How to Express Yourself Creatively and Detach from the Outcome
Have you ever thought what might be your creative outlet? Do you take pride in looking after your garden, catch yourself you like to talk in front of people or you’re a master baker? Do you have a passion for fashion or take pleasure in sewing or knitting pieces of clothing? Just to name a few, there are hundreds of ways you can express yourself creatively.
We’ve been raised with the idea that you have to be an artist in order to be creative.
And that’s not true at all. Our creative gifts are God-given and there’s a purpose why we’ve always enjoyed doing a certain occupation or craft. It’s because we’re here to share our gift with other people, no matter what it is. If you think yours is too conventional or insignificant, keep reading to find out how you can overcome your doubt and procrastination when it comes to inner callings.
There are 3 main reasons why people don’t let themselves be creative:
- They don’t know what their creative gift is.
- They don’t know how to express it.
- They think it should pay off otherwise it’s not worth doing it.
Let’s go through all those assumptions and see what we can do to turn them around.
Step 1:
If you haven’t ever thought what your talent might be, in the following month or two start to consciously pay attention to what it is that you enjoy doing,
what’s the activity you catch yourself you wish you had more time to practise regularly. The key here is not to limit yourself to only one or to prejudge your ideas by thinking that’s too trivial or too bizarre.
Release your mind from any preconceptions of what you think you know for yourself and start noticing when you watch a movie, read an article or talk to a friend – if any ideas that please you pop into your head. Also, listen to what family members or friends tell you – start to really listen – do they mention your house is so nicely decorated that you should consider a career in interior design? Or maybe a friend asked you to organize their birthday celebration as you’re so good with organizing events? Write them down and move to Step 2.
Step 2:
Let’s assume that you already know what your passion is. That’s a very good starting point because you’ve already reached a certain level of awareness and that’s the first and most important step of any change.
The truth is that a recurrent desire to do a certain activity means it will enrich your life, connect you with yourself and other people and help you find better balance.
You’ve probably come across the quote that if you have a surpressed desire, it will find its way to emerge in unhealthy or sometimes even destructive ways. That’s why you need to honour your creative urges, or even better – practise them on a regular basis. How do you do that?
Think of quick and inexpensive ways how you can start expressing your gift straight away and what equipment/ connections can facilitate this process.
You can buy a nice make-up set and start experimenting with colours on yourself and friends. You can give new life to old clothes from your closet by altering them or sketch dresses if you enjoy design and fashion. You can be a catering specialist by cooking fancy dishes and presenting them in a beautiful way for your family and friends. It’s all creativity and the ways you find to express it can be numerous.
Step 3:
What do we do next? Do you quit your job and devote all your time and energy to making a living from your creative outlet? Do you wait for your special day when you would be discovered and a wealthy entrepreneur would surprise you with an offer to invest in your talent? This might be the case for some people and it’s totally ok if that works for you. However, most of us still need to make a living and support a family.
In terms of work-creativity dilemma, my approach has been: “Don’t go for extremities, cleverly combine and take advantage of both.”
In other words, honour your commitments but dig out time for yourself and your creative gifts. More often than not, your talent will require some investment and you’ll need to fund it from somewhere. Also, if you’re pressed to start making money from it, you might gradually lose your stamina and it may become just another chore on your list.
It’s important to know that not all of our creative gifts have to be turned into career choices or business.
You can express them for the joy of doing it, for the sake of making a world a better place or just to find your own thing. The financial reward should be your secondary thought.
If you eventually benefit from it financially that’s a great success but don’t limit yourself that you should create only to make money.
That kind of thinking deprives you from the joy of the process.
Now, have you thought what your talents might be? What ways can you find to express them? I look forward to reading your comments.
