How to stick with a practice – a writing practice, an art practice, a meditation practice – this is the recurring challenge for all of us, isn’t it.
I got this question the other day and wrote out my answer here. I hope this helps you and would love to hear what this sparks in you. Feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Q: What is the best way to cultivate a true practice? I really want to do 2 hours a day 5 days a week. I do 15 minutes most days now but sometimes I don’t. I found this very easy in the past when I had so many free days, but now i’m running a business and life gets in the way. How do I build up and make this regular? does it have to do with regularity of time spent or a particular place to write or what?
This is a great question, and one many of us have. With many activities and priorities competing for our time, how do we prioritize our creativity?
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a silver bullet or simple practice that allowed it to be easier? A set and forget it approach where we simply make a plan and stick to it, like a…robot.
Well, we’re not robots and I’ve learned that our practice must be as fluid as life itself. We crave routine but our lives don’t always bend to the structures we devise. Again and again, we fall short of our plans to commit to something regular.
I’ve finally realized that the real game isn’t about how to set something sticky up; instead, it’s about how to recommit consistently when we do fail to show up regularly.
I started to write a listicle of the ways to make a practice work, including schedule the time, go to another location, reduce the amount of time you think you will spend, etc.
Then I realized that I have written all this before. Many times. It’s all in my book, Create Your Writer’s Life. Sure, you may not have heard it from me, but you know these things. Honestly, the external structures are only part of the equation, a minor part. It’s the internal drive that matters.
How to connect deeply so you show up regularly for your work?
• You prioritize your writing because you have something to say.
• Because you deserve to have this creative time.
• Because it fuels you in ways all the other things in life don’t – your creativity is the source of your vitality, and time spent writing feeds your vitality.
• Because you are so into what you are writing that you can’t wait to get to it, like a new lover you can’t get enough of.
• Because you are a person of integrity and you have committed to yourself to write and honoring that commitment is an expression of your integrity.
• Because you’ve done it before and you know what works for you. Do that again. Do what works for you.
Why do you write? Get really clear about your motivation and keep it front and center. Do a 15-minute free-write (as often as needed) with the prompt:
I write because…
And lastly, if I were to offer a suggestion for the external structure, I would say build your writing time slowly over time. From 15 minutes, go to 30 minutes. Do that for a month. Then add another 15 minutes. And on and on until you do have your chunks of time you crave. And it might be that you have several 15 minute sessions a week and a couple of hours-long sessions.
Be less focused on how much time and where and when and on what. What are you writing that seduces you back to the writing desk again and again despite how busy you are? That is the thing that will help you develop your writing practice.
Thank You
You are welcome!