Category: Mindset and Motivation

Includes articles related to mindset, motivation, growth, self-criticism, perfectionism, and overcoming procrastination.

How Positive Affirmations Unlocked My Creative Potential

Positive Affirmations Visual

I cannot be creative if I am too stressed or not in the right emotional state. In today’s world, many people experience stress but still manage to be creative, and I’m no exception – even when I’m stressed. So what do I do to deal with it? Or rather, what do I try to do?

I call it “poor man’s Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” because it works pretty much like CBT. At least that is my understanding as a layman who has read a summary of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy once. That means don’t take this as a definitive source or professional advice.

Anyway, here’s how it works: When you’re emotionally upset, tell yourself how you want to feel in the present moment. For example, if you’re stressed and tired and don’t feel like working on your drawing, you’d say: “I am relaxed and awake and in the mood to work on my drawing”. Repeat this several times. Try to avoid negative words like “not” (for example, use “relaxed” instead of “not stressed”).

These are positive affirmations that can help challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. Repeating them often and believing in them can lead to positive changes. I’ve included below some scientific research showing that this practice can improve your creative problem-solving, even under stress, and increase your overall creativity.

How To Do Positive Affirmations

  1. Identify the problem that is bothering you.
  2. Say the complete opposite of it without using negative words like “not”.
  3. Repeat it as often as possible throughout the day and whenever the problem arises.
  4. That’s it.

It may or may not help you as much as it helped me. But it is worth a try. As a tip, try to believe it. Only if your mind believes it will it come true.

A Few Of My Go-To Self-Affirmations

  1. I’m having fun – In situations where I’m struggling to work on something that isn’t fun.
  2. I can do it – When I doubt myself. I say it every time I meditate (I do autogenic training)
  3. I am calm and relaxed – In stressful situations. Often needed in public places because of my anxiety.
  4. I’m a pro – I got it from “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. Just so I take myself more seriously when I create things.
  5. It’s the fixed mindset – from the book ‘Growth Mindset’ by Carol Dweck. I use it when I try to avoid things, procrastinate or have self-doubt.
  6. I’m fit and awake – When I’m tired and still want to focus on something.
  7. I am a patient person – When I lose my patience.
  8. This effort is pleasant – When I am doing something really hard. Should release some dopamine after a while, according to a podcast by Andrew Huberman.
  9. Mistakes are OK – When I’m drawing crap again.

More To Read

If you enjoyed this topic, you might find these related posts helpful:

  1. How Self-Efficacy Can Help You Succeed! – Explore how believing in your abilities can boost your confidence and drive, leading to greater success in your creative endeavors.
  2. Play the Role of Your Future Self – Learn how envisioning your future self can guide your current decisions and actions, helping you stay motivated and focused on your goals.

Both posts offer valuable insights to enhance your creative journey and personal growth.

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Sources

David R. de Buisonjé, Simone M. Ritter, Suze de Bruin, J. Marie-Louise ter Horst & Arne Meeldijk (2017) Facilitating Creative Idea Selection: The Combined Effects of Self-Affirmation, Promotion Focus and Positive Affect, Creativity Research Journal, 29:2, 174-181, DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2017.1303308

M. Dutcher, Janine (2018). Improving Performance on a Creativity Task via Self-Affirmation. Carnegie Mellon University. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/6686096.v1

Creswell JD, Dutcher JM, Klein WMP, Harris PR, Levine JM (2013) Self-Affirmation Improves Problem-Solving under Stress. PLOS ONE 8(5): e62593. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062593

An Unusual Guide to Problem-Solving Strategies

After a personal event upset my routine, I struggled to work on my graphic novel. I couldn’t focus, didn’t feel like working, and felt stuck. I needed a new strategy for solving this problem! An idea came up: I could try using deadlines again so that I would meet the dates I had set for my milestones. But not the easy kind of deadlines! The ones that would make me feel some real pressure.

