The Creative Practice That Fits Your Real Life (Not Your Perfect Life)
“We're so often being sold the myth of the perfect creative life: unlimited time, endless motivation, ideal conditions, and zero interruptions.”
You've seen the Instagram posts: the perfectly arranged creative workspace, the consistent daily practice, the artist who shows up every morning at 5 AM without fail. You think, "If only I could be that disciplined, that organised, that... perfect."
So you design the ideal creative routine. You'll wake up early, meditate, journal for thirty minutes, then work on your creative project for two hours before the day begins. It's going to change everything.
Day one goes well. Day two is a struggle. By day three, life intervenes—someone gets sick, work demands extra hours, or you simply wake up exhausted. Your perfect routine crumbles, and with it, your motivation.
Sound familiar? You're not failing at creativity. You're just trying to fit your real life into someone else's ideal.
The Perfect Life Trap
We're constantly being sold the myth of the perfect creative life: unlimited time, endless motivation, ideal conditions, and zero interruptions. This fantasy is seductive because it suggests if we could just get our lives organised enough, creativity would flow effortlessly.
But here's the thing: even the most successful creators don't live perfect lives. They have sick days, family emergencies, demanding jobs, and seasons when creativity feels impossible. The difference isn't that their lives are more perfect—it's they've learned to work with imperfection instead of against it.
What Real Life Actually Looks Like
Real life includes:
Interrupted sleep because your child had nightmares
Work deadlines that consume your mental energy
Aging parents who need your attention
Houses that require maintenance and cleaning
Bodies that sometimes need rest more than productivity
Relationships that require care and presence
Unexpected challenges that shift your priorities
None of these things disqualify you from having a meaningful creative practice. They're simply the context within which your creativity lives.
Designing for Reality, Not Fantasy
Instead of creating a routine for your perfect life, what if you designed one for your actual life?
Start with what's already working: Look at your current schedule. When do you naturally have energy? What small pockets of time consistently exist? Build on what's already there instead of trying to create something completely new.
Plan for interruptions: What happens to your creative practice when life gets chaotic? Having a backup plan for difficult days makes the difference between resilience and complete derailment.
Work with your energy, not against it: Are you a morning person or a night owl? Do you need social energy to create or do you need solitude? Honour your natural rhythms instead of forcing yourself into someone else's pattern.
Make it ridiculously small: What's the smallest possible creative action you could take? Five minutes of sketching? Writing one paragraph? Listening to an inspiring podcast while doing chores?
The Seasonal Journal for Creative Hearts - my latest book is out now.
The Seasonal Approach to Real Life
Your creative practice will look different in different seasons—both calendar seasons and life seasons.
When you're caring for young children, creativity might mean capturing ideas in your phone while they nap. When you're dealing with a health challenge, it might look like gentle reflection and planning for when you have more energy. When work is demanding, it might mean finding creative solutions to everyday problems.
Each season has its gifts and limitations. Working with what's actually available to you creates sustainability instead of the constant stress of trying to force ideal conditions.
Flexible Frameworks Instead of Rigid Rules
Instead of "I will write for two hours every morning," try "I intend to connect with my creativity several times each week, in whatever way feels possible."
Instead of "I must complete one project per month," try "I intent to notice what wants to be created and take small steps toward it."
Instead of "I need a dedicated studio space," try "I will create wherever I am with whatever I have."
This isn't lowering your standards—it's creating space for creativity to actually happen in your real life.
The Magic of Imperfect Consistency
Perfect consistency is a myth. Real consistency is showing up imperfectly, again and again, working with whatever energy and time you actually have.
Sometimes that looks like thirty minutes of focused creative work. Sometimes it's five minutes of idea-capturing between meetings. Sometimes it's simply thinking about your creative projects while washing dishes.
All of these count. All of these matter. All of these keep your creative identity alive during the messy, beautiful complexity of real life.
Permission to Be Human
You don't need perfect conditions to be creative. You don't need endless time or unlimited energy. You don't need to have your life completely organised before you're "allowed" to create.
You just need to be willing to work with what you have, when you have it, in whatever way feels possible.
Your creativity is robust enough to survive real life. In fact, it often thrives in the constraints and challenges that perfection-seekers try to avoid. Some of the most meaningful creative work emerges from the intersection of imagination and limitation, dream and reality.
What This Looks Like in Practice
A real-life creative practice might include:
Voice memos recorded during your commute
Sketches made while waiting for appointments
Ideas jotted down during lunch breaks
Weekend mornings dedicated to creative projects when possible
Evening walks that double as thinking time
Seasonal adjustments based on what life demands
This isn't a consolation prize for people who can't achieve the "real" creative life. This is the real creative life—messy, adaptive, resilient, and deeply satisfying.
"The Seasonal Journal for Creative Hearts" was specifically designed for real life, with flexible approaches that adapt to busy schedules, changing circumstances, and varying energy levels. Whether you have five minutes or five hours, this gentle framework meets you exactly where you are.
Be kind to yourself and nurture your creativity.
With my warmest wishes,
~ Nicola
P.S. If you'd love to explore working with your natural cycles instead of against them, our Creative Hearts Community welcomes you. Join us to discover how much easier the creative journey feels when it is shared with people who understand and cheer you on along the way.
The Seasonal Journal for Creative Hearts: Practices to Align with Your Natural Creative Rhythms
A Seasonal Journal for Gentle Reflection and Growth
This journal is your space to embrace creativity as a natural, cyclical practice that nourishes your soul rather than adding pressure to your life.
See Inside & Learn More
About Nicola Newman
I'm a Creative Business Coach, Award-Winning Artist & Mentor for Creative Hearts who want to flourish, flow & prosper.
My passion is inspiring and supporting Creative Hearts to trust their inner wisdom and carve out a life that’s personally meaningful and fulfilling to them.
I share practical, evidence-based tools for Creative Hearts seeking to improve their lives or businesses. My work draws from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based techniques, body-based practices, and neuroscience -- and my own creative living adventures -- among other approaches.
My mission is to support Creative Hearts to:
Dissolve creative blocks, develop a loving relationship with themselves, nurture their creativity and reframe the beliefs and patterns that keep them from following their heart and making the creative contribution they would love to make in the world.
My approach is to embrace gentleness, playfulness and self-care to navigate self-doubt and instead cultivate deep self-trust so you can truly enjoy the creative process, bring together your body of work, make money doing what you love and leave a creative legacy you’re proud of.
Let’s pour a cuppa and get to know one another, shall we? :) Read more about my story here.
