Getting Out Of The Starting Blocks (To Create) - Guest Post by Tyron Akal
Tyron blogs about creativity at www.tyronakal.com
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"Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work and to go where it tells him to go." (L’Engle. The creative call)
Creativity can feel like we’re standing on the edge of a crevice. There are these ideas that we can’t quite nail down floating around in our head. And they are accompanied by this daunting feeling that even if we managed to bring ourselves to start creating today it would take us a hundred years and several heart attacks before we could ever get to the other side. What L’Engle is saying here is that unless we engage in the work the ideas in our head will never come together. It is only by embarking on the journey across the crevice that the end will ever seem possible. We have to engage in the process in the first place to be successful as artists. Here are two seemingly contrasting keys to starting a creative project and seeing it through to the end.
1. DISCIPLINE
As an artist Discipline is your greatest friend. I did an exercise a few months ago where I had to take a list of words and make a priority list out of them. I was surprised to find that I had put discipline above creativity. That is because discipline is the only way I ever get through a creative project. I assign myself a certain amount of time to work on it per day and, come hell or high water, I put that time in, even if I don’t feel like it. When I sat down to write this blog post I didn’t particularly feel like it, but I’m enjoying the heck out of it right now! Sometimes all you need to do is make a start.
2. CREATIVE FREEDOM
There is a tension to the point I have just made because I believe you should feel a freedom to work on more than one project at a time. ‘But how irresponsible, you should finish what you’ve started before moving onto something else!’ Ever heard something like that thrown at you? I certainly have. But the truth is that the creative part of our brain operates laterally and not logically. That means that it connects various, sometimes completely unrelated ideas together during a creative process. By having another project to step away to you are giving yourself the chance to make new creative connections so that you can come back to it with a fresh perspective. This way the different projects you are working on end up influencing each other.
Hold both discipline and creative freedom together will help you see your creative project through to the end!
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Tyron Akal currently serves on the pastoral team of Hillside Church in Hillcrest, Kwazulu-Natal, (South Africa), where he is actively involved in running their full-time School of Supernatural Ministry.
Tyron is also a gifted "artist", and is about to publish his first book: "Inspired". The book aims to help you tap into your God-given creativity through the power of the Holy Spirit, and is set to be released before the end of the year. I can assure you, if you have any inkling of creativity in you, you want to read this book!
Let me take some liberty and share with you a paragraph out of the book's introduction:
"God doesn’t want us to pack our creative potential away on the top shelf never to be seen again, but he wants us to partner with him to bring his light to the world. Artists have been lied to for too long and it’s the devil that’s doing it. He has told us that our ‘uniqueness’ will have us forever ‘misunderstood’ and he has tried to shut us down. But I am here to tell you that God celebrates your uniqueness because he put it inside of you in the first place. And that if you allow him to, he will unleash your creative potential powerfully on the earth. We are taking back from the enemy the most powerful and influential realm on the planet today: the realm of entertainment and creativity."
Be sure to get yourself a copy of the book when it is released!
TYRON BLOGS ABOUT CREATIVITY AT www.tyronakal.com
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