Discipline

I've been thinking lately about discipline and how it affects creativity.

Did you grown up with "romantic" notions about "artistic types" whose creativity flourished in some unknown way? Just because they were "touched by the muse?"

If you are like me, you did.

And like me, you might have been told that "no one can make a living as a writer." That writers and, painters lived in garrets and starved. I knew that artists lived in garrets long before I knew what a garret was. And for those who might not know, I'll save you from having to look it up. It's an attic.

Well, I was never given any idea that artists and writers had discipline at all.

But as we all know, writers and artists have to have discipline in order to be able to produce. Even rock and rollers have to have discipline to write songs, then get into the studio and record.

No, it might not be a 9 to 5 job that we've chosen. We might not be able to leave our desks and "leave it at the office," but we still need discipline.

So, if, like me, you haven't been exceedingly disciplined in your chosen creative field, how do you solve that problem?