Something I noticed during my break was how difficult it was to start on something and stay focused. Working on three separate projects, it’s hard to divide time and effort equally amongst them. I’ve found that lately I’ve been guided more by motivation than I have been by consistent practice and routine. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as it can help guide one’s efforts and energy wisely but it’s not helpful when I want to achieve consistent progress across all three projects. But I realized, while thinking on why it’s so difficult for me, I realized that I cannot separate motivation from whatever discipline I can maintain.
I like to think I was a very disciplined person before, not so easily distracted and very focused, but I think that was not necessarily true. It took me roughly ten years to publish my first book, four years to publish my second book, and then another four years to publish my third book. It takes me roughly a month to create an art piece that I can say I’m proud of and I also tend to struggle to maintain a consistent reading schedule. I used to think that, whenever I was consistently productive, that it was because I had the discipline to do so but, thinking on it now, I believe it was more because I was motivated to do so. I felt compelled to work on these projects which kept me focused. But how does one take advantage of this realization?
When it comes to motivation, I found that it’s often an external factor. Whenever I feel motivated to actually work on something, it’s often because something has inspired me to do so. Just recently, I watched some videos on how to manage and consider paneling when it comes to drawing manga. That helped inspire me to actually start the thumbnailing sketches and make some decent progress. It’s similar to how I am often inspired to write more when I hear a song that helps inspire a scene in my mind or when reading a book with characters I absolutely love. The inspiration leads to motivation which helps me maintain my discipline to make consistent progress. The key then becomes how to find inspiration to stay properly motivated.
Finding inspiration is difficult as a creator. What works for some will not necessarily work for everyone. Finding a constant source of inspiration is a tall order when considering it requires constant searching for new media to consume, especially in a world to vying for your attention you with constant distractions. It requires a level of self-awareness that is hard to achieve and I struggle with it quite a bit. Something I found that helped was from advice regarding meditation that helped me pull away from distractions. The basic idea is asking yourself “why are you doing this?” in an objective and almost third person perspective sort of way. For example, I’ll be watching a YouTube video instead of working on one of my projects until I ask myself this and realize I’m just watching it to kill time that I don’t have. While it’s not perfect, it does help me to start thinking about what I could be doing instead that would help me achieve my goals and dreams.
Discipline is a difficult thing to achieve and, while it’s easier for some people, it’s definitely something that often requires a lot of effort. I do hope these insights help in some way as it has helped me.
– Raphael
P.S: Sorry for the late post, last week was incredibly draining and I’m slowly recovering from it.
Raph's Cozy Musings 