The JOY of CREATING

You've heard of the Joy of Cooking? Well, today's focus is on the joy of creating.

If you’ve ever hung out with creatives, you've probably heard them say things like, "I’m on a tight deadline and this has really become a grind." "I’m never going to get this finished."

And truth be told, the above is part of any creative process.

But it’s not all of the process.

It’s time to tell ourselves better stories about our creative projects.

As the ABBA lyrics go, "Every feeling you're showing, is a boomerang you're throwing."

The more we talk about how HARD a project is, the HARDER it becomes.

If we're feeling frustrated, stressed out, resentful, it's going to show up in our work.

Brian Tracy says, "Never say anything to yourself you don't want to come true."

Let's start telling ourselves what we want to be true about our creative project.

Let's focus on what a gift and privilege it is to have freedom of expression.

Let's remember that creative projects are a way to make a contribution now and in the future.

I’m speaking (writing?) from experience about the importance of shifting our perspective.

I was working on a book proposal for Tongue Fu! 2.0 earlier this year. (Yes, even though my books have sold in 17 languages for 20+ years, I still have to write a book proposal.)

And my creative juices had dried up.

Perhaps underneath it all, I was resenting the fact I had to submit yet another proposal to prove I was worth publishing.

Then, (thank you Serendestiny), I heard an interview with the creative genius SARK.

She told a wonderful story about an executive who tried to hire her to market his new book.

She said, "I have one question for you. 'Do you love your book?'"

He said, "It got the highest advance this publisher has ever given for a business book."

Sark repeated her question. "Do you love your book?"

He told her, "I’ve hired a branding specialist and a social media team to promote it."

She asked again. "Do you love your book?"

He said, "My goal is to be a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller."

Sark told the interviewer, "He never answered the question and I chose not to work with him. His book made a brief splash when it came out and then disappeared from the shelves."

She went on to explain why she believes loving your work is the lead domino to its success.

I agree. We can invest months of hard work into our creative projects. We can throw tons of money at them. We can hire lots of experts to market them.

But if we don't love them, they will never resonate with people the way they deserve to, and need to, in order to be an evergreen success.

As Robert Frost said, "No joy in the writer, no joy in the reader."

What is a creative project you're working on?

Do you love it?

Or has your creativity become a "means to an end?"

Instead of immersing yourself in the joy of expression, are you focused only on how many fans, followers, forwards, likes, clients, and new streams of income this will generate?

Please understand. I've been an entrepreneur for three decades.

I know it's important to care about money. We won't stay in business if we don't.

Yet focusing solely on the bottom-line results of our work is soul-sucking.

We can’t really control the end game of our work, and it can be crazy-making to try to do so.

What we can control is to love the opportunity to do what I call "Katherine Graham" work.

She said, "To do what you love and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun?"

Exactly.

It's not too late to have a change of heart, and a change of mind, and to remember that creativity is fun.

Right now, fill yourself with how fortunate you are to do meaningful work that matters.

Then, approach it with an appreciative heart and see it as a JOY, not a CHORE.

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