#1 Creativity includes you, too. Everyone is a creator. Creation, as I see it, is everyone. It’s art, and it’s play. Wordplay, music, colours. Even brainstorming at work, having conversations and coming up with solutions. We tend to forget it’s part of who we are as humans. We forget we’re hardwired to play, create and make art. The good news? All you need to do is remember who you are.
#2 Creation happens in the moment & the idea follows. What speaks out of you right now? What is true for you? What is there to share, authentically? The most important bit I learned about creation: It’s always available. It doesn’t always make the same amount of sense, but there is always something to write. Just blacken the page first, and see what comes up, second. (Or colour. Or sing out loud…)
#3 It’s not about how you feel. It’s not about whether you think what wants to come out is “good enough”. Not about if it fits into your manifold criteria. No. It’s about them. Them, over there. If only one person benefits from what you do, then you served one person – and that’s enough. And yep, this person can also be you, yourself, anytime. <3
#4 Writer’s block isn’t a real block. It’s the perfectionist in you. And if you’re anything like me, you’re completely BLIND to the perfectionist. Because you’re brilliant and you know there’s no such thing as perfect. But tune in and listen to all the criteria swimming around in the background. Is this going to help person X? I don’t want to do it in the style of Y. It needs to be a unique, new piece of wisdom. What will my coach/mother/friend think? Yup, allll of this is perfectionism and it’s going to keep you from creating.
#5 Creation is self-care. Self-care isn’t always comfortable, but it’s catering to what we need, and I say: We all need to create. It’s an desire to express, to leave a legacy, to show up. We’ve got a lot of stuff that battles against it, too. Conventions, education, opinions. If we manage to shed all of these, what’s left is going to be magic – for us, for everyone.
#6 Routine fosters creativity. Yes, yours, too, even if you hate routines, no especially if you hate routines! Routines create freedom and space, because you don’t have “There’s this item on my to do list” on the back of your mind. All there is to do in this moment is to get going and play with your own mind – freely.
#7 Quantity wins over quality. The more you do, the better you get. Full stop. We need to DO stuff to get better at it because we’re humans. Brought to you by someone much too smart for their own good. I tried to FIGURE stuff for years and… It. Doesn’t. Work. And once you set out to do, you get all this new information your brain just couldn’t know before. AND it’s never too late, because the smart ass you are, you don’t need a ton of quantity. Mainly just let go of the quality idea, the rest will work itself out.
#8 We need play to thrive, and the more play we have in our lives, the more we thrive and do our best work. (I DID notice I repeated myself. Important points can’t be stressed enough). They are mandatory prerequisites to reach our ever-so-elusive potential. We need to be okay to step over, mess up and start over. We need to allow creativity to have its way to contribute with our full being. And for that, we need to let go and play, first.
#9 Live with fear and do it anyway. No good news here: There is ALWAYS going to be this deep caveman fear of sticking out a tad bit too much and everyone is going to hate us, leave us alone in the wild to die. However, we can learn to accept the fear and do it anyway. You can start with small things and small fears and grow stuff over time. A word of encouragement: I used to be hugely afraid and with support and love, I learned it. And when I can do it, you can do it, too. I really believe that <3
#10 Do it now. Go on. To a tiny thing today. We are hardwired to procrastinate when it comes to something fearful and edgy. We always prefer to do the things we know, even if they’re shitty and boring (speaking “comfort” zone). F*ck the list of things you need to fulfil in order to be good enough and just do one random, tiny thing. Playfully. Let it NOT matter, let it free to come out as it wants to come out, but let it grow and come into existence. Believe me, you serve the world.