Regain-Your-Creativity-Newsletter-3

💎 1 Tip To Launch, Grow, Or Monetize.

It can be scary.
To first start creating.
Or when we move to a new platform.

But, there are no new moves, no truly novel ideas.

This is why it’s so important to Steal Like An Artist

We are not born with the ability to walk, or talk.
We learn by copying other people.
Same goes for making art.

For creating.

If we are not willing to copy others, then we won’t find our own voice.

We find our own voice by getting inside the minds of those creating before us.

Not just by copying the surface of what they do, but by understanding what it feels like to think like them.

Look at some of the people you see creating awesome things and copy them.
Don’t plagiarize, but copy them.

And if you copy them enough you will shift from imitation to inspiration.
From copying to emulating. From emulating to making your own stuff in your voice.

💡 Steal ideas and concepts from six creators you look up to. Find two people creating content in the medium you have chosen, two people creating on the platform you have chosen and two people who share similar topics, or ideas you have chosen.

Austin Kleon covers this concept beautifully in his book titled “Steal Like An Artist”.

💎 1 Mini Essay On Designing Your Creator Life.

We are all creative.

But much like a statue that gets covered in dirt and mud, sometimes our creativity is covered.

I wish I had an opportunity to interview Sir Ken Robinson. He has a famous TED Talk & book called “Schools Kill Creativity”

Schools Kill Creativity In Two Ways:

Investing less time and energy into creativity than other subjects
Teaching kids to believe there are right and wrong answers

Most 6 year olds are more creative than 26 year olds 🤯

As kids we had no problem being seen as “weird”.

But then we learned the fear of social rejection.

We had no problem trying something new.

But then we learned about priorities and productivity.

But what if we want to be able to access our creative ability?

What if we want to actually increase creativity as we age?

The fun thing is we don’t have to start from scratch.
It’s not like learning the piano for the first time.
It’s much more like riding a bike.

Remember the example I just gave about our creativity being a statue covered in dirt?

We just need to clean the statue. As we clean the statue, we will re-gain more and more confidence in our creativity.

There are three elements of a creative mind:

Build on existing ideas
Imagine new ideas
Try new ideas

I would argue that a fourth element of creativity should exist. At least as it relates to the creator economy.

Bravery to ship our work

I’m a big believer that shipping our work is the most generous thing we can do.

It might inspire someone else to create.

Sharing our work can be the spark that helps someone else re-claim, or improve their own creativity.

When it comes to re-gaining our creativity. To clean the dirt off our creative statue, it starts with an understanding that the ability has been there all along.

There is NO SUCH THING AS “I’m not a creative person.”

With a growth mindset, we say we have not learned something “yet”.
When it comes to creativity it’s the opposite. I am not creative “anymore.”

Because creativity is a natural human ability, more common than the ability to walk.

In fact, the closest translation for “creativity” in Tibetan language, according to the Dalai Lama is “Natural”.

And this is what we can learn from kids. How to be more natural.

Any time you get stuck on your creative journey, rely on advice like:

Go with your gut
Be yourself

Reflect on your own creativity. Do you try new things? Do you build upon others? Can you imagine brand new concepts? And are you sharing as much as you can?