Are you a writer? A photographer? A dancer? A singer? Do you have a creative vision that you work to express in the world? If so, then at some point or another I’m sure you’ve been hit with writers block. That feeling of inertia and uselessness around your gift and talent. A moment where that voice in your head starts shouting at you that you’ve got nothing new or creative or interesting to give. That you should just leave it to the ‘professionals’. That feeling then gets bigger and bigger, making it too overwhelming to start, and it feels more and more inconceivable that you’ll ever create again.
Even more overwhelming can be when you don’t identify as one of these ‘creative types’ but your soul longs to express itself. “But I’m not an artist” you say. You hold your creativity back. You brush off compliments about your photography. You get fidgety when people talk about their projects because you secretly want to create something meaningful too.
People freeze up when creating things -and this is anything creative outside your perceived ‘expertise’, for me this is a nice dinner “I am not a cook.” For you it might be launching a blog, a business, singing, putting something of your souls creation into the world – because you want it to be THE.BEST. You want it to be a masterpiece, right out the gate.
Masterpieces take time, and all the greats spent hours cultivating their work. In that process, they created some crap as well as some gems. The most important part of that is that they created. They let their gift leap out of them and take form in the real world. Repeatedly.
Here’s the thing – to walk through that wall of self-consciousness, insecurity, overwhelm and doubt, you need to walk through it. Again. And again. And again.
By doing something over and over, we slowly gain mastery, but more importantly, we desensitize ourselves to this idea that it must be great. No, it must be. The collection of our efforts will be great. Some parts will be brilliant uncut diamonds, and some will be chunks of cement. We must free ourselves of the burden of expectation to create masterpieces on the first try. It’s stifling!
Let yourself play! Let yourself create. Embrace the clunkers, they’re making way for the sparking gems. If this concept is intriguing to you, but you feel like you need some structure to stretch this muscle, I’ve created a group photography and coaching experience, Find Your Daily Yes, which will have you taking one photo a day of a ‘yes moment’. Don’t worry, I’ve got weekly themes to guide you through identifying what a ‘yes moment’ is. It’s a fun, creative, liberating process that will revolutionize and energize how you see your life. Literally. We start in July, so if don’t delay!
A note about Being An Artist: everyone is artistic and creative. Period. It’s an intrinsic part of being alive. Some people choose to make a career out of it, and that is so wonderful for them. Just because you’re not a paid artist in no way means you’re not artistic or creative. Because you so are. <steps off soapbox>
Love, love, love 🙂
It’s so easy to forget sometimes and get trampled by self-doubt when it comes to any creative expression of yourself… so thanks for the reminder.
If there’s room on your soapbox, I’ll come stand with you on it 🙂
You are so welcome! And there’s always room on my soapbox – we’ll make it a platform! Thanks for your thoughts 🙂
“Embrace the clunkers, they’re making way for the sparking gems.” I love this! It can be so hard to embrace those less-than-perfect moments when you’re experiencing a down-surge in creativity. Good reminder.
It amazes me just how many people forget how creative they actually are. As kids it’s so natural and we are soooo good at it. Can you imagine what the world would look like if we all fully embraced our creativity!?
It would look COLORFUL! That’s what I imagine anyway. And we’d be way more free of this pressure to create, be great, and fearful of criticism and critique. This is the world I am working to live in!
Brilliant! LOVE you words and how you perfectly described my journey of creative self expression. I have long known that I am a “creative type” but the journey to finding my authentic form of self expression has been long and laboring. What I received from you and from my own journey is that the “process IS the purpose” So often we sabotage our creative vitality because we push and push, feel pressure and not allow ourselves to enjoy the process. I imagine the genius that could be unleashed into the world if we were just a little kinder and self nurturing to ourselves along the way…what if we treated ourselves as though we were actually “pregnant” – except with a vision? What different choices would we make to nurture our creative progeny? I really love what you are doing here and look forward to reading more. xox
Thanks Monica!! It’s so true, the process IS the purpose. And that nurturing, kind energy that we withhold for ourselves only (or mostly) during pregnancy is so needed! It really does create a space of comfort in our bodies and minds to do what needs to be done, whatever that is. I’m glad you’re into what’s going on here, there’s definitely more to come 🙂
LOVE this! I just ordered Twyla Tharp’s “The Creative Habit” off of Amazon, and I’m so excited to have my perspective changed. (It needs to be done on occasion.) The whole notion that I’m going to write a novel “one day” is ludicrous. “One day” is now, damnit. No one cares if I write or not– except me. And that’s who my writing is ultimately for.
Perspectives are powerful, right? One day is TODAY – write it! Start with a page and see what flows. I love that your writing is for YOU, so you might as well let it out! Did you see my Manifesto of Possibility? http://ellenercolini.com/manifesto-of-possibility/ It’s got ‘write your novel’ on there 🙂 Keep me posted!