Whatever You Create is Worth the Fight

The creative life, so what is that? So many people talk about not being creative, not making things or having a creative bone in their body. I believe we are all creative in our own way. In our jobs, in our homes, in our problems solving or even in how we arrange things. Everyone has some form of creativity inside them waiting to get out, sometimes it shows up in a spreadsheet and in other ways it shows up as a piece of art. Either way someone had to problem solve and get creative to get something finished.

Picasso reminds us that being creative in any form means being courageous. It means moving past our fear of being wrong in order to move towards the finished product. It takes courage to try something new, to change a tried and true method or process, and to do it knowing that someone somewhere is going to have critical words to profess. There will always be critics, there will always be people who do not agree or understand, and there will always be someone who thinks they know better and have the right to tell you about how they are right. No matter how fabulous your output there will always be critics.

The key is not letting those critics become the voices in your head OR the element of fear that prevents you from moving forward. Fear can be paralyzing even if it is not real. For those of us who have perfectionist tendencies or work hard to dot every i and cross every t, the fear of being wrong can be paralyzing even if it only exists in the space between our own two ears. No one likes to put in all that effort to end up with nothing, a big mess, or a dud of a product. In this Picasso reminds us that we have to give up that fear and move forward. Not hide behind it, live within it like a warm blanket, or even give it room to grow. We have to actively lose our fear, and fear is ONLY cured through action. That means doing, creating more and more until we drowned the fear. Action cures fear, so keep going. Keep doing, keep moving forward despite the critics, the negative thoughts and the voice telling you that you are not enough.

To live the creative life we must FIRST lose our fear of being wrong…no kidding! It means fighting for the creative thing we do no matter what. It means surrounding ourselves with talented people who support and believe in us, so much so that their words of encouragement and belief muffle our own fear. THAT is when the creativity really kicks in. It means boxing within our own brain and acting as if before we even believe. Being creative in any form means being courageous, and whatever it is that you create is worth the fight!