“Be a vehicle for creating what only you can create.”
If every to-do list you’ve ever made was stored in the Library of Congress and you could grab that thick collection of tasks from the shelf and examine it, page by page, how hard would it be to find items in which you are creating something unique? Buried in the grocery shopping, housecleaning, driving your kids, paying bills, setting up appointments and repairs . . . where are the tasks of creation, or expression?
How many entries are there for:
- Write a poem
- Paint a painting
- Photograph the sunset
- Work on my novel
- Make a table from pieces of wood
- Invent a new food dish for which no recipe exists
When you find those entries – and this is the most revealing part of your research – how many of them are checked off? When it came down to it, did you choose grocery shopping over painting or did your family eat sauceless pasta while you worked on a poem that might be part of the legacy you leave behind when you die?
It takes courage to face a blank piece of paper, an empty canvas or a collection of boards and bring something new and unique into the world.
What you create doesn’t need to be good. Give up on creating something of value. That will be decided after it’s out of your hands.
Commit to doing the work. Commit to being an expression of life instead of just an errand boy. Commit to doing what only you can do — to creating what only you can create. Make a statement about who you are and why you’re here. And when you are exhausted, spent and drained of every ounce of creative spirit . . . then take a break and go to the supermarket.
- Gregg Krech (author of The Art of Taking Action: Lessons from Japanese Psychology)
