How to Unshackle Your Creative Powers and Reclaim Your Dreams
You are creative and you have unfulfilled dream. Admit it boldly.
Somehow you have started believing that creative people are special and gifted. You started thinking that there are people with better skills and they got lucky. You like those mega-success stories of multi-billion dollar companies a few college drop-outs started and now became philanthropists. You know about them only what media has been telling you and what authors have been writing in their books.
There are polymaths, savants and kids of billionaires in this world. You may not be the one but you will never be able to reach to your full potential unless you try your best of all your abilities.
Everybody is creative and next big success could be you. In this wireless and border-less world everybody stands a chance, but if you don’t take it –that’s your mistake.
You can still create a life using your hidden creative powers, re-invent yourself and come out as Hero.
Live Your Unlived Life
Beyond the sea of sameness you have something in unique that you know and you only know. That life is still waiting inside you, waiting to be lived. You have resistance, you have this fear of failure, and you think that if you expose that part of unlived life — you will become vulnerable.
Long back, you were not afraid of coloring outside of the lines but slowly you learned staying within your boundaries. No doubt, there were reasons, there were limitations.
But, now, can you admit to the truth that you still have an unlived life? Then only you can start something.
To start with, no action required.
Just take a deep analysis of your creative skills, all those things you are passionate about and how they still stir you once see that in others or in the virtual world of internet/media.
Bring on your old memories (those pictures, video tapes, diaries, people, and places) relate those with your current mindset without any judgement. What resistance do you feel?
Do you see some proud moments? Do you find that something should have continued till this time? Those emotions, stories and resistance — has a lot to tell. Work on it, bring your passions back.
See how in today’s world you can transform those passions into something more useful. In this interconnected world everybody is a hero — all you need to do is share a story that is truly yours, which tears you apart and can bring magic to other people’s lives.
Now, how do you tell your story? Until now you have been reading about other people’s stories. You have been spending your day consuming all kinds of media. Put a hold to that endless media consumption and start creating something on your own.
Consume Less and Create More
You will find it difficult. Internet and media is so distracting and tempting that mega companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter are fighting for your attention and our minds are being high-jacked by their algorithms.
We have been constantly pulled away from our passionate and focused self to something as totally insignificant like a notification sound on our mobile.
We check our work email then without any guilt we are hooked on to some video –only because it is too tempting.
Remember You are the product. Facebook is not selling anything to you and if you are not paying for the product then you are the product. Why don’t you sell (share) some story that you always had. Why don’t you create instead of consuming?
Instead of letting tech companies manipulate your brain chemicals to keep you glued to some story (post, video) you can chose to create and share something that is a part of you, your story, your passion, your own unlived life.
It is not easy to start something on your own. If you have never written a single article on internet, if you have never been to a stage public speaking, you will have resistance and you will have fear.
But do you want those fears and mental blocks to stay forever inside you or you want to overcome those and start living your unlived life? You don’t have to tell, I know the answer.
Do It Now. Believe in the Art of Start.
It is not about learning how to do, it is about doing and by doing you learn how to do it better. If you are passionate about something, if the subject/product/service/feature is interesting, then can you do it better than other? Can you scale your idea if it really become successful?
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. -says, Lao Tzu
How will you create, share and pitch your ideas to the world? Who will support you? All these are intelligent questions. But, you need to start, and that’s how it has worked, always. Time will never be perfect.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. - Arthur Ashe
You are full of unshaped dreams and unlived life, and to start something new there won’t be a better time than now. Yes it will be difficult, may be impossible at the beginning — but if you don’t start you have to live with the failure — not because you failed — but because you never started.
Difficult, Impossible, Do It With Fear Anyway
Do you have a worthy goal? Have a passion to change the world? Good. It is much better than having many easy goals. Skills, efforts and time — these are secondary things, once you know how to start and hundred percent committed to your passion, it becomes unstoppable, difficult — impossible? may be, but the momentum that you are carrying will overcome anything.
New skills are getting easier to learn. In this inter-connected world, creating, sharing and marketing is easier and cheaper than ever.
What you know is not as important as what can you learn, and how you learn is more important than what you can learn. Sometimes when you don’t have many choices it appears that the perfect path remains.
So instead of becoming a success in this mediocre world by learning many easy and new things you should focus on what makes you tick. Find out what still stirs your soul and mindset, then learn whatever is required to be the best in the world. Mastering something can give you a unique path to create your influence on subject. There are many subjects that are difficult to understand, take pride in yourself. Do not listen to people who says you can’t do it.
You don’t even need to wait for any success, go ahead without it.
Keep Re-inventing Yourself
Once done, it’s not done. Soon you have to do it differently. You have to use new digital tools for millennium customers. Technology is changing faster than what we can learn and apply. You need to keep re-learning, re-skilling — and it never ends.
Your survival depends on how you pick up new knowledge, how you fit learning into everyday habits, and how you plan a unique future avenue for yourself.
More and more people of all ages are scaling up their hobbies and passions to achieve some business/economic returns
Life-long learning is the only way to keep re-inventing yourself. It also makes you less risk averse and more adaptable to change when it happens. Go ahead, keep re-inventing yourself. To do this you don’t need expert advice, if your connection to this world is passionate, transparent and humble — you will succeed beyond limits.
Experts are still important for the reason below.
Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it -Robert A. Heinlein
Believe in Mysteries and Myths
An adventure is far far away from the world of a common day. If you are after a worthy victory you cannot refuse a call to adventure. As a hero you must leave the ordinary world of common days and undergo the “ordeal” where you overcome obstacle by learning new skills and by resolving new problems. That is your work and reward (a treasure). Finally, you return to the world with your reward and help all with your new knowledge, passion and art. This was Campbell’s approach to hero’s journey where a hero has to go from “known” to “unknown”.
Such myths provide a cultural framework to the society to help them coping with their passage through the different stages of development.
Creative people will swear that there are some strange forces and energies, and those are mysterious. There are dimensions where time and space dissolve like some mind tricks they are playing. But we ourselves also do that, in dreams.
So do not shy away from your creative muse, you will see many portals open into time and space where our unlived lives are felt.
This is your gift you won’t want to miss out.
