The Muscle of Making
Creativity, consistency, and showing up
Creativity is a muscle, no different than your bicep or your breath. It doesn’t bloom on demand, it builds through repetition. Through tension and release. Through the humbling act of showing up when the spark hasn’t. Sometimes it’s precisely like the feeling of dragging yourself to a workout that you’re dreading more than anything. A workout that won’t prove its results immediately, but cumulatively and in due time, it will show.
I’ve spent nights so many nights curled over blank paper, the hours sliding into early morning. Sometimes I’ll sit for five, six, seven hours, and nothing worth keeping comes out.
This was me this week, hence the failed Tuesday Stack drop. Not having been consistent in the studio over the last few months, I knew I was setting myself up for disappointment. But still, I tried to shift my mind set. I made marks on paper. Said nice words to myself. Looked through parts of my former language hoping for some new inspiration. Instead, I got just fragments. False starts. Mediocre echoes of better work I’ve done before. The kind of output that makes you question everything from your instincts, your talent, and in the moment, even your purpose. Dramatic, I know! But that’s how it feels when you’re in the thick of it.
It’s maddening. Frustrating in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve felt it. That ache of giving your all to something that gives you nothing back. Or so it seems. And listen, I’ve done enough inner work to know that it’s “all part of the process.” And I try to be forgiving and gentle with myself, yet, it can still feel so defeating.
It was 1 am and I had been in the studio trying to map out a bare bone sketch for a large scale public mural proposal and I threw my head in my hands and grunted until I got so angry I gave up and left. I wanted to prove to myself that I am good enough to just turn it on and off. To slip right in and slip right out. When the reality is I need to nurture and love on my creative brain by simply putting it to work regularly.
Because creativity doesn’t just live in the breakthrough, it lives in the persistence. The willingness to return, again and again, often, regardless of outcome.
Like any muscle, creativity strengthens under resistance.
It grows when we train it, not just when we’re inspired, but especially when we’re not. The pushing through the burn. The showing up to the gym with a hangover or cramps…
If you treat it like a luxury, it disappears when life gets loud. But if you treat it like a necessity, it becomes your second nature, responsive, resilient, and always within reach.
So I keep going.
Not because I always make good shit that I’m super happy with, but because it matters. Because the very act of trying keeps the channel open and eventually, the current returns.
So, GET TO WORK, but be easy.
Your friend,
Alex
some tools that help the upstream swim through often dormant creative waters, while also indulging some of my favorite past times
my most beloved sweet treat
My love affair with music deepens with each passing day. I always have something playing. Spotify and their daily playlists keep me going.
Incense is a major part of my daily ritual both at home and in the studio.
This is one of my preferred ones I buy regularly.
A cup of soothing tea while I stare into the abyss makes it all better…
this is special in more ways than one follow
♥️♥️♥️