A Year of Creativity, and 365 blog posts.

I've been struggling a lot with my lack of motivation, with my procrastination, and with my desires to anything other than the 9 million creative projects I have stacked up in the back of my closet. It never used to bother me, you know. The fact that I had all of these unfinished projects. I've always thought "Well, I'm to busy for this right now." or "I'm not very good at this..." Or "I'll put it away for a bit..." or my personal favorite "I'll come back to this tomorrow." And "tomorrow" ends up being 4 years. I'm sick of it. Ridiculously sick of it. It gnaws at me with unrelenting annoyance, and for the first time in my life, I desperately, DESPERATELY want to do something about it.

Here's the way my brain works:

• Christi thinks of a project
• Christi is SUPER EXCITED ABOUT PROJECT AND TELLS EVERYONE
• Christi throws herself into her work for several days/weeks
• Christi gets burnt out
• Christi starts to doubt the value of her work
• Christi stops working on project as often
• Christi puts current project in the closet to work on "later"
• Christi thinks of another project
• Christi is SUPER EXCITED ABOUT NEW PROJECT AND TELLS EVERYONE
• Christi throws herself into her work for several days/weeks
• Christi gets burnt out...
• Christi starts...

Do you see the horrible circle of creative-failure I've succumbed to over the years? I want to openly admit this to everyone, because I very, very, very much so want to change. I'm sitting here on my couch, tearing up because of how much I want to change. To be honest with you, I know that I have some natural talents in some creative areas. Whether it be writing, poetry, drawing, painting, chair refurbishing, making super-awesome power-point presentations (That my boss LOVES) singing, music...I believe I do have a bit of natural talent in these areas. But, due to this failure to complete anything, I've often fallen very short in producing anything using these talents that God has given me. And, over the years as I've watched my friends also with a bit of natural creative talent FINISH their projects and become masters of their work due to their dedication and follow-through.. it's compounded my desires to break whatever this procrastination/lack of motivation/creative cycle is. So much so, that today when my friend Josh passed this comic along to me,  it was the final kick in the pants to break this lack of follow-through cycle. (Careful, it's a doozy)

Holy cow. That guy is me. And, I desperately don't want it to be me anymore.

This blog post, July 13, 2013 is the launch of a personal project called "Year of Creativity." Right now I'm single, have no personal ties (I don't even have a goldfish!), have some extra time on my hands and funds, am living in one of the most creative cities in the world, and I'm doing nothing about it.

That all changes today.

For one year, I plan to write a blog-post every single day, that's 365 blog posts, people. These posts will probably not be anything grand or amazing, but will serve to get my brain moving and thinking creatively. To become dedicated to the idea of writing. To follow-through.

Secondly, I have a creativity-accountability partner. And, with their help, I will start to rummage through the back of my closet, and pull out all of my unfinished creative projects to now complete. Due to the fact that I work well with deadlines, every other week I have to turn in a creative project to them. Whether it be something grand, or something small like a poem...it doesn't matter. What matters is that I always remain actively pursuing the finish-line for that particular creative project. I will also share pictures or snippets of these projects on my blog as well.

I'm excited, but I don't want this Year of Creativity to become something that I am easily excited about, and then, once again get burnt out on. That's why I've given myself the year-long goal, bi-weekly project due-dates, and am openly admitting it for all of you...to help keep me accountable as well.

Thanks for your help, you guys. Be prepared for an influx of Christi rambles. (Insert Lion King: "Bee preeepaaaaaareeed!)

Also. Here's a picture of my doggy Rosie Jo, laying under a past Christmas tree. My mom found this picture of her on her ipad and sent it over to me this morning. Maybe I'm just having a rather ridiculously emotional day due to this creative stuff, but when I saw this picture, it made me cry a bit. This doggie was the bestest doggie in the whole world. If you think your doggie is the bestest doggie in the whole world, you're wrong. Because, she was.

Booya. You're beautiful. And, so was my puppy.