How a Ritual Can Help
And avoid having shame about it
A system is code for a shortcut.
Our society is built on systems because we need shortcuts to do things like deliver water to millions of homes or educate children with skills for their future.
A system can help you get your Most Creative Done faster.
As a result, you might feel guilty about having one.
So you might want to replace the word system with ritual. A ritual is just a series of actions or behaviours performed in a specific sequence.
Even from a religious perspective, rituals help make boring and rote tasks more interesting.
“Ah we are lighting a candle with that prayer”, or, “We are now singing a certain song”.
What is your goal this week? Inside the goal, there are unglamorous tasks to be done.
The road to success is paved with good intentions.
That means at some point the rubber will have to meet the road and you’re going to work through these tasks to get a good project done.
If any of those unglamorous tasks have to be repeated, then you have a good candidate to turn it into a ritual.
“I turn on the TV in the background and mute the volume, and then I proceed to email 3 people about my new idea”
“I turn on the portable recorder and I start to do my warmup exercises on the guitar”
“I take out a blank sheet of lined paper and I write non-stop until the page is complete, and when I feel like stopping my pen I just write garbage garbage garbage for a line until something else pops into my head”
Whatever you have to do, don’t be afraid that you are creating a system or a process to help you reach your creative goals.
There should be no shame in being efficient with your time just because your punk, DIY or anti-capitalist friends from the art world tried to teach you otherwise.