“On such a flat earth, the most important attribute you can have is creative imagination.” – Thomas Friedman

Will you have the courage to create?

It’s a choice that asks you to fully be you. In business, art, writing, relationships, parenting, working a crappy job, cooking, wherever life finds you, your success will hinge on how creative you will allow yourself to be.

I choose to create. Here is what I stand for. Will you join me? 

• To create is to simply step into how I was created to be. If I’m going to truly be someone, I better damn well be comfortable being myself.

• Creating is a courageous fight against “the way it’s always been.” To bring forth something inside you that’s been waiting for its chance to speak.

• To truly do good art is to pay attention. We’re living in a masterpiece. To create is to simply take notes.

• To create something new is to hold someone’s face and show them what they’ve walked past countless times before.

• I want to feel more. To step out in the rain, look up, hands and mouth opened wide.

• I don’t want to just listen to music. I want to hear it. To feel it. To let it seep into my bones like a sponge. I don’t want to listen to a thousand songs. I want to truly sing just one.

• It’s easy to follow instructions. It’s hard to create your own. (click to tweet that)

“Art involves labor. Not the labor of lifting a brush or typing a sentence, but the emotional labor of doing something difficult, taking a risk and extending yourself.” – Seth Godin, Linchpin

• To create is to take the best of who we are and let it find a home within a medium.

• Creating is to infuse our purpose, personality, and potential into the work set before us. To live as an un-creative is to mindlessly consume life like it’s a tray of packaged cafeteria food.

• The world will be inherited by those who can see it differently than everyone else.

• I will not create for the critics.

• I will not create food for the ravage dogs to greedily consume. I will offer nectar to anyone willing to stay and take a sip.

• Critics love tearing down what you’ve built. Yet they’ve never built anything themselves.

• Taking creative advice from a critic is like asking your hammer how to paint. (click to tweet)

• I will not let The Liar take me out. When I sit down to do my work, he will begin to speak. I will spot his lies before they come. He has no authority over me.

“Giving the Liar authority to speak truth into my life is as insane as letting a wrecking ball build my house.” – 101 Secrets For Your Twenties

• I don’t want to live pretty and put-together. The only way to make something is to first make a mess.

• I will dance like I’m three again. To twirl. Smile. Marvel in the movement. To fall and jump right back up. To fall and turn it into a new move.

“You write your first draft with your heart and you re-write with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think.” — Sean Connery

• Creating, at the core, is telling the truth. It’s honesty at its rawest form. It’s scrapping your knuckles. It’s licking the tear drop. To create is to present something to the world that you’ve been 100% present within. (click to tweet that)

• Creating is not impartial. When you create, you are taking a side. You are making intentional choices. You are taking a stand. You are committing through form, medium, brush, song, written word. Every choice is creating meaning. Every creative choice is arguing a point without having to argue.

• It’s hard to create something new if you’re hoping to be validated in the process. (click to tweet)

• There are enough critics and cynics for me to join the ranks.

“Complaining is passive and powerless. Creating is proactive and powerful.” – 101 Secrets For Your Twenties

• Every innovator was told it’s impossible.

• Every artist battled and was baffled.

• Every artist got lost.

• As a creative you have to “go there” even if you have no idea how you’re going to get out. (tweet that?)

“God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.” — Pablo Picasso

• “In the beginning, God created…” Will I pay it forward?