Finding fuel for being productive

My new years resolution this year was to sell work at a craft fair. It took me 9 months, but I finally applied at the start of last month for a joint table at the Winter Arts Market in Liverpool.

I’ve been telling myself I should make things to sell for ages and even had a go at building a shop for this website, but it wasn’t until after Ros Horner’s talk at Reasons to be Creative that I produced anything worthwhile.

Ros asked us all to make a pledge to do something (anything we wanted) within the next year. I knew I wanted to get my crafts out there so I pledged the same thing I told myself I’d try at the start of the year and ever since I’ve been mega productive.

At conferences I hear people say you need to set yourself some goals to get things done, but never really found the right type of goal for myself until now. Just saying “design a poster” won’t work as not only is that specific but it can cause a creativity block with a design if I can’t make it work in that format.

What I needed was a deadline, which why the deadline for applications was perfect. Not only did this encourage me to make things but these needed to be good enough to beat other applicants who wanted a table as well.

I started drawing again every day and doing some research into materials and printing costs. I want to be making things all the time now and I’m excited to have the chance to show them off.

I don’t even care if I don’t sell anything if a few people just compliment my work, though I guess it’s an even bigger compliment if people want to give me money to keep it!

I highly recommend setting some realistic goals for yourself if you can’t find a reason to do what you love. Give your work a purpose and a deadline, whether it’s going to be sold or given as a gift (birthdays make excellent deadlines).

When you know what it is you love doing, it’s pretty satisfying to have a reason to do it!