Day 7: Less is More
Here's an idea I've been pondering since I read it in Courtney Carver's book, Be More With Less. Do you imagine the ideal environment for creativity involves more time, more ideas, and more materials? In practice, creative freedom that's unshackled, with no limitations is overwhelming. "Ironically, when we are free to create absolutely anything, we more often than not end up creating absolutely nothing. More choice simply means more confusion, more anxiety, and more pressure."
The scenario was given of a painter in a huge studio, stocked with all different canvases, paints and brushes. She's told, "Paint something." Her head gets to spinning with so many possibilities. Or, she could be taken to a small room with one canvas and brush and a palette with three shades of blue. She's asked to paint something that makes her happy. Her ideas flow now, but they're manageable and she's able to choose.
It was also pointed out that creativity thrives on the challenge that comes with limitations. It's forced to stretch and work. Limited amounts of time are good too, because we know there's no room for procrastination or lack of focus.
If you're still with me, I'd like to tell you what happend today that reinforced my belief in this new idea. I've been out of love with the cafe curtains in my bathroom for a while. They only cover the lower half and I've wondered if my neighbors on the second floor could see anything. Then the cat tends to sit in the window, leaving hair on the white. So we took them down to wash them and got them in with something that made them pinkish. I was irritated to have one more thing to keep an eye on and wash from time to time. So I wished for frosted glass. I'd read there's an insulating film you can buy at hardware stores and cut it to the size of your window. I'd always intended to check into it, but ever since the renovation, I kind of avoid hardware stores like the plague.
Now it's February and my limitation is I'm not spending unnecessarily. So there's not money to buy from Home Depot and that's when I get the idea. I will use my clear contact paper to cover my windows! If I like it, maybe we'll invest in the insulating kind, but it would be a start. Fast forward an hour or so and my curtains and rod are in the get-rid-of pile and my window gives me privacy in an unfussy, scrubable way.
And here's what we have now, thanks to limitations that set us free.
Total spent: 6.02 (some bananas and such)
Fun money: 7.66
The scenario was given of a painter in a huge studio, stocked with all different canvases, paints and brushes. She's told, "Paint something." Her head gets to spinning with so many possibilities. Or, she could be taken to a small room with one canvas and brush and a palette with three shades of blue. She's asked to paint something that makes her happy. Her ideas flow now, but they're manageable and she's able to choose.
It was also pointed out that creativity thrives on the challenge that comes with limitations. It's forced to stretch and work. Limited amounts of time are good too, because we know there's no room for procrastination or lack of focus.
If you're still with me, I'd like to tell you what happend today that reinforced my belief in this new idea. I've been out of love with the cafe curtains in my bathroom for a while. They only cover the lower half and I've wondered if my neighbors on the second floor could see anything. Then the cat tends to sit in the window, leaving hair on the white. So we took them down to wash them and got them in with something that made them pinkish. I was irritated to have one more thing to keep an eye on and wash from time to time. So I wished for frosted glass. I'd read there's an insulating film you can buy at hardware stores and cut it to the size of your window. I'd always intended to check into it, but ever since the renovation, I kind of avoid hardware stores like the plague.
Now it's February and my limitation is I'm not spending unnecessarily. So there's not money to buy from Home Depot and that's when I get the idea. I will use my clear contact paper to cover my windows! If I like it, maybe we'll invest in the insulating kind, but it would be a start. Fast forward an hour or so and my curtains and rod are in the get-rid-of pile and my window gives me privacy in an unfussy, scrubable way.
And here's what we have now, thanks to limitations that set us free.
Total spent: 6.02 (some bananas and such)
Fun money: 7.66
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