When the Feeling's Gone

My get up and go got up and went...

“My get up and go got up and went.”...a phrase my Dad often said when I lived under his roof. The origin of the phrase goes back to the 1930s and is based on an outdated noun, “get-up-and-go’, a colloquialism meaning energy or ambition. It is usually used in a lighthearted way to explain why you just can't bring yourself to do anything.

There are days when I feel that way. Sometimes they extend to a few days. And finally, the day arrives when I’m raring to go, full of pep*, vim, and vigor, to coin another old phrase. But what do you do when it lingers on for weeks, even months?

When it comes to your creativity:

Are you in a dry spell?
Has the creative spark died out?
Is your motivation a no-go?
Have you lost that lovin’ feeling?

A creative absence is not necessarily the opposite of creativity.
Sometimes it is creativity preparing itself.

Just like a field needs time to lie fallow, so do you. The soil that makes things grow needs to recharge. So do you.

Are you worrying over how to restart the creative engine? Trying too soon and too often just floods your engine again. A flooded engine has too much fuel and not enough air to ignite. You need air.

You need air and time. Time, not for a return to what you have left or abandoned, but to turn again, towards what makes you happy. It is the turn that matters. Take your time.

Absence is not necessarily the opposite of creativity. Sometimes it is quietly simmering or percolating behind the scenes. It won’t bubble over until it’s ready to pop into your head and heart. I know this to be true because I have “lost that lovin’ feeling” many times over the years. I have learned to wait, but also to be on alert for whatever spark may appear. It usually appears out of nowhere when it is least expected. Know that it always eventually appears.

Be a kid again. Grab a box of crayons and scribble while you wait. It’s one of our earliest forms of creativity, right?

Be patient. The muse will arrive. Once her spark lands, it doesn’t sit quietly. It activates your dormant creative energy. It’s not an overnight reaction. It works slowly and quietly so as not to scare or overpower you. It knows to wait for your embrace. It may tap you on the shoulder once in a while until you accept its presence.

And then one day, you wake inspired and eager, charged with a renewed creative energy. Go slowly, don’t burn it all right away. Warmly welcome your creative self, and take your time as you turn back to your work. It will always be there for you, because it is a part of you.

Time away is not always an interruption to the creative process. Sometimes it is part of the process itself. The mind continues working beneath the surface… What many returners discover is that creativity was never really left behind.
Matthew Burrows, MBE

*PS. Here’s a cute Betty Boop video on Pep. Maybe it will pep you up!

Quotes of the Week

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
Frank Capra

Everything is raw material.
Everything is relevant.
Everything is usable.
Everything feeds into my creativity.
But without proper preparation,
I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.
Twyla Tharp

Creativity is about having
the courage to invent our lives.
Nina Wise

When the artist trusts her sensibilities, her creativity and her hands,
fear is banished. The real fear needs to be for the mediocre life.
Robert Genn

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
Sylvia Plath

No artist worthy of the name functions without the freedom to let the visualizing mind fly into the unknown and unexplored. That freedom is the key which unlocks the secret door of personal expression and creativity.
Jack Hines