The Happy Creative Journey: Start Where You Are
I will get to the point of the "Happy Creative Journey" in a moment and how it might help you in your business (and life), but first, allow me to share my new dream with you. It has taken many years to put words to what I want to do and the spine to do it. You can call this my "Build the Sistine Chapel Moment."
I want to draw a straight line.
Not just any line, mind you, but one that Michelangelo might have pointed at with awe, "Oh che bella, Bill," he'd say, "Look at how beautiful and straight and nuanced your line is." Of course, I'd bow humbly and then reach into my backpack to show him my circle.
I'll spare you the suspense; I already drew the line. Here it is:
Go ahead, catch your breath. I'll wait.
I call it "Nature's Perfect Line." As any mathematician will tell you, there is no perfect line in nature, which, at long last, means I don't have to be perfect, or maybe I'm already imperfectly perfect enough. Either way, my line is a symbolic first step toward an even more ambitious dream.
I want to start making more art, different art—pen and ink, watercolor, doodles on a napkin, chalk on the sidewalk, pastels, crayons, acrylics, poems, puppet shadows, whatever you got.
I'm not sure where I'm headed. For now, I want to let the scratch and swoosh of a pen and brush nudge me where I need to go, and without thinking I have to end up anywhere. It's time to unapologetically become a beginner again and reclaim the spirit and joy of creativity that has been missing in my life.
But I don't want to be a weekend creative either. Forty-eight hours is not enough time, especially if the house needs vacuuming and we're out of bananas. I want to start making art in my business and personal life as well. I have already begun re-creating my business as its own expression of art. I have abandoned my old website and changed my company name to my own name (instead of some larger-than-life agency that I am not). I even put a life-size photo of me on my homepage, which goes against every fiber in my being. On top of that, I have decided to only work with like-minded creatives and entrepreneurs who also want their work to reflect who they are and how they want to live (the truest art form there is).
I hope you will join me on this journey to live creatively within and without the confines of your business or career. We will not seek to abandon knowledge and expertise, hard work and persistence, just not at the expense of intuition, instinct, purpose, joy, and happiness. We can continue to measure our business with likes and followers, leads and customers, growth and profit, but we will also measure our business by how well it generates a good life, which is precisely what will make our businesses and careers more successful. And if they don't, we'll die with smiles on our faces. And if all this is not your kind of goal, well, I’m guessing you probably stopped reading after the word "happy" in the title.
“Creativity is not a talent, it’s a way of operating.”
While I pause at the idea of defining what this blog will be about, The Happy Creative Journey will set out as a weekly collection of tips, tools, and thoughts to help you (and me) create the business and life we want to lead—a creative laboratory of sorts. I can't help but feel my artistic dream will play an essential part in this journey. Already I see how my "uneven line" connects to all aspects of my life. And, of course, because it's a journey, I expect it could change direction at a moment's notice. Feel free to jump off the bus as you like (I've jumped off three times in the course of writing this).
If you stay, I hope you will stretch yourself to explore as many different sides of your creativity as possible. Maybe you'll start the new business you've always dreamed about or redefine the one you've already created. Perhaps you want to draw lines, too. Or make soufflés, watercolor, or get back to that novel, or start a non-profit to save turtles. Whatever it is, I hope you will be called to create something that feeds your spirit so you will jump out of bed each morning with renewed energy and purpose, even if it's just to do the dishes or feed the dog. Life's too precious for anything less.
Thank you for joining me on my journey to become the only kind of creative I ever wanted to be—a happy one.
You deserve the same.
Creative Steps To Take This Week
Ask yourself what is your ‘perfect line?’ That special thing you have to say, do, share, learn, and give away? What lights you up and fires the cells in your body? If you don’t know, consider the thought that finding out could be the most creative and important line there is.
If you’re already doing what you want to do, ask yourself how you can take your creativity in new and braver directions. Perhaps in ways that have absolutely nothing to do with growing your business or feeding your family (you won’t be a bad person).
Do something that allows you to become a beginner again, which will empower your creative expression—keeping you curious, joyful, and evolving, while also squashing the hell out of your need for perfection, comparison, and unrealistic expectations.
A quote to tape on your mirror:
“When we share what we were brought here to give, we are in alignment with our highest, most powerful selves.”
Jen Shapiro, You are a Bad Ass
