I have been attacked by the creativity monster.
I think it began at the end of the last school year. The monsterous beast reared it's ugly head during finals week, and sucked me into it's treacherous clutches. I was sleep deprived, irritable, and pretty much running on straight coffee. (Apparently it's a side effect of taking enough classes to equal almost two full years of highschool in one.) Throw in some relationship issues, and a mounting pressure to live up to some unrealistic standards, and you had one stressed out teen. Writing of any sort, let alone blogging, was not a priority.
Then the summer came, and the monster tightened it's fatal grip. I was under summer's sleepy spell, and I had zero motivation to do anything productive whatsoever. If it wasn't necessary, and wasn't a 4-H project, it mouldered untouched, in some dark corner somewhere. (Not something I'm proud of, but I'm trying to be honest here.)
Months passed, and I did not write anything of signifigance.
Not a journal entry, not a short story, not a blog post.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely wrote; just not anything worth reading. What little I accomplished was done so half heartedly, and was therefore uninteresting. And it just wasn't my writing voice that was lacking enthusiasm; I was apethetic, and having a hard time finding the motivation to do things that I normally really enjoyed -- things like dancing, photography, etc.
Then I had a very important (internal) conversation with myself. It went a little something like this:
"Self, you need to get it together. You need to roundhouse kick that creativity killing, motivation sucking monster in the face, and show it who's boss. What are you waiting for?! Pick up your pencil, your camera, your jazz shoes. Goest thou forth and conquer!!!"
And what did I say back to this wise, strongly opinionated, and somewhat violent version of myself?
"Okay."
Profound, I know. But it brings me to my point: you are only as (un)productive or (un)sucessful as you allow yourself to be.
"The secret to getting ahead, is getting started."
-- Mark Twain
So let's get started with the challenge, shall we?
September Challenge (a.k.a The I Want My Creativity Back Plan):
1) Spend time with The Creator each morning
2) Do not overlook the beauty of the ordinary
3) Take each day at a time
4) Give up the internet for a week
As of midnight tonight, I will begin number four. I'm not on the internet a ton, but it can be a major distraction. So for me personally, I will not be on blogger, twitter, tumblr, or any social networking at all until next Wednesday. (For my friends who read this, I will also not be responding to texts.) I am hoping that this will give me extra time to spend doing productive things, and refreshing to boot.
Until next week,
~ Abby
p.s. I really really hope that no one thinks I am crazy after reading this post. I promise, I am at least somewhat sane.
