You Were Meant To Be Creative
It takes time to be creative, but remember, you were meant to be creative, because you were created in the likeness and image of the Creator. And in that likeness and image of a creator you have creativity. If only you had time, you would be creative. The most important thing to do is to value our time. So what are you going to do with this time? How much of it do you think you have already used up. What are you going to do today?
What exactly is creativity?
Creativity is the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. Creativity is the mental characteristic that allows a person to think outside of the box, which results in innovative or different approaches to a particular task.
Creativity is intelligence having fun. ââ Albert Einstein
What's killing your creativity?
When you aim for perfection, you discover itâs a moving target.âââGeorge Fisher
Inappropriate attention to detail may be killing your creativity.
Many perfectionists have unrealistic expectations of themselves without knowing it. It destroys creative lives. Perfectionism takes away time, money, and resources. Itâs an unattainable illusion. If you want to be the best at anything, you need to be the best at practicing and iterating more than anyone else and knowing when to let go. Perfection is an endless productivity loop.
Anyone working in a creative field knows the relentless pursuit of perfection is time-consuming. The urge to get things just right never goes away. Strive to do your very best, but donât aim for perfection.
The lack of perfection does not mean a lack of quality. Abandoning perfection doesnât mean you should settle or make lazy excuses for your work. Itâs great to have high creative standards and strive for excellence. But at any point in your creative process, you have to know when youâve contributed enough to tip the scales close enough towards perfection without compromising the rest of your work.
âPerfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough ? that we should try again.ââââJulia Cameron
âPerfect lets you stall, ask more questions, do more reviews, dumb it down, safe it up and generally avoid doing anything that might fail (or anything important)â says Seth Godin. That urge to redo, revise, and re-edit your work until you get everything just right is what you should avoid. Second-guessing yourself and doubting by looking for the faults in your work will only make stalling worse. Perfectionism can prevent you from finishing your most important and meaningful work.
BrenĂŠ Brown, author of âThe Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think Youâre Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Areâ explains:
âUnderstanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, itâs often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.
Healthy striving is self-focused: How can I improve? Perfectionism is other-focused: What will they think? Perfectionism is a hustle.â
When do you stop working on something (because itâs good enough)? That is an important question you will face a lot of times on your creative journey. Great creative professionals are practical and know when their work is excellent and most importantly they know when to stop the unachievable pursuit of perfection. Youâve only got a finite amount of time and resources to invest in anything. It pays to allocate your limited time and resources on getting real work done.
Choose to be your authentic self
Once you accept the fact that youâre not perfect, then you develop some confidence.âââRosalynn Carter
Replace perfect with contentment. Perfection stops you from launching, shipping, releasing, hitting send or publishing your creative work because of a fear of failure. You fear your work is not good enough. You are afraid no one will buy it, use it, share it or recommend it.
Give yourself permission to put your work out there without holding back. Once you stop trying to be perfect, you will be surprised at how much work you can actually get done. You will be a lot more productive and content with yourself. You will happier and more relaxed. Your approach to creative work will be different.
No one is perfect. Itâs about time you cut yourself some slack and focus on progress instead of perfection. Just be your best you. Thatâs all the world requires of you. You will make mistakes but that should not stop you from showing us your most authentic self.
Make adjustments along the way as you create. Instead of striving for a perfect end, you should aim for incremental improvements. Itâs a much better goal. Stop questioning yourself and get your best work out there.
True creative geniuses are always honing their crafts, looking to learn more, improve new releases or give a better performance. When you work towards continued improvement, you set yourself up for greatness. The key is not to make perfection your goal at the outset. This frees you to focus on getting something truly amazing done.
If you intent to creating something remarkable, learn to embrace who you are, celebrate your strengths and donât let your weaknesses overshadow your best work. Inappropriate attention to detail is the reason why you have not launched your work. By all means, get it right but donât aim for perfection.
Creativity takes courage.
