Your creative journey is evolutionary

When I use the phrase “creative journey”, what I’m describing is a set of actions undertaken with the desire to birth an idea into the physical world. It could be the seed of any idea, expressed through any particular medium, for any intended outcome. The details don’t matter. What matters is that we are creating.

When we create, we are drawing life-force energy through our being. It is this process that allows us to experience the aliveness we all yearn for. We crave this sensation because it is our birthright. We were born to create. The reality is we are always creating. We can’t not. Every emotion we feel, a creation. Every experience we have, a creation. Our very existence is a creation. But what I am talking about here is offering ourselves as a conscious vessel through which creation happens.

We are a conscious vessel through which creation happens.

I’ve been fascinated by the creative process my entire life, however, it wasn’t until recent years that I finally understood myself as a creator. As a youngster, I was taught to believe that a “creator” was one who specifically created art, and not only that, they were deemed a creator only when they had achieved some sort of accredited mastery of their craft. I did not understand then that everything we perceive of is a creation. Nor did I know I had access to the energy that creates all reality and that I could create whatever I was inspired to create. To have known this would have saved me from a lot of wasted life. I wouldn’t have spent as much time on other peoples’ ideas and would have started much earlier creating from my own.

Everything I create in my work now is offered in support of others on their own creative journey, specifically in the process of creating their work. We are living in the “Creator Era” and I’m not talking about pumping out “content” for others’ consumption. That’s already old news. I’m talking about creating an entirely new reality for humanity. I believe we are the generations who are here to create the new paradigm, and I am here to help those who want to birth the work that supports this evolution. However, I find many others also have to undo similar conditioning that has led them to believe they are not capable as creators. I refer to the people I serve as “frustrated creators”, which has different meanings, depending upon where they are on their journey.

We are the generations who are here to create the work that supports humanity’s evolution.

When I first start working with people, many of them have never previously self-identified as a creator. I help them gain clarity about what it is they want to bring into the world. An important part of their journey is to understand their own unique creative process and to claim their inherent capacities as a creator. Others have known their whole lives that they are creators, but they were discouraged from a very young age to follow their creative impulses. It isn’t until later in life that they finally allow themselves to bring their dreams to life. Once people have begun birthing their work, then they realize how vexing the creative journey can be. It requires them to continually confront their own internal barriers, which can be daunting. When faced with some of these seemingly immovable blocks, many people will give up when really, their journey has only just begun.

If a genie were to grant me one wish that would allow me to impart any single piece of life-affirming wisdom I have earned from my own creative journey, it would be this:

Your creative journey is evolutionary.

Put in the iconic words of Abraham-Hicks, “You never get it wrong and you never get it done.” When it comes to what you are creating, you are never wrong because you are never done. Every point reached on your creative journey, whether it’s a dead end or an intersection, is just the starting point for the next phase of the process. There is no end. It evolves eternally.

Whether a creator has barely begun their journey, is neck deep in the middle of their process, or they’ve been toiling away at it for decades, all too often I see people abandon their creative ideas. Not because they came to a natural conclusion or evolved into something even more expansive, but because the most painful thing happened – they stopped believing in themselves as a creator. What I would wish for them to know is that they’ve not done anything wrong, they simply bumped into a “stopper” and mistakenly believed it to be the end of the road.

The “stoppers” in the creative journey (and what can get you “going” again)

As someone who is on my own evolutionary creative journey and have supported countless others on theirs, these are some of the obstacles I see disrupt the unfolding of the creative process:

You don’t think of yourself as a creator.

Most people are underinformed about what an effective creator they actually are. It is not common in our society, especially in conventional schooling, to educate people about what they are capable of. Instead, we are made to believe that our role in life is to get good grades and then go on to be a good “worker”. It is rare that we are encouraged from a young age to consciously tap into our creative abilities. The truth is, you are a magnificent creator and you are here to create.

You think you have to some fully fleshed out idea before you begin.

The creative process is not some pre-paved path to a known destination. Instead, it is an organic process of growth to a yet-to-be-realized outcome. It begins with a seed of an idea that you plant in the fertile soil of possibility. As a creator, your role is to tend to that idea and provide it with the “nutrients” it needs to become what it intends to become. It is not your job to know what that is. It is your job to tend to its growth. When you are in the ideation stage of the creative process, know that you are dreaming up the beginning of the creation’s life, not the end.

You don’t put yourself in the conditions for creating.

You can have all the brilliant ideas in the world with all the best intentions, but if you don’t actually put yourself into the conditions for creating, you will never create. You must carve out the time and space necessary to tend to your creative process. As author Stephen King describes, “Writing equals ass in chair.” There will never be a moment when your “to-do” list is magically complete and you can finally set to working on that project you’ve been dreaming about. You must prioritize the act of creating and put yourself in the conditions to create.

You are afraid of failing.

Ironically, “failing” is exactly what the creative journey entails. It is the intentional act of failing over and over again for the purpose of learning what the idea wants to become next. Without failure, there is no iteration. And without iteration, there is no creative process. Your creation is not born in its perfected, completed form. It becomes it over time with failure as the mechanism that allows for its evolution. Embrace failure as a necessary part of the creative process. Those who fail magnificently grow fastest.

You are waiting to have the resources “in hand”.

Many people claim they will begin their creative journey when they “have the time” or “have the money”. Sadly, the majority of those people will never start. This is because that the way resources come into being is in response to a decision having been made, not before. To receive the necessary resources you need to undertake your creative journey, you have to have already made the decision to begin. And actually begun the process.

You think it will require energy you don’t have.

As mentioned above, it is the act of creating what actually draws life-force energy through our bodies. It requires us to be in an open, receptive state, which is an enlivening experience rather than a depleting one. It is not the act of creating that makes people tired. It is their resistance to their creative journey what drains their energy. Allow your creative process to inspire you.

You don’t have patience with yourself and the process.

John Cleese, the epic comedian of Monty Python fame, has given many famous talks on his creative process and one of principles he shares is that all creators need to give themselves two kinds of time. The first “time” is as mentioned above as a condition for creating, i.e. to carve out an oasis of time for the creative process to occur without distraction. The second form of “time” is to give yourself an extended period of time for the creative process to unfold. He talks about how people seek to rush to the “end” rather than having patience and letting the creation have all the time it needs to reach its fullest potential. It could be days, months, even years. Slow down and enjoy the unfolding of the creative process. It truly is the exciting part of the journey.  

You feel alone.

Some creators thrive in solitude. Some thrive in a more collaborative creative process. Either way, we all need support and encouragement at some stage of our creative journey. Ask for and allow yourself to receive support!

It matters that you keep creating

Your creative journey matters for both you and for the world around you. One of the benefits to you is as I’ve already stated above. It is what draws life-force energy through you and sets your life alight. Who doesn’t want to feel on fire about life? In addition, it gives you a focal point and direct your energy and attention toward, which makes life feel meaningful.

As I also mentioned above, I truly believe that you are here to create the work of the new paradigm. I believe we all are. However, only some of us are hearing the call. If you are one of those who is hearing the call, you are not crazy. And know that the call will not end no matter how much you try to ignore it. Your peace lies not in your denial of the creative idea, neither in its end created state, but in the act of creating itself.

If you are hesitating to begin your creative journey, just start.
If you are faltering on your creative journey, keep going.
If you think your creative process will one day end, it won’t.

Allow your creative journey to unfold one inspired step at a time. And keep going!