Are You Serious About Your Creativity?

It’s Time You Proved It

By Dan Goodwin

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 worse 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 three 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?

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© Copyright 2007 Dan Goodwin

02/25/07