5 Creativity Myths & How to Recover from Them: Myth No. 5
I’m not going to lie. This is an ironic post.
If you’re one for reading publishing dates, you’ll notice there’s a lag between Myth No. 4 and Myth No. 5. By lag, I’m talking eight months.
And no, I haven’t been in a hospital-induced coma.
I’ve been off focusing on other work, and now I’m back to Inklivity full-time.
It only felt fair to tie this series up. Let's recap:
1: Creativity isn't magic. It's a muscle.
2: Creativity belongs in strategic jobs––not just artsy ones.
3: Developing creativity is not indulgent. It's practical.
4: If I'm burnt out or I feel stuck, there's nothing I can do.
And today, we're concluding this series with:
Myth No. 5: My creativity isn't worth fighting for.
Why is it so easy to believe our creativity isn't worth fighting for?
Speaking from personal experience, and a recent wrestling with this very myth, I think there are several headspaces that lead us to believe this myth.
Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit:
01/ Comparison
Comparison is one of the easiest ways we talk ourselves out of investing in our creative work. We can always find someone who's smarter. Better. Faster. And with the ever-expanding catalyst of the internet, we can talk ourselves out of our work at 5G speed.
And I know. I’m half rolling my eyes. We all know comparison is a problem. But we don't see it as problematic enough to get a grip on it.
02/ Our Evaluation of Value is Skewed
We’re not so good at recognizing value. We talk ourselves out of our creativity when we feel like what we’re working on doesn’t really matter. (AKA doesn’t have value). And this gets us in trouble, 'cause like I said, we’re not always the best at recognizing what’s important.
03/ Patience Has Left the Chat
There’s lots more we could talk about on this, but really deep, creative work takes time. There’s no way around it. I think when many of us work with tools that make creative processes faster, we can forget there are some elements of the creative process that simply cannot be sped up.
04/ Pursuing Creative Work Requires Facing Down Real Obstacles
Maybe your obstacles are time, your own mind, financial restraint, etc. For others of us, we could be facing illness, pain, or living in environments that try to choke out our creativity. I think many of us fall for the assumption that creativity isn't worth the discomfort of facing the obstacle.
I’ll give a personal example, to put myself on the chopping block.
This latest edition of Inklivity comes with risk. My new business partner (learn more about her here) and I are pivoting Inklivity from a graphic design agency into a branding, messaging, and design agency. With that comes the sensation of risk. We’re doing something new. We’re doing something together. We’re putting our ideas out there on this blog, Rethinker, and social media in ways we haven’t before.
In other words, there are obstacles.
And I've had to push myself through them. Because fighting for creative output does matter. Whether you’re in a traditionally “artsy” or “creative” industry or not. Bringing newness into the world, as well as fixing old busted things is going to require you (at some point) to confront an obstacle, look at what’s on the other side, and make a decision.
What Does Fighting For Your Creativity Even Look Like?
I’m assuming most of you are not taking to blue body paint, spears, and the Braveheart soundtrack to wage war for your creativity (I enjoy my Nikes and sweats, thank you very much).
Jokes aside, I think "fighting for your creativity" is hard because you don't always know what the value will be. It's hard to write your first manuscript when you don't know if you'll get a literary agent. It's hard to put your ideas out there when you're not sure anyone wants them.
That's the tricky part. You don't truly know the value of your creativity until you fight for it. And you won't fight for it if you don't value it. The question becomes, can you value it enough to fight for it before it's value is proven?
The good news is, fighting for your creativity is rarely as dramatic as it sounds. Waging a successful war against the obstacles looks a whole lot more like little pivots and taking chances than it does hyping yourself up for a boxing match.
For me, fighting has literally looked like:
Asking my friend to come and join me in the business
Rewriting and rewording different sections of the website
Doing research into pricing
Watching videos on mastering random things in Adobe Illustrator
Getting frustrated with a project, taking my dogs around the block, and coming back to try again
It hasn’t looked like one big moment where I vanquished all concerns, all feelings of imposter syndrome, silenced all comparisons, etc. Instead, it’s been comprised of little decisions and a willingness to build without a guarantee of success.
It's creating in the midst of mystery, at risk of sounding poetic.
Whenever we’re trying to make something new or fix something old, creativity requires pressing into the unknown––whether it’s the unknown of what doesn't exist, or what hasn’t yet been solved. The sensation of uncertainty can convince us our creative work isn’t worth fighting for. When the truth is, it is.
How to Fight Sustainably
As we draw this final myth (now busted) to a close, I want to leave you with a few thoughts (all of which I’ve lived out) that have made fighting for creativity sustainable.
01/ You have to be totally honest with yourself, but not necessarily listen to what you’re saying.
Odd statement, but hang with me. Sometimes your inner voice will be screaming, panicking, listing out all the ways things could go horribly wrong. If you don’t slow down to hear what you’re saying, the words will find another way of coming out. Usually in bodily form. (Yeehaw cortisol!)
It's a tension to walk this line, but you need to listen to what you’re saying without necessarily following it for direction. Your inner voice may scream an obstacle isn't worth facing. Acknowledge the voice. Analyze its claims. Make wise decisions. Then take a risk on your creativity anyway.
02/ You need someone to fight for your creativity with you.
You need someone with you. The name Inklivity was largely inspired by the famous writers group The Inklings with J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Both Lewis and Tolkien had moments where they wanted to give up on their written work we all know and love. And they each needed the other for encouragement to keep going.
Imagine. If Lewis and Tolkien couldn’t see what they were creating on their own, I can’t imagine we’re a lot better.
03/ Commit to the long haul.
Part of a sustainable fight for creativity comes down to the pace. We love the idea of overcoming our creative obstacles in a moment, but more often than not, they take a lot more resilience than that. I’m not sure you can fight for your creativity without some degree of borderline obnoxious persistence. Especially now. There are just so many other things you could do. You could go entertain yourself. You could switch to a different project. You could compare yourself to countless other creators across countless other channels.
And the list goes on and on.
But there’s one more hidden gift in debunking this myth…
Fighting For Your Creativity Changes Who You Are
Not only is your work different on the other side, but you are shaped by valuing what you’re trying to bring into the world and fighting for it.
I know for a fact I’m being shaped by this process of revamping Inklivity. It’s requiring me to think differently. It’s requiring me to work differently. It’s requiring me to read different types of books and tune into new podcasts.
And in the process, I am becoming a different type of creative.
I’d rather be someone who believed my creativity was valuable and pressed through the obstacles than to be someone who gave up at the first sign of resistance. And I'm guessing you would too.
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