In addition to working on being more motivated, I need to stop making things so hard. I have a tendency to over-complicate things by creating elaborate processes that have to take place before I can really get into a project.

For example, when I am working on a painting project, I can make a big to-do out of prepping the canvas, toning it the right color, drawing on paper, transferring the drawing from paper to canvas, spraying that down, and applying many layers of paint.

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with that approach, I think sometimes I make it too involved and machine-like.

I’ve made my approach to blogging way too involved in the past. When I first started Mysterious Flame, I would scribble posts in outline form on paper, then type it in a text file with Markdown, print it, proof it, make edits, print and proof it again, then post it.

This isn’t a terrible approach, either, but it is a bit laborious, and I think it took a lot of the fun out of writing for and maintaining Mysterious Flame. Could be why I lost steam with the project: I had to make every post a perfect essay.

MF went by the wayside. As has my painting, which is my real passion. I haven’t done a large painting in ages. I have done several small paintings, but even those have been a bit laborious with the way I’ve done detailed preliminary drawings on paper to transfer to the canvases.

The point I’m trying to make is that while planning is good, over-planning can really slow things down and put a damper on creativity and spontaneity.

In fact, I think this kind of over-planning is really a type of procrastination, delaying responsibility. The lizard brain is trying to keep me “safe.”