Discipline and Intention: Crafting a Lifestyle for Creative Fulfillment

Journal Entry: Tuesday, November 28, 2023

works on paper - 2023.080 - 05.24.23 - 8 x 5.25 inches

Discipline and Intention: Crafting a Lifestyle for Creative Fulfillment

Creative work thrives on a foundation of discipline, intention, and strategic planning. At its core, discipline is about showing up. It’s the commitment to carve out space in your daily life for the act of creation, leaving behind a breadcrumb trail of progress that documents your journey. Each day presents a chance to contribute to your body of work, no matter how small the effort may seem.

The key is consistency. Don’t let a single day slip by without leaving your mark, however faint it may feel. This consistency is reinforced by the structure of having a dedicated time and place to create. When you schedule yourself daily and respect that schedule, it transitions from a conscious effort into an unquestioned habit. Over time, this rhythm becomes an integral part of your identity, serving as the engine of your creative process.

But discipline alone isn’t enough. Sustaining creative work also requires intention—an understanding of its deeper significance in your life. Recognize that your creative practice isn’t just a hobby or profession; it’s the core of your personal sense of wellbeing. Everything else in your life should orbit around this center. By strategically adjusting your commitments and designing a lifestyle that prioritizes your creative output, you give it the space and energy it deserves.

This careful design doesn’t just stop at creating; it extends to how you manage your work. Documentation, organization, and archiving are essential aspects of a thriving creative practice. Each piece you create, every idea you jot down, is part of a larger puzzle. By dating and organizing your work chronologically, you build a record of your evolution as an artist. This archive becomes a treasure trove for future projects, exhibitions, or publications.

As the creator, you are uniquely positioned to be your own archivist. Only you know the trail you’ve left behind—the thoughts you had, the processes you followed, and the intentions behind your work. No one else, not even you, can reconstruct this later. By being intentional about documenting and storing your creative output, you ensure that your legacy is preserved and accessible for future use.

In essence, a successful creative life is a carefully designed lifestyle. It’s not just about showing up but about building a system that supports your growth. It’s about aligning your habits, time, and environment with your creative goals. With discipline, intention, and strategic planning, you can turn your creative practice into a sustainable and deeply fulfilling part of your life.

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Gain control by establishing routines. Here are some possible New Year’s Resolutions to get ready for 2025…

New Year’s Resolutions for a Creative Lifestyle

• Plan to be ready by January 1, 2025 - create and establish a daily creative practice.

• Start a digital book document and begin keeping a dated daily journal. Start with date, when you woke up, record the events of the day the best you can, write other thoughts or notes, end the day by writing when you went to bed. At the minimum write the date, when you got up and when you went to bed. That only requires about 1 minute a day to establish the habit over time. The main thing is the daily habit.

• Buy a new sketchbook to start the new year and date every entry or artwork in your chosen medium as you go along digitize everything and keep in a 2025 art folder on your computer or in the cloud and possibly add images to your digital journal. Try to make something (anything) in your chosen medium and date it every day.

• Create an inventory system to identify every individual work you make in 2025. Write this number such as 2025.001, 2025.002 etc. on every artwork in your chosen medium and use as part of the file name for the digital version. (check out the above image information for how I do it). Figure out how to store loose works. box, drawer, portfolio, etc.

• Give yourself quotas to meet every month i.e. one finished drawing or artwork a day or week, 250-500 words of writing a day, a poem or song a day or week, a painting a month, etc. whatever you think you can handle sustainably without stressing out.

• plan out a creative schedule for yourself and a place to work and then collect your needed materials together.

• Go for a walk every day even if just around the block. Stepping out the door is the main thing.

Keep it simple, keep it doable. Next year, once your routines are established then you can amp up the game a bit. The main thing is creating the routines based on the development of small, constant habits. That is the only thing to think about.