Neon Notes — Week [25]
I recently started a new job.
To be honest, it's taken up quite a bit of my focus and energy lately.
But that doesn't mean I don't still have time or energy to be creative.
I just have to strategically decide what gets top priority at any given time. Of course, I would love to create all the time, but sometimes other aspects of life require more attention.
And right now, I have the time, I just don't have the energy to be as creative. It all stems from my former employer of 30 years closing the doors and forcing me to start over.
All the experience and knowledge I've gained over those 30 years are valuable, but starting a new career path still demands a lot of mental energy.
Even though I bring decades of knowledge to my new job, it still takes time and energy to learn new processes, develop new routines, and figure out how everything fits together.
Learning a new job and all that goes with it is one of the things I view as a top priority right now, but I still make time to be creative.
But I also understand that it's ok to give myself permission to just do the bare minimum with music, and play video games or watch movies for decompression.
Most of the time, though, when my energy is low after a long day at work and I don't feel up to creating, I still try to set a little time aside. Even if I only open my DAW to design some synth patches or start an eight-bar loop, I at least want to give myself a little reward that I feel I've earned.
Once I settle into the new job and my routine becomes more normal, my creative energy will get the boost I'm craving.
And being creative doesn't mean starting a new song and mapping out a whole arrangement in one sitting. Although that does happen on occasion, I just mean that I try to use some of my energy to experiment with a new sound or create some cover art for an already finished song.
It could mean opening a song that's basically done and tweaking the mix, or mastering a song that's been mixed.
I've mentioned this in previous blogs, but I like to spend time just messing around with ideas, because a whole song can be born just from doing the little things.
That's the great thing about creativity. Even the smallest intentions can turn into great results.
Being creative in the face of new life challenges doesn't mean I have to meet some high standard of creativity or feel guilty about not being as creative as I'd like. It just means giving myself at least a little time to be creative, because without it, I'd go crazy.
Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.
This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.
