Over the last month, I’ve been writing and posting everyday. It’s one of the steps I believe I have to take in order to reach my goals. During this, I’ve learned something that I honestly didn’t believe to be true.

Every creative needs to consume as much as (if not more than) they create. And here’s why I say that.

Before I started writing heavily (which would have been early December), I knew that every creative needed to consume in order to create. You have to put good in to get get good out.

If inspiration is taking what you know and have experienced, and queuing all of that into something tangible, then obviously you have to consume something in order to create anything. What I didn’t realize was how much consumption it actually takes to have enough ideas and thoughts and epiphanies to draw from so that you have enough with which to create.

I’ve been writing and posting everyday throughout the last month. I thought my largest hurtle was going to be disciplining myself enough to find time everyday around my day job. That part’s been relatively easy. The hard part has been coming up with something to write about everyday. And I’m 100% confident it’s because I’m not consuming enough.

Last year, my goal was to read a book a week for the whole year. It was great! I was consuming so much enjoyable, educational material that the only problem I had was finding time to write about all of my (subjectively) great ideas. Now the situation’s reversed, and I’m always struggling to come up with ideas!

I know I’m not the only one going through something like this. This has to be a common obstacle for creatives. But I think the solution is surprisingly simple. Do less in order to do more.

Spend less time trying to create, and more time building your pool of ideas. In my experience, I need to spend at least as much time consuming as I do creating just so I have fresh ideas when I sit down to write. I’m confident this will help you, too. Set aside intentional time to consume, so that you’ll be a better creator.