Recently, I’ve been reflecting on why I spend significantly less time on creative pursuits than I'd like. For me, my dream is to make writing and painting into more than just occasional pursuits. For you, it may be a musical instrument or baking. When we’re trying to balance regular life with a creative passion, it can feel flat-out impossible. And regular life always seemed too demanding for me to make room for art: a stressful job, a social life, attempts to exercise, and then simply being too tired. My short story ideas remained ideas. My canvases, bought with optimism, stayed blank.
This gap between wanting to create and not creating made me feel inadequate as an artist. After all, if I really cared about writing, wouldn’t I do it with joy the moment I awoke? Wouldn’t I sneak away from work to finish my short story? None of that was happening, but I sure was spending a lot of time thinking about writing: did that count? Could I ever really be a creative person?
Creativity Is Hard
There are countless reasons we don't prioritize creativity. It demands enormous energy, vulnerability, humility, and emotional investment. Sorting laundry instead of painting doesn't mean you don't care about art—it simply means art is hard.
Recognizing this, I reframed my lack of creative productivity as fear of vulnerability rather than a lack of creativity itself.
And what happened? Nothing changed! I continued to avoid my art.
Debunking the Myth of Laziness
Here's a controversial but critical realization that helped me break out of my rut: sometimes, I genuinely am lazy. And that’s okay!
I think laziness is over-stigmatized to the point where we go to great lengths to dismiss it as something we ever feel. You’ve seen the memes, I’m sure. That ubiquitously gentle phrase that peppers my Instagram feed:
"You’re not lazy; you're burned out."
"You’re not lazy; you're scared."
"You’re not lazy; you’re living under capitalism.”
Etc. etc. The (very appealing!) argument that laziness isn’t real, that it’s in fact a tool used by evil bank owners to make us feel bad about relaxing. I mean, sure! I do think there’s a lot of truth to these statements. There are tons of things I don’t do because I’m scared. Sometimes after a super stressful workday, I do just want to sit on my couch and watch cats make weird noises on TikTok. All of this is true and unavoidable, and doesn’t make me a bad person.
But this isn’t about guilt over not maximizing shareholder value. It’s about feeling guilt for not pursuing something purely creative, something entirely for myself. And realizing that sometimes, the obstacle isn't fear or exhaustion—it's simple laziness.
Okay, it’s not that simple. When I say laziness, what I mean is the avoidance of discomfort.
Understanding Laziness as Discomfort Avoidance
For me, laziness means doing anything to stay feeling comfortable. This is something I uncovered, weirdly, during treatment for OCD. Exposure therapy, the gold standard for OCD treatment, involves deliberately confronting discomfort until it becomes manageable.
Discomfort at its core is something I know that I will go to great lengths to avoid, and also I think something I feel incredibly easily. I don’t like to be cold, for example. I hate being cold. I don’t like to have to exert effort when I don’t feel like it. I don’t like working on something I’m not good at. I'm thinking about times that I have stayed on my phone for another 30 minutes scrolling on TikTok rather than do the writing exercise that I had planned. None of that is because I'm scared of doing the writing exercise. It's because I don't like feeling uncomfortable and I'm very comfortable sitting on the couch watching TikTok.
How to Address Laziness Through Active Discomfort
If you find yourself putting off creative tasks without a clear reason, try intentionally practicing discomfort. Don’t even start out trying to make beautiful art! Pick something you don’t like doing, and just make yourself do it for some amount of time. While you’re doing it, notice how you feel in your body, and notice your thoughts. Let them all be there and see if the feeling of resistance eventually fades.
Here are some ideas for ways to make yourself uncomfortable:
Turn the water temperature to cold for the last 2 minutes of your shower.
Mop your floors.
Respond to an email you’ve been putting off.
Purposely try to write a bad story, or draw an ugly picture.
Go for a walk in the rain.
Okay, then what?
After I had gotten the hang of sitting with discomfort, I began to utilize that skill in my creative practice. I found it suddenly easier to do the art I wanted to do, because I wasn’t trying to fight against the tiny voice inside saying stoppppp this isn’t funnnnn. And to be clear, that voice does still win out more than I want it to. But.
It’s a process!
So to recap, here’s how I’m dedicating more time to creativity:
Recognize the difference between fear and laziness: Understanding your feelings allows you to address the root cause. Fear might need a different approach!
Practice intentional discomfort: Regular exercises build resilience, making creative tasks easier.
Accept incremental progress: Brief daily practice beats waiting for the perfect conditions, which rarely arrive. If you only have 2 minutes a day to start with, use those 2 minutes!
For me, so much of pursuing a creative life is about sitting with and understanding my discomfort. I hope this little tip can help you in your own creative process! 🌷