Motivation Comes and Goes

Some days I am extremely motivated and have more creative ideas than I know what to do with.  Other days (like today), I have no desire to pick up a bead or work on designs.  I'm positive that I'm not alone in this - I think most creative people "hit the wall" from time to time. 

I try not to get frustrated during these times but look to other ways to stay productive.  Today, I've been cleaning out the bead room and getting rid of unnecessary clutter.  Even though I haven't worked on a single jewelry project, I still feel like I've accomplished something. 

I have a very large moving box filled with over 100 books that has taken up residence in a corner of my bead room.  I've held on to these books, some of them for over 20 years, because letting them go somehow seemed like I was losing a part of myself.  Maybe I would want to read that book again someday, or maybe a friend would want to borrow it. More importantly, those books represented an accomplishment - after all, I'd read each and every one of them.  

What I realized yesterday is that I haven't picked up a single one of them to re-read it, and that box is taking up valuable space that I could use to set up a workspace for metals.  (Yes Debe, that means I will finally get a torch.)  I've decided I'm going to donate the books to either the local library or the Goodwill -- feels really good to be dumping some of the old baggage I've been lugging around for all these years.

I'm also cleaning out my bookshelf and getting rid of an entire shelf of stuffed animals.  The animals had special meaning because every year at the State Fair, I would play the game where the carny tries to guess your age.  I'm fortunate in that I look younger than my years and I always won the game.  Those stuffed animals were my reminder that I still had my youth.  I've decided I don't need cheap carnival prizes to stay young at heart and boy, wouldn't it be nice to have that shelf to store my bins of seed beads.  I have to admit that I'm not quite ready to throw those stuffed animals away just yet but I did put them away in a closet.  Baby steps......

So, while I'm not motivated to make anything today, I am motivated to re-do my workspace so it's ready when the creative spark hits again.  I'm sure I'll be over this slump by tomorrow but in the meantime, the stuffed animals are safely tucked away and the books are on their way to new homes.  Maybe I'll go watch a video on jewelry making.......