A working theory to stay creatively motivated this year

What if the success of our big goals lies in the beauty of small, achievable dreams?

Jan 30, 2024

Hi, I’m Laura, the founder of Gooseberry Studios (est. 2013). As a photographer, brand strategist and writer, I build visual stories and strategies for brands who want to become beloved and help people embrace their own creative everyday way of work and life. Let’s turn inspiration into action because so – much – is – possible!

Between blankets of snow and the flurry of feel-good goals, I think of January as a creatively cozy time. It’s like we become insulated from our own self-doubt by a layer of quiet optimism. Anything can happen in the brand new year ahead – and for a little while, we believe it most certainly will.

Even better, everyone you bump into seems to be carrying around their own shiny, big goals and is eager to share them! In the past few weeks alone I’ve chatted with a young couple in the grocery store about the bistro they hope to open. I’ve discussed at length setting up an online flower shop with a woman on the bus and I’ve brainstormed book titles with friendly faces at my local café. Not to mention the projects that have landed on my studio desk.

Big dreams take center stage this time of year and as someone who truly believes there’s a way to build any idea forward, it’s a rush!

But we’re also approaching a well known bumpy part in the big goal-getting game. New Year’s enthusiasm is winding down and we’re about to be left simply bobbing around in the middle of winter. If we’re not careful, our dear friends, impostor syndrome and fear, can creep back into our creative lives. We can start feeling lost and unsure.

To brace ourselves for this inevitability, I’d like to suggest an antidote – the beauty of embracing small, achievable dreams. Not in lieu of the grand ones, but in addition to them.

My theory is this: when we feel like we aren’t making enough progress in our big goals and are struggling to follow through, we need a positive creative charge to light us back up again. Something to help pull us away from the negative noise and confusion that’s gently simmering in the back of our brains before it boils over. We need consistent creative wins and making small dreams come true for ourselves can deliver exactly this.

The joy of seeing something from start to finish leaves us creatives feeling triumphant, capable and reenergized – all uplifting elements we can then take back to feed into our larger ambitions. It’s almost like generating our own motivational fuel.

So where do we start with small, achievable dreams? I suspect most of us already have a long list of little silly somethings that we wish we could do. Our minds wander to them when we’re bored, but we keep pushing them to the wayside, because they aren’t “important enough”. I know I do:

I dream of wearing a slip dress, grabbing a bottle of prosecco and watching the sun set over the lake.
I dream of hosting a candlelight dinner where the table is crammed with votives and dripping in florals.
I dream of going for a bike ride in the country with only my camera for company.
I dream of booking the coveted leather wing-back chairs by the roaring fireplace at my favourite restaurant for an evening of chit-chat.
I dream of ordering a “fancier-than-I-can-make” cake from a bakery and serving it to friends on a Friday night.

The beauty of small, achievable dreams is that they’re in our immediate power to shape and create. Unlike the big, bodacious goals (which for the record, I love) that have a tendency to dance weeks, months, sometimes even years away on the horizon, we can reach our smaller dreams more easily. The gratification that ensues offers us a creative boost that can then inspire us to steadily keep going with the more ambitious stuff.

I’ll always be a big goal girl at heart, because I believe they make us brave and bold and help us take charge of our own lives. But I think there’s something in this idea of creating our own positive feedback loop and I plan to test this theory throughout the year.

My hope is that it will help to maintain creative motivation, while bringing more contentment and fun into everyday life – and who doesn’t want that?

Keep creating wildly,
Laura