“Attuned choice by attuned choice, your entire life is a form of self-expression. You exist as a creative being in a creative universe. A singular work of art.”
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
I always assumed creativity was an infinite source within me – until that final day that valued resource finally felt depleted.
The well had run dry and the burning desire to constantly create was extinguished.
This all came crashing ahead after I decided to step away from my position as Associate Editor this past year and take a break from working in the media.
It was at that moment in my life that a form of creative block stood in my path, growing to a size I thought I’d never get around.
For the last decade, I’ve been fortunate enough to create digital content for a living for other people and brands, but now was the first time I sat down to create using my voice, and I felt speechless.
Weeks transformed into months of staring at a blank screen, notes and ideas piling up in my phone untouched.
The voice inside echoed hollowly in the cave of my creative conscience, “You’re not good enough.” Ringing so frequently I began to believe it.
I couldn’t pick up a camera, or pursue a new creative idea, with this cloud of fear hovering over me not knowing if I’d feel any form of creative inspiration again.
“The enemy is a very good teacher.”
–the Dalai Lama
What worked in the past didn’t anymore, and it was time to take action towards a new solution, but first I needed to better understand what was causing this creative clog.
I feel as though I’m forging my own path again after battling the obstacles in my way for the past 6+ months. Pushing past the pressure rather than giving in to it.
Trudging through this creative sludge has allowed me to understand three important reminders:
- Recognition from the work doesn’t equate to your self-worth.
- Find satisfaction in the effort, not just the final result.
- Don’t live in anxiety anticipating or meeting others’ expectations.
I needed help recovering and realigning my creativity source after years of smothering it.
Through trial and error, I resided to the idea that this wasn’t going to happen by force or willpower alone, but through study, sacrifice, patience, and action on my part.
I hold the utmost respect for these three authors for sharing their “secrets for success” when it comes to living as a creative. It was their written wisdom that helped rekindle my spark.
It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
Telamon of Arcadia, h/t ‘The War of Art’
In order for the wisdom gained from these readings to be useful, it must be implemented so that change can exist, not just collect dust on a bookshelf.
From reading and studying these closely, that illusion of fear clouding my creativity is beginning to alleviate.
As I seek, I in turn want to share what I discover and uncover. Relaying this wisdom and lessons learned in hopes it helps those encountering the same situation.
In my view, there’s an inherited duty as a creator to pass along tips, tools, and insight to those also searching, because living a creator’s life can get chaotic quickly!
These three books together taught me how to remain calm as a creative individual while sharing my work despite the internal and external resisting forces faced.
Knowledge mixed with action makes for a dynamic concoction.
The three books were (in order read) – The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon.
In short, Rick introduced a way to remain calm as I create. Steven taught me the tactics to conquer this creative battle within. Austin proved the need to share my progress and process, not just the final product.
Below is my deeper dive into the specific lessons and how I’ve been able to apply them actively. It’s a lot of writing, more than I plan for my blog posts to be moving forward, but again, this is the first flow felt since getting unclogged.
Please share any books that have helped you in the past or you keep close when in your creating process, I’d love to discover others along the way!
1) The Creative Act: A Way of Being – Rick Rubin
For most of my life, Rick Rubin has been a name associated with a variety of hip-hop artists, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what he did.
He’s even claimed in past interviews to “know nothing about music,” yet to me, he always seemed to be the go-to guy when it came to creating the music process.
After finishing his book, I better understand the pivotal role he plays.
With ’78 Areas of Thought’, The Creative Act: A Way of Being is filled with wisdom, zen lessons, and practical tools any creative in any field at any level can benefit from knowing.
SUGGESTION – The Buddhist Concept ‘Papancha‘
Lesson: Name it, notice it, and move on from it.
Rubin shared working with a particular artist one time and the artist, in a panic, described a rush of anxiety taking over, making it impossible for them to create.
“I asked if he was familiar with the Buddhist concept of papancha, which translates as the preponderance of thoughts.
This speaks to the mind’s tendency to respond to our experiences with an avalanche of mental chatter.“
After confirming, Rick continued, “Now that he had a name for what was holding him back, he was able to normalize his doubts and not take them so seriously. Whey they came up, we’d call them papancha, notice them, then move forward.”
a) I LOVE the word – PAPANCHA.
b) I never had this feeling described like this, and was a similar distress I’d recently developed. Now I have stronger emotional tools developed not to get swept up in the destruction.
