If for some time you don't write or express your ideas & creativity, in some time you stop having new ideas and creative breakthroughs. That is why it is important for creative folks to write/document their creations without fear of criticism or anxiety of acceptance. And everyone is creative, in some aspect of their life or the other.
Everyone Has the Creative Block Some time or The Other.
Nobody is a writing factory (except perhaps GPT-3). People who write well do so because they write a LOT. They also usually read a lot. Good writers are not born overnight.
Braving the creative block is what makes you a writer or a creative pro. Writer’s block is only one type of a creative block. All creative folks feel “stuck” at some time or the other.
Even for a finance pro, sharing their ideas, knowledge, beliefs, makes them only better, more grounded in their profession. Professions should not be classified into “creative” or “non creative.” Anything can be creative, if you want it to be. Creativity is the fuel that makes the world move forward.
And everyone feels like they have “run out of creativity” in their work. That is OKAY.
It just means you brave on & rethink, reinvent, re-plan. Or maybe go one step further and rediscover your purpose - what really are you trying to do and what do you hope to achieve? Can it be done any way other than what you have tried so far? Brainstorm.
Whatever you do, don’t remain stuck due to inaction.
Everyone must write/ create somewhere, preferably digitally, because it is what helps you keep the process going. Marketing & changing economic structure aside (everything is going digital), it is one way for you to give a super-easy outlet to your creative side. Many professions don’t give enough room for it as part of the everyday job. That should not kill your ideas or creativity. Platforms like Substack, Ghost, Wordpress etc give you a painless way to start sharing your humour, knowledge, informed opinions, inspiration, love and purpose with the world. Maybe only a few people vibe with you. But that is OKAY. Keep moving forward, and a tribe might grow around you at a snail slow pace. Those are people to whom what you say actually matters (as opposed to those who just “follow” you for whatever x reason but don’t really care about what you say).
Forget the Idea of Marketing For Some Time. Or Forever
As a content marketer with 5+yrs of experience in the field, I can guarantee that it is also a great long term marketing strategy, but the idea of “marketing” makes people feel that they need to be “salesy” (Marketing is NOT sales. I don’t know why people don’t understand that). They get stressed or they become overly advertorial in their content, and eventually do not share anything informational or inspirational at all. They are too busy with only “link building” and what not marketing jargon.
So chuck the idea of marketing for the moment. This is YOUR voice. This is about YOU. About your creative ideas, your thoughts, your expressions. Not your product or whatever. Make it so.
Be Genuine. Hypocrisy is Death to Creativity.
Make it good, make it genuine, make it authentic, make it truthful to yourself and to the world.
And if you are not that brilliant at it, or “big people” don’t like or disagree with you, that is also OKAY. Not everyone can like everything. Not everyone can agree with everything. This is not about everyone in the first place. This is only your creative outlet. It is your digital block on the digital world. It is home to your original thoughts. Let it be so & let the world decide what it wants to do.
Hypocrisy can win fans, may even win “hearts” sometimes. But it is certain death for creativity. Creativity cannot, does not flourish in the shed of hypocrisy. To be truly creative, you have to be truly you.
Perfectionism is for the Long Run
Try to get better with time, but don’t expect to write or sound like Gary Vee or JK Ro on day 1. Start where you are, and work from there. Having high standards is good only if it doesn’t stop you from moving forward. Because moving forward is the idea. Pursuit of excellence always makes you move forward. Expectation of perfectionism without proportionate effort makes you stuck.
If you don’t know how to write well, learn. Read. Observe. Experiment. Fix your mistakes. The process is more important than the comparative judgement.
So, instead of sulking, worrying, being anxious for acceptance, start with doing something worthwhile: start writing or documenting the process of your creation. Be fearlessly you in that effort. And your own knowledge, talents, creativity will skyrocket. And that I believe to be one of the biggest assets anyone can have right now. The world belongs to those who believe in making the effort, being truthful to themselves, levelling up and moving forward (IMHO).
Photo by Dominika Roseclay from Pexels