The Creativity of Discipline

The last several weeks I have been hunkered down working on a rebranding. In truth, the rebranding has been a rolling one over the last year, but the biggest part of that, my website, was the missing link. While my original site was acceptable, it wasn’t me anymore and it felt outdated.

Until yesterday.

Before I go any further, I need to thank someone very special for his advice, design notes and helping me proof read. I built the site and designed the logo. While I have little expertise in this area, my friend is extremely sharp and savvy. His advice was always spot on and timely.

Inspiration in Training.

I used to believe that in order to be successful at anything creative, inspiration was necessary. What I have realized is that inspiration isn’t the catalyst for action, discipline is. In the 8 years that I have had this blog, there were times were I had a “creative drought.” While this may have been the case initially, it was easy to see how staring at blank page could become the norm.

When Inspiration turn to desperation.

Inspiration may give a boost to creative juices but without the consistent practice, they can sour. A lack of focus, distraction from other things in your life, are all excuses to procrastinate. Procrastination is easy. I won’t say lazy, but we know it is that too!

Practice doesn’t have to make perfect.

I’ve come to realize that the chasing of perfection, is the perfect part. The drive to strive. The discipline to focus. The building and designing of my website was the perfect lesson. It is easy to blame circumstances for why we don’t follow through with things, especially if there are no hard consequences.

There is no finish line. Discipline is the art of perfected repetition. A boundless amount of capital that you invest in yourself.

Music mood: AC/DC “thunderstruck”