What you are describing is a normal season of life. It is not a personal failure.

Our lives move through phases where the priority is consolidation, saving, and holding position, and other phases where risk, creation, and expansion make sense. You are in a phase where doing the responsible thing now is what enables the creative and capital-heavy phase later.

Creativity does not disappear but it can go dormant when projects stay blocked for too long. The way to keep it alive is to work on very small, short-term projects that you can start and finish in one sitting or one evening. Completion restores momentum and keeps the creative circuit warm without requiring capital or long runways.