by EriCKa Lugo
Creating is time consuming. It doesn’t matter how inspired you are, what your process is, or your medium; in order to create, you need time. Unfortunately, our day-to-day life does not provide an abundance of this necessary resource. In an extract from his book How to Fly a Horse — The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery , author Kevin Ashton quotes writer Charles Dickens on how he deals with this conflict:
‘It is only half an hour’ — ‘It is only an afternoon’ — ‘It is only an evening,’ people say to me over and over again; but they don’t know that it is impossible to command one’s self sometimes to any stipulated and set disposal of five minutes — or that the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometime worry a whole day … Who ever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it, and to find his recompense in it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can’t help it; I must go in my way whether or no.
In order to create, Dickens sacrificed his social life. He understood that saying “no” to things that do not forward his creative vision has more influence over his output than ideas or talent. The next time you are asked to attend a social event you are only half-heartedly interested in, ask yourself what it is really costing you. It’s not just your time. It’s the underlying sketch to your painting, it’s the research on your project, it’s the rough draft of your novel. If you want to be a successful, learn to guard your creative time with the answer “no.”
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