There’s Never Any Time! Making Time for Your Hobbies and Passions
One of the most common roadblocks I come up against in my own creative pursuits and with my clients is having enough time to do everything! When you daydream about your most brilliant creative life, you're probably not dreaming about a long shift at work followed by cooking dinner, taking care of kids and pets and chores, and then settling down for 15 minutes with a book before you fall asleep. No.
In your most creative and passionate life, you're in an art studio or a personal library, always surrounded by inspiration and access to your creativity at a moment's notice. But that's not real life. So what can we do? Do We Have the Same 24 Hours?
This is my least favorite quote... we all have the same 24 hours, so what's your excuse? No we don't! When you compare yourself to a famous artist, musician, author, are you actually comparing yourself apples to apples? One of my mentors Serena Hicks says "You can't grow an orange tree from an apple seed" and this is one example of that mantra. If you're looking at the fruits of someone else's life (the orange tree, in this case) and the resources you have are not the same (aka you have apple seeds), then how could you possibly emulate their exact version of success, creativity, or fulfillment?It's time to stop trying to be perfect at having time for your passions and embrace the time you do have.Commit to the Bare Minimum
I'm on a mission to reclaim "the bare minimum." We treat it like a bad thing, but for aspects of your life like socializing, being creative, having alone time... a bare minimum is a really important barometer to keep track of your actual needs. For example: I need a minimum of one weekend a month where I have zero social plans, work plans, home improvement plans, etc. I need a weekend to do basically NOTHING. That's my bare minimum need for social downtime. what’s your bare minimum for creativity? Some of my clients have a bare minimum of doing the Morning Pages, a handwritten daily journaling practice. Or a weekly Artist Date. Both the Morning Pages and the Artist Date come from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way."To embrace the bare minimum is to acknowledge that the time and energy we commit to our creative passion is enough and that we are enough as artists, writers, and creatives in the present moment. Embrace the idea that the time we have, even if it is limited, is sufficient to engage in creative pursuits.Find Balance
Most people struggle with finding balance between work, life, play, and rest. Not having enough time often stems from work or responsibilities that are too demanding, leaving little room for leisure activities and personal connections. Here's an exercise I do with my creative clients to help them find their ideal balance between work, life, play, and rest. First off, you have to know where you are. So grab a pen and paper and something to keep time with. Work
Work is all the labor you do, paid and unpaid, domestic and corporate and self-employed. All the stuff that you do that's WORK. Got your paper and pen? Set a timer for 60 seconds and spend the next minute jotting down the bullet points of all the WORK you did in the past 7 days. Play
Play is all the joyful stuff you do for fun. This could include watching TV/movies, playing games, going to the park... as long as those things are done for the sake of joy and playfulness. (If you stream video games for work, then that's probably actually work, get me?). Set your 60 second timer and list everything you did in the past 7 days for PLAY.Rest
Probably self explanatory, but your rest must actually be RESTFUL to count. If you're checking email while sitting on the couch, you're working! Set your 60 second timer and write down everything you did to have actual downtime in the last 7 days. Consider your regular amount and quality of sleep as a given, but if there were times you took a melatonin to sleep better or you slept in, write those down. Life
Life is all the stuff that feeds your social, spiritual, community, and creative needs. Talking to friends, attending community gatherings, and anything that doesn't fit neatly into the other three categories. You know the drill... set your timer and see how much you did to fill your LIFE bucket in the past 7 days. When you're done, take a look at the breakdown. Are you satisfied with the ratios of work, life, play, and rest? If not, then let's explore how to find a better balance.Redefine Priorities
I always say "reduce your standards," which sounds bad at first... but I don't mean that you should accept poor treatment from others. I mean maybe you have high standards somewhere in your life that, if you relaxed them, would mean more energy and time for your passions. I used to be super nitpicky about how the dishwasher got loaded, and I'd always be the first to put away the clean dishes and reload it to "do it right." Now... I don't care so much. I often leave it for someone else in the house to handle, because I would rather have those energetic spoons for my own projects than my dishwasher perfectionism. By examining our values and desires, we can make conscious choices to allocate time for activities that bring us joy and fulfillment.Set Boundaries
Not only do I mean boundaries with other people in your life (not canceling your own creative plans for you-time because someone else wants your attention) but also with YOURSELF. Because if you're anything like me, you will find seven thousand things to do that feel more easy or important than sticking to the time you actually FINALLY designated for yourself to work on a creative project. Embrace Self Compassion
Taking care of your well-being is not a luxury but a NECESSITY. And this means being kind to yourself when you cancel your Artist Date, forget that you promised yourself you'd read that book club book this month, etc. Embrace self-compassion, let go of perfectionism, and allow yourself to focus on what truly brings you joy and nourishment. Even a little at a time!Key Points, Quotable Sass, & All That Jazz
Time to bring the fireworks with some seriously sassy key points and memorable quotes from episode 86:
“Commit to the bare minimum. Love the bare minimum. The bare minimum is enough! We love enough. You are enough of an artist, of a writer, of a creative, right now. And we're gonna carve out enough time to start integrating that, so that you don't feel like, ‘Oh, well I'm not, I'm not really an artist because I don't have the time.’ Yes, you do, because the time that you have, the bare minimum time that you can find and protect, is enough.”
“Think about your waking hours and think about how much of those living awake consciousness hours you are spending doing work. Labor, paid, or unpaid. Volunteering, picking up the kids, doing the dishes, doing the laundry. All of that is work. Work is not just your day job!”
“When you take a look at it and you see, ‘Oh, okay, my ratios are different than I thought they would be, or different than I would like them to be,’ then you can work on small little shifts to increase your play, for instance, or increase your rest, decrease your work so that you have more time for other things.”
“What can you reduce the frequency or intensity of in your life?”
Episode Mic Drop
You do have time, you just need to identify which ones you need to do more of, what you can reduce in frequency or intensity, and even embrace the magic that comes from doing the bare minimum.
By redefining priorities, setting boundaries, and embracing self-compassion, we can carve out sufficient time for creativity, rest, and meaningful connections. Making conscious choices to integrate these essential aspects into our lives allows us to find balance and nourish our well-being.
Remember, you have the power to create space for what brings you joy and fulfillment!
Now, go and be free! Love you!Download the episode transcript here!
Are you a neurodivergent creative aching to dismantle societal myths and pave the way for more inclusive, flexible, and fulfilling experiences through artistic expression?
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