Blasting Out of the Hobby Blues

What do you do when you can't get started?

Even if you love a hobby--scrapbooking in this case, but even needlework or painting--you occasionally decide, "Oh, bother. This is tooooo much trouble." You open your supplies, you stare at them, and then you go take a nap.

Which is so silly because "playing" is recreating, and recreating is renewing the vital spark in all of us. Hobbies don't sap our energy. They increase it.

Here are a few suggestions that work for me when I can't get back into doing what I love--

1. Get obligated. Promise a page to a local store or enter a contest. The drama of a deadline can move mountains. I wrote my first book under the pressure of a contract with Simon and Schuster. Believe me, fear is a great motivator!

2. Go small. I like what Todd Stone (Boot Camp Your Novel--great book!) said in a seminar about writing: "Make a goal so small you can't fail. Then do it. Kick it to the curb and spit on it!" (Okay, do NOT spit on your paper goods.) A small goal might be to make a card instead of a page. Or make a tag.

3. Swiss cheese it. Nibble around the edges. Just organize your photos. Just go through your paper. Just separate your paper and photos into a page protector.

4. Open a magazine. Or my free ezine. Go to www.scrapbookstorytelling.com click on the archives. I have lots of pages there for you to view. Somehow, seeing page designs usually sparks my creativity. Which leads me to ...

5. Scraplift. Steal a design. Copy it. It takes so much less effort than being creative--and you'll feel virtuous for getting something done.

6. Buy more paper. Okay, this is an addiction! I admit it! I love paper. But a lovely piece of paper can encourage me. Heck, it's like a siren's song luring me to create.

And last but not least...

7. Reward yourself. Do any of the above, then go eat chocolate. (Alternate version: Eat chocolate, then work on your hobby.)

Above all, don't beat yourself up. The weather here in St. Louis is dreary. My house is a mess. I'm staring at a stack of papers that need to be filed. I don't need another reason to flagellate myself, do you? We got into our hobbies for relaxation. It's a real crime when they become just another of our many jobs.

Do you have a terrific way of blasting yourself out of your hobby blues? Write me at savetales@aol.com I'll post a few of your suggestions in an upcoming blog.

Joanna