Make Amends with Your Creative Self

Each one of us have our own creative past, present and future; our own 'history of the creative self'. This is a topic I have thought about throughout my life and I want to chat with you about it.

As far back as I can remember I have been both afraid of and driven to be creative. Except, there is no such thing as fear of being creative. There may be a fear of failure, of not making enough money to pay the bills, of rejection, of ridicule, of not being able justify the purpose of what we create, of not being good enough, yet none of those things have anything to do with being creative.

Now, the drive to be creative is as tangible, delicious and nutritious as the soup that I am eating while writing this post... it is! Trust me!

"So what now?" I asked myself. "You have sorted out all that in your head with the help of a 'Ted talk' marathon, several books, the occasional counseling session and chats with your close circle of friends. Good for you! What now?"

Well, this is the now...

1. Change your perspective for the better - I have replaced the word 'perfect' with the word 'awesome'. 'Awesome' to me invokes a feeling of wonder, joyfulness, and soulfulness, among other things. On the other hand, 'perfect' takes me to that regimented never-ending 'not good enough' black hole. I do not care about being perfect (well, a very small part of me does... I am working on that) because I am already 'awesome'!  I create awesome things, which some times others may categorize as 'perfect', yet that is their word choice, not mine.

2. Join the creative side of the force - This is a step which I have already started to take... I joined Kandy in the Meandering Design adventure. It does make me anxious at times because I am not in Chicago and Vancouver seems to be a bit different yet, I am in and I am working on it. More on that to come.

3. Encourage your creativity - I have given my creativity an 'all gates open' go ahead to do its thing. The latest focus is on a line of satchel style bags which I call the "Dude/tte bags." The first bag in the collection is known as "The Big One," the second "The Dark Graph" and the two that I am sewing right now are "La de dos" and "La de cuatro."

4. Share the wealth - This blog post is part of it. It is imperative for all of us to share not just our wealth of knowledge, but also our wealth of thought. Here are some videos that really inspired me in a good way this week and sparked this blog post. 

Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability

http://www.ted.com/playlists/11/the_creative_spark.html

Young-ha Kim: Be an artist, right now!

http://on.ted.com/BeAnArtist

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson

http://youtu.be/NugRZGDbPFU

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

http://www.ted.com/playlists/11/the_creative_spark.html

I leave you with this for now... Do not be afraid of the things that get in the way of your creative drive. Take the focus away from those things you fear and discover, acknowledge, encourage and nurture your creative self. It is in you. It is ready to make, share and learn. Make amends and be AWESOME!

-KQ

Originally Published 2/28/13