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Top 5 Creativity Boosts

4/10/2022

Sometimes I try to understand the source of my creative frustrations. It is never for lack of inspiration or drive.

Most of the time, I am happy to meander and make discoveries that make me happy and continue on. But sometimes I do question.
Why do I create?
Do I need an end result, a finished product?

When this happens, I take inspiration from people who have found the perfect ways to articulate it.

I hope you enjoy my top five creativity boosts. If you'd like to share other quotes or posts, please comment below!

1. IRA GLASS

"Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work."

2. ETHAN HAWKE

"The pull of habit is so huge, and that's what makes kids so beautifully creative, is that they don't have any habits, and they don't care if they're any good or not, right? They're not building a sandcastle going, "I think I'm going to be a really good sandcastle builder." They just throw themselves at whatever project you put in front of them -- dancing, doing a painting, building something: any opportunity they have, they try to use it to impress upon you their individuality. It's so beautiful."

SEE THE FULL TALK ON TED

3. PATTI SMITH

"I wanted to be one of those people. I wanted to produce work that would be enduring—the work that would inspire other people."

SEE THE FULL INTERVIEW ON LOUISIANA CHANNEL

4. SIR KEN ROBINSON

"What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original -- if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities."

SEE THE FULL TALK ON TED

5. AUSTIN KLEON

"The creative life is not linear. It’s not a straight line from point A to point B. It’s more like a loop, or a spiral, in which you keep coming back to a new starting point after every project. No matter how successful you get, no matter what level of achievement you reach, you will never really “arrive.” Other than death, there is no finish line or retirement for the creative person. Forget about the finish line. Do this loop. Then do another. Keep going."