Always Do Something

Being a creative is hard.

As a creative and someone that is following after their dreams it is so easy to get sidetrack or discouraged from pursuing your dreams. You go through a constant creative cycle of ups and downs. You have amazing ideas that you come up with but sometimes you don’t always know how to release it or you finally muster up the courage to create it and fail because of lack of consistency, doubts and worries.

I know personally for me I have failed in the consistency department. In 2017 I created two platforms, my entertainment website Nyag Network and my personal blog Keeping Up with Keyana. 2017-2018 things were great; consistency was through the roof I would do whatever I needed to do to make sure I was pushing out content. I remembering pulling over to the side of the road just to make a Instagram post or sneaking my computer at work just to write and even after a long day of working and going to class I would still show up at events cheerfully. The drive and motivation that I had was unmatched.

2018-2019 I began being less active and less motivated to create content. A big part of the lack of consistency was me being the perfectionist that I am. I wanted to be relevant and innovative but couldn’t recreate myself. I felt like I had so much to say and so much I wanted to put out but I didn’t know necessarily how. I never lost my passion but I wanted things to look a certain way, I wasn’t content with what I was putting out and wanted to upgrade the look and appearance of my brands.

Which isn’t a bad thing, you should never want to be complacent but this is where my consistency began to lack. I felt like I did not have enough time, enough money or resources to create things how I wanted them to be which then lead to me doubting myself and comparing my journey to others.

Now here I am 3-6 months later with nothing new created. No new blog post, no event coverage, nothing. I allowed what I did not have to stop me from fulfilling God’s plan.

When I look at the people I admire like the Beyoncé’s and the Issa Rae’s and I hear their stories one thing that resides in all of their stories is that they’ve stayed consistent.

I recently saw the cast of the movie Little while they were on their press tour and Issa Rae said something so profound that struck me. To paraphrase she said instead of focusing on what you don’t have focus on the things that you do have, and use those to get where you want to be. We have so many resources that we don’t utilize because we are so focused on the ones we don’t have. Use the resources you have to make something!

That spoke volumes to me because that is what I have been going through as a creative. In a time where everyone wants to be a singer, dancer, blogger, youtuber, podcaster, influencer or creative of some sort there is no time for slack or excuses. What I felt like was holding me back was a lack of resources and I failed to realize I have everything I need and probably even have more than most people.

The biggest take away is always produce something. Always create even in the midst of not knowing what to do and in the midst of not having everything you want. Push through even in the midst of doubts and worries. That is what sets successful people apart because they continued to keep going even while facing adversity.

If you haven't started going after your dreams go after it and do it scared and if you've started and got lost a long the way KEEP GOING, always create new things and keep pushing to be great your consistency will all pay off in the end.

Until Next Time,