiable. Define success in concrete terms, such as "publish five articles in the next six months" or "complete a 30-page graphic novel by year-end." In my case, I’m perfectly content writing five pieces of content a week, even though ideally I’d like to reach seven a week.
Specific goals provide clarity and enable you to track your progress, offering a profound sense of accomplishment as you tick off each milestone along your creative journey.
I’d break down the why, but to be honest, it’s basically the same thing as decomposing, just in this case it’s making sure the small tasks are measurable to keep you motivated and accountable. When you can measure your progress, it becomes easier to hold yourself accountable, to evaluate whether you're on track or need to adjust your strategy.
Don’t make something as broad as “building a strong presence” but instead, make it something like “increase website traffic by 30% over the next 6 months” that way in 6 months, you can compare whether you’ve been successful, or go back to the drawing board.
Set Deadlines
It’s easy to create tasks, hell, it’s easy to go ahead and break them down and make them measurable. The biggest issue is creating accountability, and that’s done through deadlines. Here’s some helpful tips:
- Be realistic: While deadlines create a sense of urgency, they should also be realistic. I personally thrive off that urgency rush, helping me stay motivated, although for some it might create a form of anxiety when working on your project, in which case it’s no bueno. Setting overly ambitious deadlines can lead to stress and compromise the quality of your work. Consider your existing commitments, creative process, and potential obstacles when establishing deadlines, and leave yourself a comfortable amount of time, while still being close enough to keep you motivated and not forgetting about your project.
- Back To Milestones: You break down your larger goals into smaller goals, give those different deadlines in level of priority and honestly in order of what should be completed first. This approach not only provides a clear roadmap but also allows you to celebrate achievements along the way. For instance, if your goal is to complete a novel, you can set deadlines for completing each chapter, and even one for coming up with the name and artwork for it.
- Buffer Time: Life is unpredictable, and creative projects can encounter unexpected challenges. Incorporate buffer time into your deadlines to account for unforeseen circumstances. This buffer acts as a safety net, reducing stress when unexpected delays occur.
- Hold Yourself Accountable: Share your deadlines with someone you trust, such as a friend, mentor, or accountability partner. Knowing that someone is aware of your commitments can provide an extra layer of motivation and encouragement.
Flexibility Is Key
Life is inherently unpredictable, and creative paths often take unexpected turns. Being prepared to adapt your goals as circumstances change is not a sign of failure but a testament to your resilience and your commitment to prioritizing your mental health.
For example, this week, both my kid and partner got sick. I was unable to get much done since I had to cram my 9-5 work from home, as well as take care of my 7 month old, as well as cook and clean. If I tried to force my tasks in, it probably would’ve been rushed and not to the level I would want it to be. I didn’t want to add stress and ruin my mental health. It’s just a matter of taking a deep breath, and understanding that sometimes you need an extra day or two.
Here’s a quick breakdown without my wit:
- Navigating Uncertainty: Life is full of uncertainties, and creative journeys are no exception. Unexpected opportunities, challenges, or personal events may require you to shift your focus temporarily.
- Preserving Mental Health: Rigidity in goal pursuit can lead to stress and frustration when faced with unexpected hurdles. As long as you adapt, you retain a sense of control and well-being.
- Maximizing Opportunities: Sometimes, opportunities arise that are too good to pass up. Flexibility enables you to seize these moments without feeling burdened by existing commitments.
Celebrate Achievements
Lastly, don't forget to celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem. Celebrations fuel motivation and reinforce your belief in your abilities.
It’s okay to celebrate yourself, it’s not egotistical. Celebrations provide positive reinforcement for your success, keeping you away from imposter syndrome. You are capable, and celebrating will keep you pursuing your goals. I’ve done it. Every single time I complete a project or open a side business, I invite a couple of close friends and smoke a cigar while I plan on the next phases.
Your emotional well being matters. You’ve shown resilience through thick and thin in your projects and you need to recognize it. There are usually obstacles and setbacks, and those are temporary, but you showed perseverance, and overcame them, and that deserves a cake!
Remember that the pursuit of your dreams should not come at the cost of your mental health. With the right approach to goal setting, you can foster your creativity while nurturing your mental well-being, creating a sustainable path to success and fulfillment. Balancing ambition and mental health is a journey worth taking, and setting realistic goals is your compass for the road ahead.