So, with my partner’s help, we came up with a plan. Since I’m not great with social stuff and I hate making phone calls, we decided that if I didn’t finish 36 drawings for my graphic novel in a week, my partner would pick someone from my contacts for me to call immediately. You would not believe how stressed out I was just from the thought! But it worked. I met my goals for three weeks straight and never had to make a dreaded phone call. So logically, I would suggest this solution to you. But there is a little problem.

Because for many people, deadlines don’t work. I learned this when I was doing my master’s thesis in design. People have different problems and need different strategies for solutions. Some of the people I talked to for my thesis hated deadlines and could never work under pressure.

Other People’s Problem-Solving Strategies Can Be Dangerous

You may want to do what I did with deadlines and my accountability partner, and it may or may not work. Or maybe you already tried it and are even more disappointed because you were hoping for a solution to your problems. But that is exactly it. You have to try and experiment with different solutions and systems and find out what strategies work for you.

Never take someone else’s approach to a system or solution for granted. Yes, it worked for them, but that is no guarantee that it will work for you. So always keep that in mind, especially when someone tries to sell you something that is the solution to all your problems: What works for someone else won’t necessarily work for you. Everyone is different, everyone needs different things.

How To Figure Out Your Own Strategies For Your Problems

To avoid just copying others without any guarantee that it will help you, I made a simple guide to help you navigate through this.

  1. Research your problem and look for solutions and strategies.
  2. Try them out and tweak them to your liking.
  3. Remember: What works for someone else may not work for you, and that’s okay.
  4. Something kind of works? Focus on it and make it work for you.
  5. When you have found a strategy that works well enough: Use it!
  6. Don’t worry about making things perfect. There will rarely be a perfect system or solution.
  7. Your work system still needs to adapt! Check-in from time to time to make sure your system is still working for you.
  8. It’s okay to try and implement new things, but don’t tinker too much with what’s already working.

Conclusion

In dealing with problems of productivity, I discovered that copying other people’s strategies may not work for everyone. It’s important to find what works best for you. Stay flexible, know yourself, and stick with what helps you!

To learn more about problem-solving in general, the Wikipedia page on this topic has some good information and strategies!

In case you are wondering, I made this problem-solving animation above using Cavalry.

The Power of Small Progress in Art and Design

small progress illustration

Have you ever looked at someone’s finished art and thought: “This looks awesome! I want to do that too!” You dive in and give it your all, only to find that your attempt is not as good as theirs and that it may take years to reach their level. At this point, you might consider giving up or going back to your comfort zone. But what if I told you that there’s another way? That you could reach their level by improving just a little bit at a time? Small progress of let’s say 1% at a time.

Sure, you might object that it will take years. But consider this: the years will pass anyway! The real question is whether or not you’ll get better every day as the years go by. The trick is to keep trying to get better. How do you do that? By aiming for just 1% improvement at a time.

Small Progress Until You Reach 100%

Start by identifying your weak areas and the things you want to focus on. What do you want to get better at? Here’s a personal example: I wanted to improve my ability to draw backgrounds. What was I doing? Whenever I drew a character, I spent extra time researching and studying what makes a good background. Then I applied that knowledge to my drawings. Was it a perfect background? No, of course not. But it was 1% better than the last one. And the next time I focused on backgrounds, it was 2% better. Then 3%, 4%, 5%, until I was 100% better than before.

Improvement Becomes Inevitable

The key is to keep doing your creative work and keep aiming for that 1% improvement. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to look good. But every time you try, you’ll learn far more than you would by simply repeating what you’ve always done. Improvement becomes inevitable. There is no need for specific goals or rigid habits. Just keep doing what you are doing and ask yourself: “How can I get 1% better?”

I can promise you this: as the years go by, you will reach a moment where you realize, “Wow, I’m actually good at this”. And someone will look at your art and say: “This looks awesome! I want to do that too!” So take this mindset and try it!

