Photographer Harry Callahan, who taught at Rhode Island School Design in the ’60s and ’70s, was rumored to begin a class by deliberately tearing up a twenty-dollar bill (a good sum in those days) and send it sailing in pieces out the window, while saying, “This is photography.”

The lesson is clear: photography asks for resources, time, and supportive conditions. Fortunately, the cost of entry for digital photography is affordable. Today’s cell phone cameras have evolved to be of very high-quality and entry level prosumer cameras can be purchased for several hundred dollars. Tablet or cell phone apps that allow you to edit photos can be purchased for a nominal fee. Even the high-end Adobe programs for the desktop, Lightroom and Photoshop, are bought on a subscription plan for a reasonable monthly amount.

The challenge for many people is finding time for the creative focus needed for an active involvement with photography. The great modernist photographer, Edward Weston, writes in his Daybooks: “Peace and an hour’s time—given these, one creates. Emotional heights are easily attained; peace and time are not.” Most people have busy lives, with jobs, families, and multiple commitments. In the midst of this tyranny of urgent concerns, if we want to fulfill our creative lives, we need to create the right conditions.

Several strategies can help. First, discover a passionate interest. Maybe you are drawn to learn more about photography and engage it seriously. Or, certain subjects can capture your deepest attention. In other instances, you might love nature, and hiking and exploring with a camera brings you joy. You could feel strongly about something in the world, social realities or political conditions, that demand your attention. Whatever you feel strongly about is a call that should be followed. In my experience, when I have an intense absorption with a subject or topic, and I follow it with a camera or a pen, the strength of that interest inserts itself naturally into the rhythm of my daily schedule. I am surprised by how much time I can find to engage my passion. Other commitments seem to make way for my inner necessity. Once committed, I find an hour here, an afternoon there for the necessary engagement with my topic. And don’t ignore the powerful tool of your cell phone. Whatever you might be doing, wherever you are, the cell phone camera can be used to sketch images and ideas, and keep your creative momentum flowing.

Second, learn what commitments are necessary to meet immediately, and which ones can wait and become secondary to your creative life. When in the midst of a compelling project, I easily turn a blind eye to mundane tasks that really do not need my attention in this moment. Laundry, house cleaning, paying bills, and cleaning out my email inbox can often wait several days or even a week. If your creative life is important, place it high on your list of priorities.

Third, see if you can enlist the aid of other people. Having a supportive community helps greatly in stimulating your creative flow. Talk to those closest to you about giving support and leaving room for your creative aspirations. Find other people with similar interests and view each other’s photographs, go on field trips, and have dialogue about your aims and goals. Share your struggles and triumphs. Take a class, find a teacher, or join a camera club. Groups of people coming together with common interests and sympathy for each other’s challenges on the path of learning can help give you energy and direction. Find trusted eyes that can look at your work and offer honest response.

Use online resources. Join the Instagram community or other forms of social media in which sharing images are the currency. Many groups devoted to photography or some particular aspect of the medium can be found online. Many learning resources are available on the internet.

Finally, and most difficult, look yourself squarely in the eye and take note of your own brands of neuroses. We all have them. Are you a perfectionist and impede your own progress through fear and a sense of inadequacy? Are you a people pleaser and spend your time being a “good” girl or boy to others while ignoring your own needs? Many of us are often lazy and do not like fighting against the resistance to move forward with something that is essential for our souls. If you find inner voices that say, “I am not good enough,” or “I don’t deserve this,” or “what if I fail?” simply take note of those voices and continue anyway. Discipline doesn’t arise all by itself. You need to get out the door in spite of your personal obstacles and demons.

The words, in spite of represent one of the greatest wisdoms we can incorporate in our creative lives. We work in spite of self-limiting inner dialogue. We proceed in spite of challenging outer conditions. We move forward in spite of lack of resources or time. We take pictures regularly in spite of not having the perfect camera or ideal lens. We simply find a way.