“Ultimately, your desire to create must be greater than your fear of it,” he reminds us.
SUGGESTION – Non-Competition
Lesson: Don’t judge or compare with others. The only creator you compete with is yourself.
The section is full of valuable insights like:
- “Art is about the maker. Its aim: to be an expression of who we are.”
- “No system exists that can rank which work is most reflective of the maker.”
- “Talk yourself to go further and push into the unexpected. Don’t stop even at greatness. Venture beyond.”
I had major insecurities when it came to comparing, competing, and caring. These unchecked feelings always left me thinking I was “never as good as such and such”, I had to be “better than so and so”, or worse, “Nobody cares because you’re not good enough.”
‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’
Theodore Roosevelt
Applying more pressure by comparing yourself to others only creates more internal conflict.
SUGGESTION – Patience
Lesson: Accepting what is, right now.
As I continue on this new path, I feel my patience with people has become better, but the problem still persists being patient with myself.
“Impatience is an argument with reality. This begins with acceptance of natural rhythms,” explains Rick Rubin. “You can’t force greatness to happen. All we can do is invite it in and await it actively. Not anxiously.”
I constantly clashed with reality, causing the struggles I regularly experienced but formed from flaw thinking, not the actual truth.
Probably the single most important rule I inherited was:
“If there is a rule to creativity, that’s less breakable than the others, its that the need for patience is ever present.”
Rick Rubin
Patience must remain present in my view, and within our presence in order to proceed forward.
2) the War of Art – Steven Pressfield
“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this.
Steven Pressfield
It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.
What keeps us from sitting down is RESISTANCE.”
Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, taught me everything I needed to finally win this creative battle that’s been building up slowly in time and is now holding me back completely.
For example, it’s taken me two weeks just to finish this post, let alone years to actually summon the courage to launch this website. I now know that “thing” is what Pressfield describes as RESISTANCE.
For a while now, I felt like a fraud, was in over my head, and/or wasn’t any good at what I did because of the number of times I intended to launch a website, a podcast series, or an online portfolio – but time after time was unable to complete the intended task.
I can only describe it as feeling like an invisible force internally holding me back, one that also made me feel inferior regardless of the creative output achieved.
Single-handedly this book helped shift my old perception of these feelings, making me understand it happens to the majority of creators of any kind.
This will forever be a part of my arsenal of weapons to combat the daily battle that we endure in the war against art.
SUGGESTION – RESISTANCE AND FEAR
Lesson: Use fear as an indicator of authenticity.
My entire perspective and relationship with the word FEAR flipped upside down like I was having a Strangers Things experience. The enemy was fear, and I needed to face it in order to stop being held back.
“Resistance is experienced as fear, the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.”
Steven Pressfield
Before I’d blamed fear as the factor that prevented me from actually trying or ever thinking I’d be good enough, it could now be viewed as what led the charge in the battle toward creative courage.
When I want to write the least, that’s when I need to persist most from now on.
SUGGESTION – Angels In The Abstract
Lesson: Don’t be the creator, be a vessel creation runs through.
I feel this is a personal experience that will be different per individual.
Steven suggests putting faith in the “invisible psychic forces that support and sustain us in our journey towards ourselves. I plan on using terms like muses and angels.”
For myself, meditation helped me discover my creative muse. There is inspiration within all of us, sometimes we just need to quiet all the external distractions.
As someone who’d never believed in trying this suggestion before – can now speak firsthand about the protective energy this can provide before the creative act.
Don’t get caught up in so much in what you call it, just get caught up in the flow its current can create.
SUGGESTION – The Ego & The Self
LESSON: The true test for all creatives is against themselves.
The Ego versus The Self – I’ve come to the conclusion I didn’t know, or fully comprehend either one prior till now (and still don’t).
Both of these creative forces constantly would clash, causing me discomfort and confusion in my mind, body, and soul. Two ideas I related with were:
“Here’s what I think, I think angels make their home in the Self, while Resistance and its seat in the Ego. The Self wishes to create, to evolve. The Ego likes things just the way they are.”
I’ve come across a variety of “definitions” describing the ego, but I find his most accurate:
“the part of the psyche that believes in material existence. The Ego’s job is to take care. of business in the real world. It’s an important job. We couldn’t last a day without it. But there are worlds other than the real world, and this is where the Ego runs into trouble.”
My ego got so disturbed rereading that section resistance almost made me delete this entire portion!
