The Most Important Skill Successful Creatives Must Master

If we wait to be in the perfect mood to do a thing, or if we wait to have the perfect carved out pocket of time to do a thing, I swear to you, we're never going to do it.

Hey there, creatives. Today we are going to talk about our most precious resource: time. We can't get more of it, but we can be super intentional about how we spend it. So if you are a creative and you are desiring to spend more of your time in your creative craft, then this would be a great post to help you figure out how to do that. Or if you are working a full-time job, sort of hating it and wishing that you could spend more time doing that creative thing that you love to do, maybe you want to turn that creative thing into a full-time job… then this is a great place to start.

I know that resources can be scarce. Time is a scarce resource. Money can be a scarce resource. If you are a creative and your heart's pounding for it, lack of ideas is probably not a problem, right? If you are dying to create, you probably have a million visions that you want to create. And that's probably what's tugging at you so hard, having so many beautiful visions you want to bring to the world without having the time to do it. I get it. I hear you. I feel you. All we need to do is shake up your beliefs and your language a little bit.

First of all, we can't say things like, "I don't have time to do this."

“Baby, if you don't have 10 minutes, you don't have a life.”

Tony Robbins said that. (I don't think he started it with baby, I added that part.) But it's so true. If you don't have 10 minutes, you don't have a life, and you really need to rethink how you're spending your time. I'm not being a diva here. I have four small kids. My house is crazy. It's amazing I can even make this post for you right now. I get it. I know what it's like to be busy. I have a full-time business. Actually, like a couple of them, several pieces to this full-time business.

Start with 10 minutes a day. Really. And if you are sitting there going, Emily, I legit don't have 10 minutes a day. I'm working two and a half jobs. My life is this. I'm commuting here and… no. If you are throwing excuses at the screen right now, that's not my fault. You need to reformat your time. I want you to think about how and where can you find 10 minutes, because I believe in you and I know that you can find it. You can find 10 minutes. But you might have to swap something, right? Or you might have to get creative about where those 10 minutes land.

Here's a silly little story. I struggle to get my whole 10 minute meditation in every day. It's really important to me, and I sometimes struggle to even find 10 minutes. (Note, I did just have a new baby. So I literally have a one-month-old who needs me… I'm literally his life source for food.) But I found 10 minutes. I have this little meditation nook where I can sit - and I moved it into the shower. Now everybody thinks I'm just taking a long shower and they leave me alone. (Sort of. Kids never leave you alone.)

Find 10 minutes for yourself. Give up 10 minutes of scrolling. Give up 10 minutes of something. Pair it with your commute if you are sitting on a bus or a subway, or in a self-driving Tesla. I promise there will be 10 minutes for you. I want you to find that 10 minutes. Maybe you're thinking, "Okay, sister. I can find 10 minutes, but I can't create the thing I'm trying to create in 10 stupid minutes a day." I'm sure you can't. I'm sure you probably need more than 10 minutes to create the big beautiful vision that's in your mind. The thing is, you’ve got to start in a startable place, which is 10 minutes a day. Even 10 minutes six days a week. I like to give one day where I don't really ask anything of myself at all other than make sure my children are still alive. I do that seven days a week, no matter what. But six days a week, 10 minutes, you will be surprised.

Actually, for me starting this Creative Spotlight content, this is on top of my whole theater career. I'm writing, producing shows, running a full production schedule with casts and all of these things and raising the kids without the luxury of a house cleaner… that’s also me, and everyone else who lives here. But this blog, I really wanted to start. This is a whole different aspect than my theater work that I really wanted to start. At first, I thought how am I going to do this? How am I going to do this? I'm already beyond the 10 minutes a day, but you know what? I'm gonna go 60 minutes five days a week.

When I said that. I put it in my schedule. I actually wrote it down in my schedule: 60 minutes a day, Monday through Friday. Here's what's cool: that will happen with your 10 minutes or your 60 minutes. If you do it, if you honor it, if you make the time for it, you will do more than 10 minutes. You will do more than 60. Because here's this other cool thing that happens: mood follows action. I'm gonna say it again because I want you to remember that one. Mood follows action.

I did not make that up. I've been trying to remember who I learned that from and I can't remember. (So credit given to you out there, wherever you are. I'm sorry I forgot who said that.) Mood follows action. If you can just get started, even if your mood's not quite right for the thing you're trying to do, you will get into the flow of doing the thing. I actually just had this happen: I just wrote a new script! I wasn't my most excited, like the script I've been most passionate and excited to write. I'm always excited to write a script, but I was having some resistance with this one. I thought, I don't know. I'm not in the right mood. My head space isn't right. I'm having a writer's block or whatever. I just couldn't get there. My husband reminded me of my own lesson, to just start and then you'll get into the right space. He was so right. I had to force myself into it. I moved it off my list for a few days thinking, I don't want to do it. I'm not in the right mental space. I need to be in a certain consciousness to write this story. Oh my god, diva, just write the thing.

Coming this fall to the Melonlight Theater: Halloween With the Rosses! Now that I’ve finished the script, of course.

So I sat down and started writing and then totally got into the right mental space. If we wait to be in the perfect mood to do a thing, or if we wait to have the perfect carved out pocket of time, I swear to you, we're never going to do it. So find your 10 minutes whether you're in the mood for it or not, whether you're too tired or not, whether you'd rather keep your scrolling time instead of doing the thing or not. Just do it. Have the 10 minutes. Don't necessarily be in the right mood to do it, but do it anyways. I swear 10 minutes will be 12. I swear 60 minutes will be two hours. I swear the mood will follow the action. If you just honor 10 minutes, and you have 10 minutes because you have a life, that the momentum will build faster than you think.

I want you to carve out some time, set an alarm on your phone, write it down one way or another, find where the 10 minutes is going to be, and honor it. Do what you say you're going to do, and also witness as your mood follows the action. You sit down to do the thing, even if you don't feel like doing it, and all of a sudden, now you're in the mood to do it. I even just did this with taxes. (I hate that stuff. It's not creative, guys. I did not want to do this.) I was dreading it. I told myself, you’ve just got to do it. Mood follows action. I sat down. I started crunching the numbers, prepping the things for my account, and all of a sudden, it was strangely enjoyable. We can get ourselves into a state if we want to get there.

So, find your 10 minutes and put into your calendar. That's your homework. Turn off YouTube and put it into your calendar. Find your 10 minutes to start your project, and I promise that 10 minutes will grow and you'll be amazed how you thought you didn't have 10 minutes, and now you suddenly have 10 hours a week or whatever that open door looks like for you.

If you enjoyed this episode, then go put the 10 minutes in your agenda. And if you want to dive deeper into the creative pool, then go sign up below to receive my weekly newsletter.

That's a wrap. Now go do your 10 minutes of creative work.