Your Lifestyle Might Be Killing Your Creative Freedom

by Jose Ordoñez Jr.

Busyness. Debt. Clutter. For the better part of this century they have been part of the American life. We live in an age of excess, where people are both the perpetrator and the victim. I am too.

We’ve been living in this fog for so long that we don’t even notice anymore. When was the last time you decided to clean your closet? To intentionally get rid of all the crap gathering dust? Do you know how much debt you have? Do you know when you’ll have it all paid off? When did you last leave time for… well, you? When did you take time to play? To go out, and I don’t know, play basketball or something?

Artists are particularly defensive when it comes to cleaning up their act. We tend to be free-spirited and scatterbrained, and it might actually be affecting our work. Sometimes it’s this freedom that enslaves us to our worst selves. It’s just that we don’t notice. Our job as artists is to embed truth into beauty. We must take this job seriously, even if society doesn’t sometimes. And how are we to accomplish this if we discount our own wellbeing?

Here are the three areas of your life that you might want to consider sorting out before creating:

Time.

This one is pretty simple and probably the most straight-forward. If you don’t leave time to create, you won’t create.

Most people suck at scheduling not because they’re bad at organizing, but because they suck at prioritizing. 

The other day someone was complaining to me that she didn’t have the time to check her mail consistently, and that because she neglected this boring but important task, she had missed an important appointment. I lovingly told her that she didn’t miss on her appointment because she didn’t have time to check her mail, but because she didn’t have the right priorities.

The fact of the matter is that we don’t have time to do all the things we want to do or get asked to do. Our responsibility as creators is to spend our time doing the things that matter, and only the things that matter. Take care of your job, family and self. Then make sure to schedule time to create as often as you can.

Recently, I started using an app called Todoist to prioritize my responsibilities. It works better than a regular calendar because it breaks everything down into manageable tasks for me. Make sure to check it out if you’re struggling to take control of your time.

Money.

Financial troubles can negatively affect virtually every aspect of our lives. They seep into our marriages, careers, and wellbeing. Here’s the thing: if we don’t have financial freedom, we don’t have full creative freedom. Period. If you’re too busy paying loans to every bank out there, guess who doesn’t get money to invest into his art. YOU. And just as financial troubles can be a burden to your creativity, financial freedom can seriously equip you with the tools needed to make it as an artist.

I know there are many people rolling their eyes, ready to tell me that they can’t possibly think about money because they have way too many things going on, or that they simply don’t make enough. The truth of the matter is that you don’t have an option but to get your finances in control. Financial freedom always paves the way for creative freedom. By definition, you will never make a living as an artist if you don’t take care of your finances. Create a budget, get out of debt, build an emergency fund and invest. That’s it! It’s simple, even though it’s not easy. Do those things and you won’t be the cliche starving artist. Get on it, my person.

For over two years I have been using an app called Every Dollar to budget and track my spending. If you’ve always had trouble making a budget, I highly recommend checking out this app. 

Space.

I’ve been working on this one a lot lately. It’s been a slow but consistent, and hopefully positive journey. It all started one day when I wandered around my room and asked myself: what of all this “stuff” around me is truly adding value to my life? Why do I own all this stuff? I realized then that I was subconsciously overspending on stuff I didn’t need just to fill the space. 

Space is perhaps the most important of these three areas. Often enough, we use our time to earn money, to use that money to spend in clutter that fills our space. Space may very well be a physical corner in your room that desperately calls for that end table. But in a more real sense, space is that spiritual void we try to fill with mindless consumption. Space is what happens when we get home from work. We often complain that we don’t have time, or money, but as soon as that space shows up, whether mental or physical, we fill it by wasting time and money.

Less mindless consumption leaves more time for creativity. Look around you. How much of the stuff around you is weighing you down? And why can’t you let go of it? You know you have a terrible relationship with something or someone when A, it doesn’t add value, and B, you won’t let go. 

Let’s design creative spaces that focus our energies into the things that matter. How much more would you create if you didn’t spend time working a job you hate to waste money on things you don’t need? What if you just simplified? What if you designed your life around people that matter and work that matters? How much happier would you be?

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