Are You Serious About Your Creativity? It’s Time You Proved It...
Often we can get caught up in trying to be too serious and precise in our creative projects. This pursuit of perfectionism, paying too much attention to detail, can lead to our creative flow of ideas and energy being blocked, and us reaching a place of feeling “stuck”.
By having more of a light touched approach, being more open to enjoying the experience, having fun, experimenting and playing with what we have and seeing where it takes us, often the best ideas develop more quickly and easily, and move us in new directions in the creative evolution of a particular project or piece of work.
But sometimes, it IS important for us to be serious. Vitally important.
Serious about what we create for. Serious about the positive effect it has on our lives. Serious about considering how our lives might be without any creativity in them.
Why should we do this?
Surely it goes without saying that creativity is important, and we are serious about creating or we wouldn’t create at all, or have any desire to create?
And why put ourselves through the uncomfortable process of imagining a life that’s devoid of any artistic expression and lacking entirely in creative energy and direction?
Because we may realise that we’re already dangerously close to that almost unthinkable life.
Our creative outlets may have dried up to such an extent that we virtually are living in a creative vacuum right now.
The worst part is, if we DON’T show a serious and regular commitment to keeping in touch with our creative desires, and to what creating means for us and does for us, sometimes we can go for days, months, even years without realising that commitment is slipping away.
Then one day we wake up and discover we haven’t written a line of poetry in 3 months. Or we haven’t gone to our painting studio since last summer. Or, even more frightening, we can’t even remember the last time we had an original creative thought.
Have you ever found YOUR self in this position?
And if you have, did it surprise you, shock you even, how much time had passed, apparently in the blink of an eye?
That shock is the very reason we need a part of ourselves to remain serious about creating. And to regularly prove to ourselves that we want to create. More than that - we NEED to create.
So how can we do this?
If someone came up to you right now and said “Give me five reasons that show you’re serious about your creativity and what it means in your life”, what would you reply?
Take a pen and paper now and write down your response.
Notice that the question is about showing you’re serious about your creativity, not showing that your creative work is serious, which is a very different question.
When the sun goes down each evening, it doesn’t care whether you’re serious about your creativity, or how important it is to you.
Most of the rest of the world doesn’t care either. The one person who does care is that same person who it affects most dramatically. That is you.
So, how serious are YOU about creativity? And how can you consistently prove it to yourself?
:: Share Your Experience ::
How serious are you about your creativity? How do you prove it to yourself?
Share your comments and experiences by just clicking on the comments link below.
By having more of a light touched approach, being more open to enjoying the experience, having fun, experimenting and playing with what we have and seeing where it takes us, often the best ideas develop more quickly and easily, and move us in new directions in the creative evolution of a particular project or piece of work.
But sometimes, it IS important for us to be serious. Vitally important.
Serious about what we create for. Serious about the positive effect it has on our lives. Serious about considering how our lives might be without any creativity in them.
Why should we do this?
Surely it goes without saying that creativity is important, and we are serious about creating or we wouldn’t create at all, or have any desire to create?
And why put ourselves through the uncomfortable process of imagining a life that’s devoid of any artistic expression and lacking entirely in creative energy and direction?
Because we may realise that we’re already dangerously close to that almost unthinkable life.
Our creative outlets may have dried up to such an extent that we virtually are living in a creative vacuum right now.
The worst part is, if we DON’T show a serious and regular commitment to keeping in touch with our creative desires, and to what creating means for us and does for us, sometimes we can go for days, months, even years without realising that commitment is slipping away.
Then one day we wake up and discover we haven’t written a line of poetry in 3 months. Or we haven’t gone to our painting studio since last summer. Or, even more frightening, we can’t even remember the last time we had an original creative thought.
Have you ever found YOUR self in this position?
And if you have, did it surprise you, shock you even, how much time had passed, apparently in the blink of an eye?
That shock is the very reason we need a part of ourselves to remain serious about creating. And to regularly prove to ourselves that we want to create. More than that - we NEED to create.
So how can we do this?
If someone came up to you right now and said “Give me five reasons that show you’re serious about your creativity and what it means in your life”, what would you reply?
Take a pen and paper now and write down your response.
Notice that the question is about showing you’re serious about your creativity, not showing that your creative work is serious, which is a very different question.
When the sun goes down each evening, it doesn’t care whether you’re serious about your creativity, or how important it is to you.
Most of the rest of the world doesn’t care either. The one person who does care is that same person who it affects most dramatically. That is you.
So, how serious are YOU about creativity? And how can you consistently prove it to yourself?
:: Share Your Experience ::
How serious are you about your creativity? How do you prove it to yourself?
Share your comments and experiences by just clicking on the comments link below.
posted by Dan at 5:33 PM
As a Creativity Coach I work with people who are frustrated that their creative talents are underused. 
