The Motivation to Create

The Motivation to Create

I have spent years dreaming of projects I've never started, and I think we’ve probably all been in a similar position as creatives, dreaming and having a very defined, clear vision for a project we want to create, but lack the motivation to bring it to life. I have certainly found as a student that unless pushed to do so by my lecturers, I will not create the visions I wish to make. As somebody deeply interested in sports and live broadcasting, I have had ideas of podcasts and studio projects using a virtual studio in my head for years, but there is routinely something holding me back.

Whether it be the motivation to get out of the house and to the studio and sit down and just record something, or the anxiety of asking for help from others to try and bring to life the projects I so dearly wish to make or the self-doubt that what I will make will never live up to what I want it to be. There is always something tugging my arm back from getting to my destination. It is a routinely frustrating cycle I find myself in, as when I do find myself in a radio studio or in front of a camera, I feel a massive sense of fulfilment. That pride of creating something and sharing it with others is like no other feeling, and the thrill from live broadcasting is indescribable.

So why? Why, despite the joy it provides, do I not create or even just attempt to create more? Frankly, I think it’s easier to see others on social media or on TV be a part of something similar to what it is I wanted to make and be satisfied in thinking that if I were a part of it or if I had gotten there first it would be just as or more successful and analysing these projects is an easier task than making them.

So how do I go about changing this? What will now finally make me fulfil the ambitions I have held onto for years? Honestly, I think some recent failures I have faced in work has pushed me to want to do more. A recent group project I was a part of for my University course didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped. It was a podcast called Pubcast. The name and idea of the show were something I had been brewing in my head for at least a year by this point, and I finally decided this project would be the time to bring it to life. The opportunity to do the podcast would allow me to further showcase and develop my presenting skills as well as take on a producing role and get a feel for what it’s like to find guests and locations for filming.

While there were many positives to take from the project as my presenting and ability to find guests and spaces for us to film went well, so much else went wrong. My communication and leadership could have been better, and while members of my group routinely let me down either by not turning up, waiting until the last minute to edit videos or not booking out equipment when they said they would, if I had taken a more hands-on approach to ensuring things went smoothly, well, they likely would have done. This was a failure on my part, but it hasn’t discouraged or dampened my motivation. The realisation that it is okay to fail, take things from mistakes made and carry them into the future is spurring me to want to amend those failures and thus do more. I am now determined to make another podcast in my own free time and ensure this time it’s to the standards I wish to hold up. I swear that this will not be the end of Pubcast; it will rise again.

Another realisation I am having to face up to as well is that I’m frankly running out of time. As a student, the resources offered to me are better than anything in the coming years I will have access to, for exploring personal endeavours. This realisation, which is probably coming a bit late due to a lack of maturity on my part, is again spurring me on to want to do more. Carpe diem. Seize the day. Take these opportunities presented to me and find that motivation to do what I can in these final few months at University that I had not taken the time to do before. That may be the biggest piece of advice I can give to you and myself. Watch Dead Poets’ Society and feel the emotion I felt to do and be something more, even if it’s something as small as a podcast, because finding that starting point can spur you on to do so much more. Or maybe just a kick up the ass will do.