My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.”
― Hugh MacLeod
Yep, some days are like this. The mind is blank, empty. No creative juices are flowing. What was in there yesterday has been moved out. Where’d it go? I have gone through those times when I needed to fill the empty garage with new tools. Give me more camera equipment, I shouted. Now I will admit a new tool can help stir up creativity but creativity by itself is not going to be found on those same shelves as our tools, it’s in another department. Well, those times in my life when my mind seems empty I have learned a few things that will help refill it.
I also do some of these things to refill and refresh all aspects of my life. What are some things you do to refill the empty creative garage?
“Worrying about doing something new ends up stunting creative growth. Being creative does NOT require doing something new. It requires doing something that is authentically your real personal and true vision. If you take away anything from this blog post, I hope it’s that.” Scott Bourne
What a powerful post Scott wrote for me, sort of like a personal letter. There are several nuggets in his post, I posted one of them a couple days ago. My history has included a lot of worry. As I’ve aged in years and have a few more experiences under my belt, those worries are far less frequent. I no longer work in engineering because I do not want to wake up in the middle of the night worrying about a problem that needs solved. In fact I could have used his quote back then. It nice to live the day as it unfolds before us and not struggle to make it way we want it. When I live the moment I can be more creative. Walking the beach for me is nothing new, done it a few times and love it. I’ll do it again, living the moment and see what creative juices flow without worries.
“The creative process can start to open up once you just trust yourself. If you empower yourself to try something different and give yourself permission to fail, you become more creative. Don’t make the metrics of success or failure the guidelines by which you proceed. Instead make experimentation, expression and joy the metrics.”
Scott Bourne
Here us a good read by Scott Bourne where he said somethings impacting me and my life. We have the opportunity to unlock the door to our creative process: the key of trust.