Rule Your Muse
Ideas are wonderful but you have to be able apply them. If you want to work at your craft more, but find yourself continually putting it off for other things, doing a 100 Day Challenge may put you right on track.
Why a hundred days?
We all know that it can take up to twenty one days to form a habit, there’s all sorts of documentation explaining that. It’s maintaining the habit that gives so many people problems.
Quite often after you go through pushing yourself to do an activity everyday for the twenty one days, you suddenly feel like the challenge has come to an end, which in concept it has. But a funny thing happens. You slowly start to slide back into your old ways. You think, well it’s a habit, so if I miss a day here or there it won’t make any difference.
Of course, it does make a difference. Eventually you slide back and all that hard work has been forgotten.
That’s why you want to reinforce all your efforts.
A hundred days is a much longer time. It will help to hone your abilities. You’ll find ideas are flowing more naturally. When you are stumped you will find different ways to get yourself moving forward. You’ve come to learn what is realistic. After awhile you’re not resisting, you know you can put in some time and get results, and you know they don’t have to be perfect to count. You’re probably looking forward to your work sessions.
Work Sessions
You’ll notice this time I call being creative, work sessions. At this point I assume you want to do this on a continual basis, maybe as a career. While you want to keep your flow open and fun, you also want to be able to push yourself.
The best way to do that is to change your mindset. It’s work, but good work.
So what are you going to do for 100 days?
You’re going to work at your chosen craft every day.
That’s it. That’s how simple it is.
Work your creative muscle every day.
You’re going to find that there are days when that’s pretty much impossible to do, but on some of those days you’ll manage to squeeze it in anyway.
On the days when it becomes truly impossible, get out a pencil, or pen, and some paper and jot down some ideas. Five minutes, you don’t have to do more. As long as it is totally and completely impossible for you to get some time in, those five minutes are your grace. Be honest with yourself. Don’t cheat.
At the end of the hundred days you will have changed. Everything will have changed. And it’s all going to be good.
Start Calling the Shots
If you want to be creative when you want to be, if you want to call the shots and not be at the mercy of fate, doing a 100 Day Challenge is worth your effort. If you give it your full effort I bet you gain exactly what you hope for, mastery over that unruly muse!