For months, I had been struggling with writers’ block. Sometimes it would come as a consequence of feeling burned out. I would often feel burned out from juggling too many responsibilities from my full-time job, from having to deal with my family and their criticisms about my personal life choices, from having to discipline myself into scheduling at least two or three days of one-hour workout sessions per week to stay healthy, and from having to balance my graduate school classes so that I can finally make the career change from healthcare into media and publishing. In the midst of all these things, it was always the same worry lingering in the back of my mind.
When will I have the time to focus on what I love doing the most?
If I could spend my days doing the things I loved, I would devote my waking hours to writing articles, editing other people’s work, taking photos, and designing digital content that conveys meaningful stories across audiences.
These last few weeks have been different, however. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to take destiny into my own hands and live life with a little more intention. It sounds like a nice, alliterative Hallmark card, doesn’t it? It’s something that we always tell ourselves, something that we’re reminded of each time we come across another inspirational quote on Instagram or self-help book we happen to skim through at the bookstore. It’s intuitive, yet we don’t always follow our intuition when it comes to making the dream happen.
And it’s easy to fall into that trap—it’s so easy to want to crash into bed, or meld as one lumpy entity with the couch as we binge-watch our way through another television show on Netflix. It’s so easy to complain, too. When we have been working so hard, we are entitled to that period of rest. We should be able to pause; though sometimes we should really hit the power button and ask ourselves if our time could be spent more wisely and efficiently doing the very things we’ve written into our bucket list.
No matter the excuse, you have to realize that you have control of your individual actions. You have the power to make a decision for yourself and go with it. Create something. Do something worthwhile. Do something that you’ve never done before. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt: "Do one thing everyday that scares you."
Sometimes it’s not always as obvious when you first start out. Sometimes, it takes a little more time than that. It can take a while—several months, even years—to learn how to carve out time from your day to pursue your passions.
No matter what obstacles we may face in life, we have to keep asking ourselves the following questions:
- Do I love what I am doing?
- Why am I doing this?
- Is this still worth doing?
- Do I want to continue with this?
- What do I want to do next?
Once you realize that you are the only person who can determine these answers for yourself, amazing things can happen. You just have to make a decision about what you want to do and commit to it. No matter what medium you use—writing, painting, drawing, photography, video, dance, music—art requires your full focus and your unwavering dedication to cultivating your craft. Beyond everything else, your art becomes the very thing that moves and motivates you. Your art is the reason that inspires you want to get up and face the day each morning. Even if you don’t know what your next steps will be yet, don’t worry.
Let your curiosity guide you along your journey.
