Refining your skills and honing your craft is key if you want to last in a creative industry. You can’t expect to keep reeling in clients if you use the same outdated tools that you used a decade ago, and may find that an inability to adapt leaves you behind the curve.
Investing in yourself and refining your skills makes creative projects more exciting, too. Whether you’re learning new literary techniques to aid your efforts to pen a masterpiece or are learning a new kind of joinery to improve your carpeting skills, investing in training helps you get more out of your favorite pastime.
Improving your skill set needn’t break the bank, either. Instead of spending a fortune on workshops and retreats, consider investing in cost-effective strategies like online learning portals and collaborating with other skilled creatives in your area.
Finding Inspiration
Finding fresh inspiration is a skill that all creatives must nourish. However, inspiration can be hard to come by if you’re a professional author, poet, painter, or photographer. It’s all too easy to spend an entire morning staring at the blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike, and you may find that the lull between projects leaves you feeling like you’ll never produce another noteworthy piece of art again.
In reality, the world’s most famous creatives find inspiration in unusual and unexpected places. Igor Stravinsky — a Russian composer — found inspiration for his melodies by completing a few headstands. Dali tricked himself out of a state of semi-sleep by holding a metal key above a plate during his afternoon siesta and then used his hypnagogic visions to inform his paintings. Agatha Christie ate apples in the bath while trying to generate some new ideas for her next novel.
As a creative, you can break new ground and enhance your own creative skills by investing in your own imagination. Get the ball rolling by exposing yourself to creativity. For example, if you’re a writer, consider spending the afternoon at a portrait gallery. Conversely, if you’re an artist, crack open a collection of poetry. Pay attention to the main themes that you notice and aim to explore any similarities.
If you’re a visual person, you can note down these themes by using an online whiteboard. Online whiteboards are the perfect place to store your sources of inspiration, as they’re highly collaborative and allow you to link directly to videos, blogs, or images that can generate new insights and help you beat the blank page.
Gaining Some Soft Skills
Many creatives inadvertently overemphasize the importance of hard skills in their daily work. This is understandable, as many writers double as digital marketers, while visual artists often use complex programs like Photoshop or Avid to edit their work.
However, if you want to last in the creative industry, you’ll need to find unique ways to develop soft life skills like communication, interpersonal relationship management, and emotional intelligence. You can hone your soft skills by playing games with trusted friends. For example, if you have a free evening every week, consider playing a combination of card games, cooperative games, and tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.
By playing games, you give yourself a low-stakes environment in which to practice key soft skills. This is key if you need to pitch your work to clients or want to boost your brand by partnering with similar businesses. By investing in yourself — via games — you can hone your creative skills and improve your ability to network as a creative.
Remaining Competitive
When was the last time you assessed the state of the industry and looked through your competitor’s portfolios? If, like most creatives, you haven’t conducted any market research since launching yourself into the world of creative production, now might be the time to do so. This is a great way to expand your own portfolio, which can help you land new contracts if you’re a creative in a field such as marketing.
Get the ball rolling by finding out which qualifications your creative peers have pursued. Are there any new courses that you should be aware of? Is there a commonly used piece of technology that you’re unfamiliar with? Most folks will post their qualifications directly to their LinkedIn or portfolio site, which will streamline your efforts to enhance your creative skills.
You can also bolster your creative skills and become more competitive by finding courses and workshops in your city or town. Look for accredited workshops that feature folks who have the same creative interests as yourself. This will also help you add a few qualifications/certificates to your professional portfolio, which could reel in a few extra clients every year.
If you’ve been working diligently to improve your skill set and remain competitive, consider spending time on a creative project that has nothing to do with your typical creative output. For example, you may want to spend more of your free time exploring brain-boosting activities like:
- Meditation and mindfulness
- Test your memory recall
- Take up some engaging hobbies like cooking or reading
- Start reflecting on your day with journals and diary entries
These habits and hobbies help you remain mentally sharp and will enhance your creative skills. Journaling can help you reflect on your current skill set and set some goals for the future. This can be extremely useful if you’re new to the creative industry and feel like you’re behind the competition. By journaling, you can identify a few core skills that need some extra attention and begin to become the creative professional you always hoped to be.
Conclusion
Honing your creative skills requires a lifetime of dedicated practice. You can’t expect to become an expert overnight and should track your progress based on years and months, rather than days. You can make the most of your time spent honing your craft by exploring ways to find fresh inspiration and researching other creatives in the area. This will boost your self-awareness as a creative and give you a deeper appreciation of your craft.
Photo Credit
Photo is from Unsplash
Guest Author Bio
Charlie Fletcher
Charlie Fletcher is a freelance writer from the lovely “city of trees”- Boise, Idaho. Her love of writing pairs with her passion for social activism and search for the truth. When not writing she spends her time doodling and embroidering. And yes, she does love all kinds of potatoes!
Please Share Your Thoughts - Leave A Comment!