The Struggles of a Creative Life

Something I've struggled with for so long is balancing all of the creative outlets I enjoy in my life.

If you're like me, I imagine you've tried a few different creative hobbies once or twice before. Things like drawing, painting, playing guitar or piano, doing puzzles, learning magic tricks, doing origami, photography, learning languages, graphic design - the list could go on and on.

That's a list of some I've done (and some I still do).

In the past, I used to follow my feelings and do whichever one I felt like doing at the time. This was fun and it somewhat worked for me, but as time went on - I realized it wasn't the most efficient for my goals (of pursuing an art-based business).

The problem was that there were sometimes when I'd spend the whole week in my free time working on music. And while I ended up making some decent music that week, my art, YouTube channel, and everything else would fall behind.

I was constantly struggling and juggling these hobbies but couldn't be consistent, which made me mediocre at all of them. I was a mediocre music producer, mediocre painter, and mediocre video creator.

I knew that I wanted to paint and draw a lot. And document my art journey through my videos. And this is what I finally figured out:

I realized, I simply needed to prioritize these hobbies.
Which ones do I truly want to master?

For me it was painting and drawing - creating my art. That's where I needed the majority of my focus to be.

And in the past couple of years, that's what I've done. Painting and drawing are my focus and the rest are all now secondary.

It's not an easy thing to do, even if it sounds like it is.

I've had an idea for an instrumental album for a few years now. I mean, each song named, the concept nailed down and everything. But unfortunately, I just don't feel I have the time I need to execute it the way I would want to right now. I have so many other things which are more important and need my focus.

It is what it is. But I'm happy and I do enjoy what I'm doing now.

Sometimes, it's just a struggle being a creative person and dealing with all these ideas floating around.

Can you relate?