How to Get Out of a Creative Funk

When it comes to creative endeavors — there’s no growth without highs & lows. But that doesn’t mean we can’t expedite the lows a bit…

I originally titled this article “I’m Starting to Feel Like I Don’t Have What it Takes.” Then after typing out most of the self-deprecating “woe is me” nonsense about why I’m not good enough for this — I chose to figure out how to overcome the negativity instead of letting it consume me.

Why Do I Frequently Feel Like I’m Not Good Enough?

If I’m feeling these highs & lows when it comes to my writing — I know I’m not alone. So let’s share a little back story first, for those of you *most of you* who don’t know me.

I started my blog earlier this year (April 2020) after years of obsessively reading & loving other people’s health/lifestyle blogs. In the past (most of my teenage & young adult years), I always wanted to start my own blog, but never actually went through with it. I was scared to start because I would be nowhere near the point these more experienced bloggers (who had been blogging for 8–10+ years) were at.

So, I put my blogging dream on the back burner and decided to get a degree in Dietetics instead. After earning my Bachelor’s degree, I realized that Dietetics wasn’t for me, because I didn’t want to work in a hospital or clinic (which is what a good portion of Dietitians end up doing). Even though I was (& still am) incredibly passionate about health & nutrition, I decided to follow another path.

In quitting my Dietetics endeavor, I decided that what I really loved was the mental, emotional, and holistic aspects of nutrition. How eating certain foods makes you feel, the individualistic aspects of a healthy diet, intuitive eating, eating disorder recovery — things of that nature. So I switched paths and pursued a Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s degree.

A year and a half into the program, I realized that I didn’t really love counseling or therapy, and was missing learning/talking about nutrition. I dropped out of my Master’s program, which was an incredibly tough decision since I was already halfway done and had paid 3 semesters worth of tuition (which we all know isn’t cheap in the current US higher education system).

I made this decision after starting my blog back in April and falling in love with writing. I’m still new to this, so I realize I have a long way to go until I’m where I’d like to be and can even begin to compete with others in the writing/blogging field.

At first, I was happy-go-lucky about the whole endeavor. Even though I was (and still am) putting in the work, I felt like it was fun & easy breezy since I had just started and wasn’t really putting expectations on myself.

I didn’t have a specific amount of income I wanted to make from my blog. I wasn’t sure about the right way to do literally anything, so everything I was learning was still brand new. It was all a fun learning experience and I didn’t feel bad about where I was at because I was so new to the game.

Fast forward 7 months later, to the present day (November 2020).

Everything is starting to feel like a roller coaster ride.

Maybe it’s reflective of how everything has felt in 2020?

Everything involving writing, for me, is constantly up & down. One week, I feel on top of the world because everyone seems to be resonating with my writing and my posts are getting a lot of traction.

The next week, I’m on a downward spiral because I have 0 views on a post and can’t seem to find the motivation to keep writing anything.

I’ve also put this new pressure on myself to make things work, no matter what, because I want to create a full-time career out of my blog.

When I’m in a good place with my writing, this seems like no problem at all. I realize that I’m still pretty dang new to this and have years to figure things out. The motivation & article ideas are free-flowing and I have no problem sitting down to write (along with doing all the other boring admin tasks behind the scenes of the blog).

The trouble comes in when I’m experiencing the downward spiral.

The Downward Spiral

I can’t seem to think of a single topic to write about, let alone start actually writing a full article.

I’m disappointed in myself because I’m hardly making any income with my blog, but have been telling everyone I want this to be my full-time job.

It feels impossible to accomplish any of the big goals I’ve set for myself because I’m so far away from them. It feels like I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel (the tunnel being the years of hard work ahead of me before I will see any real ROI in this blogging endeavor.)

I know that everyone says it takes a long time to become successful in the creative field. I can fully get behind that, because if it was easy — wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

It’s just difficult to consistently stay motivated when I have no way of knowing when (or if) success will come. It feels like this entire career choice is one big leap of faith and I don’t know who’s going to catch me if I fall.

Choosing to Stay Positive

I wrote the entirety of this article leading up to this (besides the first paragraph) when I was in the downward spiral. I’m choosing to come back to it now, with a better mindset, to share how I get out of my negative thought patterns, time & time again, and back to a place of positivity, creation & faith.

I don’t mean faith in a religious sense, I mean it in the more general sense:

faith (noun) — complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

*Someone/something being myself, my creative process & future goals.*

Synonyms: trust, belief, confidence, conviction.

Choosing writing (or any creative endeavor), as a career, is a scary decision to make. You don’t know how things are going to turn out. It’s not as simple as going to a 9–5 job & coming home with the same paycheck every 2 weeks (with insurance benefits).

It’s a leap of faith, like I said earlier, but aren’t all the best things in life?

I’ve never accomplished anything noteworthy or exciting in my life without taking some sort of chance.

Sure, dropping out of my Master’s program to pursue blogging was scary — actually, terrifying — but I wouldn’t have been half as happy in that program as I am working on my blogging/writing.

Writing, in general, and running my blog (sharing my life — the ups AND downs) with the world is intimidating. But it’s also the most rewarding type of “work” I’ve ever done. I put work in quotation marks because even though it is a whole lot of hard work, it doesn’t feel like work. Not in the traditional sense of the word & not in the way that I’ve been raised to view hard work.

Choosing to focus on how happy blogging makes me, even in the tough times, brings me back to my vision of why I started. I started my blog because I truly love writing. I love growing as a writer/blogger, learning new things every day, taking constructive criticism (from myself & others), and growing into a fuller version of myself through the process.

Whether or not I end up “making it” as a blogger is somewhat up to hard work and somewhat up to chance. I can’t force anyone to read my articles, but I can work damn hard to improve my writing and make it more likely that people will want to read them.

The more I focus on my why — the easier it is to stay positive.

I write because I love it. I write to inspire people to make healthier choices, to keep a positive mindset, and to grow into better versions of themselves. I write so that people can *hopefully* relate to certain pieces of my articles and know they’re not alone. I write to express myself and to connect with people who are similar (and different) to me. I write to grow and become more sure of myself, understand myself better, and become a more genuine version of who I am meant to be.

Most of all, I write because it gives me purpose.

By remembering my why, all of the disappointment in myself over surface-level problems (money, likes & shares, social media views, etc.), seems to drift away and become unimportant.

If you’ve been going through a similar roller coaster ride of emotions when it comes to a creative endeavor — remember, you’re not in this alone. The things you’re feeling are completely human and it’s okay to have ups & downs. Any type of growth requires both the highs and the lows. Try to stay positive when you can, but when you can’t, just allow the feelings to be felt and then let them slowly dissipate.

Thank you for reading! If you liked this and want to read more from me, check out my blog, vitality-vixens.com.