If you’re not motivated to sew, you are not alone! If you are like most folks, it can take different strategies to keep any creative practice going. Many of us use motivation successfully to kick off a new hobby, a new habit, a new routine–but it can take something different to keep it going.
One of the best ways that I’ve heard that sums this up really well is: don’t let your feelings dictate your actions.
If we wait to feel like doing something, we’re probably not going to do it.
Why would we bother to push past barriers in sewing anyway? Wouldn’t we do it when “we had time”? Well, the reason is at some point, we decided it was important to do so. Maybe we invested in a new sewing machine, or a new cutting table, or yards of fabric with a certain project in mind..
1. Ask yourself, what is one step that I could take that will get me closer to a finished project?
That might mean: taking out a pattern and putting it on your table. Or opening up your ironing board to be ready to press after you’ve washed, dried, and pre-treated your fabric.
What is that small step for you and what does that look like?
To share a bit about my own personal experience with this: I try to focus on what is the next action that I could take to get me further along in a project. Rarely do I ever feel that I could have spent my time better when I take small action steps.
In fact, I feel much better, much more fulfilled, much more encouraged, much more positive than if I had spent time scrolling my phone or reading the news, or going down a social media rabbit hole.
Sewing is something that I want to do, which is something that I think is really key when you’re trying to set goals or you’re trying to set targets. Choose something you want, not something you feel like you should do.
2. Try to not go two days in a row where you don’t take another small action step.
I might set out a pattern on a Sunday knowing that I’m going to take small steps through the week. On Monday, I might not do anything. Between work, between family, between household needs, I may not look at my project again. By Tuesday I’ll take the next step, such as take a pattern out of the envelope. If it has printed out instructions, I will have the instructions laid out, or flip to the page of the instructions that I’m going to need to take action on next. I’ve set the stage for the next step and I know exactly where to pick up.
The key thing about not skipping two days in a row is that in the course of a week, even if I didn’t do it on consecutive days, I’m at least ahead of the game. I had four days out of seven that I’ve spent working on my project. This is much more ideal than one day in a week, or even zero days!
One thing that I want to make sure that I acknowledge is that not everyone is going to have a designated space that they could just set out a pattern, or pattern instructions, or fabric, and leave it on a table for days at a time. Many of us are having to pack away our tools and machines at the end of the day.
My example is just that–an example. Decide for yourself what is the most realistic action step that you could take that is going to keep you on that positive path forward.
There really isn’t ever a good time. Actually, sometimes there’s a good time, but many times there’s not. There is always something else that takes priority. And what happens when we let that be a barrier is that we don’t do the things that help us relax. We don’t do the things that help us decompress, reset, create, or simply help us feel accomplished.
3. Another idea is: we do the things that we have to do because there are consequences if we don’t.
When it comes to things like our own personal hobby, there are no consequences. It’s just us. So when the consequences are yours to dole out, what else is going to take priority? Our living does not depend on whether or not you maintain your creative hobby, your meals for your family does not depend on whether or not you are creative in your spare time. But your own sanity does. Your own sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, and creativity does.
That is not something to take lightly. If you don’t do it for yourself, no one else is going to do it. No one’s going to hand that to you. It’s yours and you need to take it. You will be a better person for taking on that project and doing something creative, doing something that’s purely for you than if you didn’t.
Think of all the things that suffer when you are not the best person for yourself. Remember that these action steps are meant to help nourish your own creativity, your own sense of artistry.
No one could hand this to you. Take that first small step, that initial forward movement. What is that one small thing that you can embrace now that gets you one step closer to where you want to be? And take it. Take it. No one’s going to give it to you.
It can’t come from anyone else. The kindest, most generous people can’t give it to you. You could do it. And I have complete confidence that you can achieve what you set your mind to. Whether that’s a skirt, a pillowcase, a coaster, anything you want, you could do it. You could make that. I look forward to hearing about it when you start.
