Pulling weeds and planting flowers

Habits as the foundation of a creative practice

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition”

W.H. Auden’s

Every artist is a sum of their habits.

Good habits patiently executed are the key to all success, and bad habits are the fast track to failure. Over the years, we’ve surrendered our free will to accumalation of habits. We’re effectively slaves to our habits.

If you must be a slave, be a slave to good habits.

The foundation of growing a creative practice is making good habits. Here are 5 reflections on habit making.

1. Habits, not tasks.

One pushup is not going to change your physique, but a habit of doing pushups will.

Making time to create, building a portfolio, meeting regularly with artist friends, getting feedback, making adjustments and contacting potential clients. Will guarantee you get hired for your art; the catch is that these are not one-off activities; these need to be a habit.

You might already be doing the right things, but are you doing them as a matter of habit?

2. Good habits compound over time

Cultivating new good habits over time will give you a compound benefit.

Morning Pages build creative stamina, awareness and open a channel to creative inspiration.

Bullet Journaling frees your mind in real time to focus on connecting and creating rather than remembering.

Weekly Planning helps you keep your bigger projects in view and connected to your daily actions.

Morning Walks transform your health, physiology and mood, allowing ideas to form in your subconscious effortlessly.

Studio Resets mean you always hit the ground running.

These are some habits that take years to cultivate, but once they are built, they keep paying dividends and increase our capacity to create effectively.

3. Repetition creates ease, which leads to pleasure

The more we do a habit, the easier it becomes. And when it becomes easy, it becomes pleasurable. A pleasurable, creative practice is one in which the grooves of good habits are deep.

4. Habit as currency

Getting past the gatekeepers is not the only way to earn credibility.

Showing up day after day will earn you more credibility than getting onto a big podcast or getting a book deal. And this is completely in your control. Start a Substack, or start posting online, or start mailing people.

Start something and keep going.

5. Shifting momentum

If you’re not moving towards your creative ambitions or you’re not getting there fast enough, all you need to do is shift your momentum. You do this by destroying the habits that are pulling you away and replacing them with habits that will pull you towards them.

Shifting momentum this way will send you hurling towards the direction of your creative ambitions.

Building good habits and removing bad ones is like tending a garden.

You start by pulling out the weeds.

Remove the doom scrolling and the overthinking and replace it with making time for yourself to learn new skills and building new habits. And like a garden, constantly tending it will give you satisfaction, a sense of purpose and peace of mind.