This is why you create. And why you sometimes don’t want to

If you build a life around your creative skills, here’s what you know.

• The world does not make it easy for you.
• The world does not come knocking on your door and offering to pay you.
• You do not fit into easily definable boxes.
• You often feel like a square peg in a round hole

(If you don’t, it’s because you’ve surrounded yourself with people who think the same as you – who may or may not be succeeding. And people who think in the same way as you may not be challenging you in the way you need to be challenged.)

This is what you experience

• You are tested, again and again.
• There are times when you wish you did something that was easily defined. Being a doctor, or a plumber, or an accountant.
• To succeed, you have to be ready to be strong, even when you don’t feel like it. You have to show up when all you want to do is vanish.
• What defines your success is how you deal with the challenge that will come.

In The Creative Life Show, I talk to creatives who have build a life like this, and we talk about how they’ve come through the lowest, the toughest and the most challenging times.

But what’s clear is this.

• You can’t outrun the tiger if your exercise is walking to the shops.
• You can’t pass the exam if you haven’t studied the books.
• You won’t get out of the skid on the icy road if you’ve never learnt to handle an out-of-control car.
• You can’t get out of the river if you haven’t learned to swim.
• You can’t get through a crisis if you’re not prepared.

This is your creative life

Your creative work is like this, if you want it to be the foundation of your life.

You need to have things in place.

• The right people to lift you, inspire you, support you and kick you
• The right beliefs about yourself and your work
• The knowledge to take action with responsibility
• The preparedness to deal with uncertainty and risk
• The habit of deep, profound, practical curiosity

Like any skills and habits, these things take work. And they may never be finished.

But they’re essential. If you want to live a full, rich life based on your creativity.

(And if you don’t, that’s ok too).

What are you starting work on today?