4 Comments:
Hi Dan,
I liked your article (saw it on the Creativity Portal) and after writing my 5 reasons (actually 6 - as almost an afterthought I remembered I recently started - or restarted - a blog in which I've posted a bunch of miscelleny, including some whining on "no one ever sees my blog! I'm writing in void!" (OK, not in those exact words...) So imagine my surprise when I decided ok, why not "share my experience," clicked my way on over here, and realized that this is actually YOUR own blog. And your (very nicely written and interesting) blog doesn't appear to get a whole lot more in the way of comments than my own!
So this makes me wonder, what do YOU do when you get that "if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, has it made a sound?" kind of feeling? Perhaps this isn't even relevant to you - I'm sure you get feedback from the "Portal" and other places, but surely I'm not alone in this feeling!
Ah well, I've blathered on long enough. (Though if you'd like to hear more blathering from me, you're invited to my blog at www.keeliegirl.blogspot.com) - I'd welcome the company in that lonely place! (umm - I hope I gave you the right address - it seems if I navigate away to check I'll lose this to oblivion too!)
Anyhow, nice blog, nice writing and inspiration, keep it up!
Colleen
Hi Colleen,
Thanks for your comment and kind feedback.
Well done on writing out your reasons that show you're serious about your creativity. What did they make you feel? Did what you wrote surprise you at all?
Regarding the "tree falling in a forest" feeling (great analogy by the way!), what comes to mind first is why do you write your blog? Is it for your own writing pleasure, is it to connect with others, is it to get feedback on your creative work? Maybe all of this and more?
Once you know this, you can start focusing in a specific direction on how the blog can do this for you more, how you can step up a level or two if you like.
I've recently upped the amount of links back to my blog, because I'd like it to be a place where people can share their creative experiences and encourage one another, as well as it being growing library of informative articles about being more creative.
This article is actually the first on Creativity-Portal that I've asked for people's comments and linked it back to the blog to let them do that. So thanks for getting the ball rolling!
Something else I've increased, and it's maybe something else you could consider, is how I can give more before I receive. Increase my creative karma balance! So I've started posting more on other people's creativity blogs to support them more.
This is a way I can prove to MYself that I'm serious about creativity, by helping others in sharing theirs.
Thanks again Colleen,
Let me know your thoughts on this.
Dan.
Hey again, Dan,
Right you are, I think, regarding the Karmic balance. I agree with the philosophy that the more you give, send out into the universe - however you want to say it, the more that comes back. And I realize of course I surely can't be the only blogger out there who wonders if anyone other than themselves ever looks at their blog (and that would just be a narrow little slice of an instance where that karmic balance comes into play - it just happens to be the one I'm focusing on right now!) It is actually one of the reasons I responded to your article/blog...
You asked some interesting questions- I'm thinking they were more or less to get me thinking about them, but in short, the answer to why I'm writing a blog in the first place is pretty much "all of the above (plus some...)"
Yet, I have to admit, I did do a bit of premature whining about it (the lack of visitors there), considering there are a lot of things I want to figure out about it (I'm talking the technical aspects of it here) - and change - before I manage to figure out how to create links to the blog itself. For instance, you might have noticed even now, I tend to get a little wordy - and somehow I don't think every reader who might somehow find my blog would particularly be inclined to hang on my every word. So I need to do some housekeeping, like figuring out how to do a "read more" link and putting the rest of the post on a different page, before I really worry about inviting folks in.
(There I go again!) But really what's behind all this, I think, is the larger feeling I seem to find myself fighting lately of "why does it really matter so much (at least to me) - and does what I do even matter - even, again, to me? Maybe I really am just simply looking for a larger circle of people to connect with, creatively speaking. Or maybe not. I may have to think about this a bit deeper. (Or maybe thinking too deeply about it in the first place is actually the problem!)
Umm, Dan, before you say I need to go out and join some sort of group of other creative folks, or something of that nature, I should mention I do have a part-time job teaching watercolor and drawing classes - which I love to do, btw -
so I'm not sure that's my issue. I think it's more specifically writing-related. Maybe wondering why I love doing it so much when no one else is really on the other end of it - that tree falling in the forest thing again. ***sigh***
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I love writing, would love to make my living at it eventually (ok, as soon as possible!) but worry that this will never happen for me and that I'm just wasting my time. I think I'm losing faith in myself!
OK, even I can see this is really getting VERY self-centered and I didn't intend to start my own pity-party here. Maybe I just needed to vent knowing I wasn't just talking to myself! But I think this is probably also an issue for other artists, too, since much of our creative time, at least when writing is the outlet, is necessarily spent ... alone. How do other folks lost in the woods deal with that (even when they usually love the forest, I should add!)? KWIM?
Again, many thanks for letting me go on about this... looking forward to your reply.
Colleen (Keelie)
Hi Colleen,
You've obviously got plenty of passion and energy for creating and it's natural to want be recognised for your creative work, and to connect with other like-minded creative people.
However confident we are ourselves in our creativity and productivity, at the core of much of it is reaching out to connect with others.
See these two articles I wrote about Creative Support here and Creative Communities here.
If you're ready to take the next step with your creativity, drop me an email - dangoodwin@coachcreative.com - I've got a programme coming very soon that could be great for you.
Until then, keep chopping down those trees!
Dan.
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