This morning I had less coffee grains to work with than usual, and I had to adjust my ratio of water accordingly. I felt resourceful in this moment as silly as it sounds. It was here drinking my smaller-cup-than-usual that I was reminded of the creative power of constraints.
Constraints are something we know can help us but oftentimes won’t take advantage of this boost. In our lives outside of creative work, we increasingly have fewer constraints. Look no further than someone who has 2-3 tv subscription services and they now have trouble picking anything to watch at all.
Finding Constraints Every Day in Your Work
The easiest constraint you can work with is time - giving yourself only 5 minutes to get your studio set up, or giving yourself 40 minutes to start a new work. One more is money - not continually shopping for new supplies or equipment and just working with what you have and working those tools to the max.
Another good constraint is sticking with one small project for a while. Even if you don’t like it you can keep reworking it and redoing it.
This newsletter is all these things for me rolled into one. I don’t have endless time to write what you’re reading, I don’t have a budget to hire people to research and do artwork for me, and this is a project that I stick with week after week no matter how I’m feeling.
The Challenge of Working Online
Constraints are related to confinement, a word that sounds awful until you realize that being on your own is not the end of the world but the beginning of true growth. Working online can be horribly isolating as you keep plodding along without the encouragement of anyone with you along the way.
For many creatives they will also be cut off from any solid resources as well until they prove their potential to fans, patrons or investors.
However, learning to work with your intuition is an amazing experience if you can come at it from a place of liberation. In order to do this you must be free of what other people think.
You must not approach the work from a place of lack, but from one of hope. That anything is possible if you sit your bum in the chair and get to work.
The Magic of Reinvention
In my dream last night I was on a private jet with an entrepreneur that I’ve known for a few years. We are on the runway getting ready to take off and she telling a few of us around a table that she was upset about her business failing and was afraid of what people will think if she goes back out there again.
I told her we are free to keep reinventing ourselves every day. Never be afraid to keep reinventing ourselves.
I looked to the cockpit and saw the doors flapping open and the pilots were having a good time. I realized that in life, we really are building this airplane while we’re flying it. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Try to not worry too much about what other people think.
Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead…
Keeping your stash of bagels full,
Elliott