This comparative view & explanation between the two allows me to better relate and understand them. They will always be a constant battle with me, but now I have ways to combat them constructively, not critically.
In closing, I must keep these words in sight, by my desk, pinned in my notes for when facing these internal creative dilemmas:
“How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance.”
Steven Pressfield
3) SHOW YOUR WORK! – AUSTIN KLEON
This was an omen, the last book I purchased prior to leaving Atlanta and returning to Philadelphia, as I was leaving the bookstore, I came across this while paying. I flipped through and it was this one idea shared by Austin Keon in his book SHOW YOUR WORK! that sold me – it simply read – SELL OUT.
Suggestion – SELL OUT!
LESSON: Have the courage to cash in on your creativity.
SELL OUT.
That single suggestion, which once made me feel insecure, now provided inspiration.
An artist labeled a ‘SELL OUT’ was never directed as a compliment. We all want to “make it” deep down inside, but sell out in doing so? I’d always felt insecure about putting a monetary value on my work, but this book helped change all that.
My interest in this book was piqued by two quotes from this chapter.
The first from singer/songwriter Bill Withers,
“Sellout…I’m not crazy about that word. We’re all entrepreneurs. To me, I don’t care if you own a furniture store or whatever – the best sign you can put up is SOLD OUT.”
Isn’t that the goal of any company or entrepreneur? I had to ask myself this with a different perspective now, ‘Why would this idea be any different for a creative?’
We can’t allow culture to cost us our creativity – meaning we can’t allow the thoughts or opinions of others to hold us back from pursuing and putting a price on our dreams – at least to a degree that’s the trap I fell into.
The second quote read, “Even The Renaissance Had To Be Funded,” which made me come to grips with how we glamorize the final creation, but we never the costs required to get there in the creation process.
Creating requires costs, but it doesn’t have to be costly.
He closes with this truth from Walt Disney, “We don’t make movies to make money. we make money to make more movies.”
SUGGESTION – THE VAMPIRE TEST
Lesson: Avoid those who cipher your creativity for to fuel their own
At some point in your life, you’ve encountered a friend, family member, or co-worker who the moment they left your presence left you feeling drained.
We now can combat this problem by using what Austin calls The Vampire Test.
“If, after hanging out with someone you feel worn out and depleted, that person is a vampire. If, after hanging out with someone you still feel full of energy, that person is not a vampire.”
Austin Kleon
As he points out, the beauty of this test is it can apply to multiple areas in your life including relationships, hobbies, jobs, and anything else.
In essence, a simple and effective way to banish the beast before it bites.
SUGGESTION – 90% Of Everything Is Crap
Lesson: Stop being a pessimistic perfectionist.
Initially, I was going to what sparked this website, Own A Good (Domain) Name, but instead wanted to share the philosophy behind Sturgeon’s Law.
In his bio, Austin describes himself as “a writer who draws”, which allows him to also demonstrate lessons through drawings in this book and not just his words.
The book features different sketches, diagrams, and graphs illustrating different principles, making the lessons even easier to digest.
The rule to Sturgeon’s Law is:
“Don’t worry about everything you post being perfect.” Science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon once said that 90 percent of everything is crap.” Austin says, “The same is true of our own work. The trouble is, we don’t always know what’s good and what sucks.”
Without publishing, sharing, or engaging with a constructive community, we’ll never know either.
Most of the people we want to reach or the impact desired rarely happens anyway, so don’t let that be your hindrance either.
Placing my work in the view of others can be scary, but grants me an opportunity for reactions and responses, which is invaluable insight for future inspiration. Others’ opinions should never kill your dream, but that dream can only begin to manifest by first, SHARING YOUR WORK!
Conclusion
As mentioned previously, I am grateful for the wisdom inherited from their writings.
Austin Kleon shared ways ideas on how I can get my work out in front of people.
Steven Pressfield provided the weapons in the creative battle.
Rick Rubin passed along wisdom on how to create calmly, and not so chaotically like I was doing.
I’m also aware that this is only one post, a single “battle won”, and the war roaring ahead. These books were my instruction manual for the new tools at my disposal to not only combat resistance but also perfectionism.
Remain patient, and stay at peace. Share your work and wisdom with others, despite the forces of resistance we encounter daily, and hope to come close to feeling the love William Blake described when he wrote, “Eternity is in love with the creations of time.”
Be Just, Just Be, @justinmyview