Still not convinced? Here’s a small list of the pros of the 1% improvement mindset:

Pros of Getting 1% Better

  1. Continuous improvement adds up over time, leading to significant progress in the long run. James Clear has a nice image that visualizes this!
  2. Focusing on small growth reduces the pressure to achieve perfection right away, making the journey more enjoyable and less stressful.
  3. Celebrating small victories builds confidence and motivates further progress, creating a positive feedback loop.
  4. Embracing mistakes as learning opportunities fosters a growth mindset and accelerates skill development.
  5. Small improvements allow for flexibility and adaptation to changing circumstances or feedback, leading to greater resilience.


Play the Role of Your Future Self

future self illustration

Sometimes we wish that we are already in our ideal future. That we have already achieved our dreams. We dream about how this day would be in a distant time. How we would finally do what we have longed for. How we could be. Our better selves. We revel in this moment until we fall back into the here and now. After this, our brief future dream embeds itself back into the background of our minds.

This daydream of our desired being can help us. By making it real before we work on what will bring that future closer. Before you start your creative work, imagine what it would be like. To be that person. No, you will BE that person as soon as you start working. This person is what you always wanted to be: Disciplined, hardworking, less perfect, or even someone who knows how important breaks are. It is your choice what you will be in your future.

All you have to do is this: Start a ritual you do before you start working if you don’t already. For example, I have an hourglass that I turn over as soon as I start working. Imagine that you are that future person as soon as you finish this ritual. While doing this, imagine what this person does differently than the present you. What makes them better? You will be like your future self and work the way you always wanted until you are done with your work and return to the present.

Try it out and play this future role of you. You will perform better and get better. With this method, the chances of fulfilling your dream are getting closer. And suddenly your ideal future is here without you even realizing it.

Sources

Herman, T. (2019). The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life. Harper Business.

VeeBeeA on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/sbvgms/i_remembered_something_i_used_to_do_in_college/

Reflect, Get In The Flow and Endure

In these Creative Work Problems comics, I give you tips on three topics. The first is about reflection and how it helps us get the creative juice out of ourselves. The second is about flow, and how we can use it to work better and even lose track of time. The last comic in this series is about endurance and how we need to train it to become better and stronger artists and designers.

Reflect

Creative Work Problems comic reflect

Even if you can work: Reflecting on the things you are doing in your creative process from time to time is always a good idea! You will see problems that you did not even anticipate.

How you can do it:

  1. Schedule weekly time for reflection
    • Set aside time in your schedule for weekly reflection. This will establish a routine and ensure that you regularly evaluate your creative process and learn from your experiences. I do this every Monday morning for an hour.
  2. Identify challenges
    • Focus on distinguishing between challenges you anticipated and those that caught you off guard. Understanding unexpected issues is important to develop strategies for addressing them in future projects.
  3. Set goals for improvement
    • Based on your reflections, set clear, actionable goals for improvement. These goals should be specific to areas where you have identified challenges or opportunities for improvement.

Get In The Flow

Creative Work Problems comic flow

Flow is my addiction and the reason why I do all this stuff. It’s so nice when you’re in the flow and I’m always very relaxed in the evening after my creative work when I’ve been in the flow all day. Ask the questions in panel three to get better at flow!

To do it you need to answer these questions if you have problems getting in the flow:

  1. Do I know how to succeed in this task? Do I know the goal?
  2. Do I know how to get immediate feedback?
  3. Do I have the right amount of challenge?

If you want to know more about flow I recommend you to read this book.

Endure

Creative Work Problems comic endure

You have to endure something now and then to make it easier later. That’s why it’s often helpful to get out of your comfort zone and do things you need to overcome.

So how do you overcome it? Just do it! Yes, I know. You heard it somewhere already. But this is the key to endurance. There is a time when your emotions are overwhelming you. Don’t stop! Keep going! You will learn to endure it. It is like exercising: It hurts at the moment, but over time you will get better.

Those three comics are the last of the first series of my “Creative Work Problems” comic. You will find the new ones I do on Instagram. The second series is already three comics in! I will post them soon here too. Stay tuned!