Rethinking How I Create, Work, and Live

I Can Do It All, But… Do I Want To?

This past week I’ve been working on changing my mindset. I’m trying to think like an artist. I want the main focus of my day to be creating — mostly painting. I also want to make videos that inspire others. And I want to finish my book… and write another one. All while still needing to work enough to cover my weekly bills.

Can I do it all?
I’ve proven I can.
But the real question I’m asking myself now is: do I want to?

I’ve sat with this a lot lately, and the answer I’ve come up with is yes. I do want to do it all. Each of these things satisfies a different part of my soul. Painting grounds me, writing gives me clarity, filming connects me to others — they all serve a purpose.

A few months ago, I built a schedule that technically allowed me to fit everything in. But the truth is that it didn’t fulfill me. When I gave each area only a tiny slice of my day or week, I always felt half-present. I could do it all, but I couldn’t sink into any of it. I thrive when I have whole days — or even a week — to commit to one thing. When I allow myself to fully immerse in painting, writing, or filming, I feel aligned. I feel like everything is as it should be.

This realisation is making me rethink how I live.

I still love my van life, but I can see now that I need to embrace convenience more than I used to. Not because I want comfort for its own sake, but because it creates the time and mental space I need for my creative work. My version of van life is changing — and that’s okay. I’m beginning to understand that my life has seasons.

Spring and autumn feel like travel and exploration.
Summer and winter feel like stillness and creating.

And woven into all this reflection is the solution I keep coming back to:

I don’t need to balance everything every day.

I need to honour my life in creative seasons.

Instead of spreading myself thin trying to be a painter, writer, filmmaker, and bookkeeper all in one week, I can give myself permission to work in phases. A painting phase. A writing phase. A filming phase. A slower work phase. It all still gets done — just not all at once.

This way of thinking feels far more aligned with who I am. I don’t thrive in fragmentation. I thrive in immersion. And when I pair that with longer stays, stable routines, and the right conveniences, everything starts to flow again.

These are the thoughts I’ve been sitting with. These are the questions I ask myself.
My life has changed so much over the last five years, and I know I’ll never stop questioning whether I’m living my best life — or what adjustments I need to make so that I do.

• Where in your life have you been proving you can do it all — but avoiding the question of whether you actually want to?
• Do you thrive in balance, or does your creativity come alive when you devote yourself more deeply to one thing at a time?