Creative Chaos: The Fine (Creative!) Art of Focusing on Too Many Things

Many artists and creatives figure out their direction pretty easily.

They just know that they want to paint or they want to make music and they launch themselves into careers in their chose fields with great gusto, even if not necessarily with commercial success.

There's a part of me that has always admired that!

Although it's probably a horrible fallacy based in false assumptions, I have this notion that it must be wonderfully simply to live a creative life where you just pick one thing and dedicate yourself to exploring it.

Honeysuckle, about to bloom...

Alas, That is NOT How I Roll...

In some ways, I'm a bit like a cat: I can be doing something, and then "oh, SHINY!" and I'm off in a different direction.

There's a part of my being (and an attendant chorus of inner "peanut gallery voices) that immediately start berating me for my "pathetic lack of focus." Maybe they are the ghosts of old voices from my school daze; admonitions that "unless you PICK something, you'll ever become adept at ANYthing!"

Whether effectively true or not... those voices can be quite loud.

Somewhere along the line, I more or less embraced the idea that I was destined to become a "jack of many trades, but a master of none." Maybe it has been to my detriment, at times... this lack of focus... because I'm not really particularly great at anything. In most cases, I fall into that "knows just enough to get in trouble" gray area in the middle.

So why am I writing about this, right now?

Reeds at water's edge

Procrastination and... "Sometimes Creativity is Boring"

Today, I found myself dealing with a task I have managed to procrastinate myself out of, for a couple of months: I needed to do a complete "audit" of work I have listed for sale on a number of online market venues, in one of my creative areas.

A few of you may be familiar with @alchemystones, which is one of my ongoing creative projects — and yes, I have an "alt" account for it, because it's kind of specific. That Alt account serving as active proof that I am trying to focus on far too many things...

But I digress...

I basically needed to go through the tedious process of making sure that every single item currently listed for sale (well over 200) and added in the course of the past 6-7 years was in fact still available and accounted for.

Why is this even worthy subject matter for a post?

Wild Rose

Because there was some insight and realization that sometimes we really can get scattered too thin... in such a way it no longer serves the highest and best good — our own, OR anyone else's, for that matter.

Specifically... I was working on one-of-multiple-venues relating to one-of-multiple-creative-projects, which in turn represents one-of-multiple-ways-I-make-a-living.

And it's not like any of this stuff is related.

It's a Family Affair!

Interestingly enough, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are very similar, in that respect. At any given time, she also has a multitude of creative projects going simultaneously.

And sometimes it can feel very overwhelming! Because (as happened to me, today) you suddenly come to the realization that there's no way on God's green Earth that you can possibly keep up with everything you have invested little pieces of yourself in!

Common chives in bloom

Of course, it's easy (and convenient!) to serve myself up a nice big plate of platitudes with notions that "EVERYBODY has a lot going on in their world," and such. And maybe they do. But much of the time, they are also Responsible Adults™ who do things like go to work at a regular job that earns a salary, to they can FUND all their creative leaps of faith.

In our case, the creative cornucopia IS "the Job."

Meaning... that you don't get to "blow stuff off" because it happens to be boring, and you don't feel like it, today. And so, I found myself knuckling under and doing my "boring" tasks within the creative soup.

And I'm glad I did... because I actually had three items listed for sale that I could find neither hide nor hair of...

Where will the creative path take YOU?

"Too Many" Things... OR?

Maybe there is no such thing as "Too many creative outlets."

Or maybe they only become "too many" if they actively interfere with your ability to function in life, and to actually enjoy what you're doing. After all, what's the point of immersing yourself in creative pursuits if you're not having a good time?

And maybe that's key, even if you're trying to patch together a living from it all.

I'm having fun here... even though it was a drag to do my "audit" this afternoon, I am still having fun. And now I am having fun, switching to a completely different type of creativity (writing) as I explore my day... as a catharsis, as much as anything.

So — in a vague attempt to close this with a measure of relevance — it made me think about the many tribes we now have in the Steem environment... and how to choose in such a way that it is meaningful to us, because there's effectively no way a single person can stay up-to-date with dozens of communities.

Thanks for reading!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

How do you choose your creative outlets? How do YOU choose? Or do you stick to just one thing? And what is "too many?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190815 22:11 PDT
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