If you are like me and many others, your ‘to-do’ list is endless. As soon as you cross something off, you add something else. Some essential things must get done on time, like paying bills or doing taxes. There are work-related tasks, home upkeep, shopping lists, and obligations to friends, family, or colleagues.

Then there are those things you simply want and feel a deep need to accomplish because they are activities or projects that your creative spirit calls you to do.

Suppose you are an artist of any kind—writer, painter, musician, dancer, filmmaker, sculptor, gardener, inventor, or a combination—and you still have to do other work for a living. In that case, your creative work may feel like an eternal exercise in frustration.

It does for me. There is never enough time to go as deep as I would like or stay immersed for as long as I need.

Still, there are no two ways about it. You have to do this creative work because, without it, your life feels incomplete; there is a vacuum that has to be filled. In any case, that has been my experience.

What’s the answer? The only answer I have discovered is to keep on working, albeit slowly and incompletely, create a weekly schedule, and find pockets of time to work on your creative project.

I have to acknowledge that I may never complete all that I would like to get done. There will always be more to do or done better.

Ancient philosophers said that each of us is born with a creative spirit, a daimon, endowing us with talents, strengths, and desires. The creative spirit will always call you to do more than you can because it comes from an eternal dimension.

So, keep on keeping on, and, if you can, believe that your creative spirit is helping you continue to act on your inspiration, enabling you to find fulfillment in your life and work. Even if it never all gets done.

“You can’t get it all done; focus on what matters.” –Sally McGhee