This post was graciously and generously submitted by a dear friend and creativity coach Kathy Kane. Kathy's company Kane Creative Consulting helps individuals find a creative pathway to goal attainment. I've included the link to Kathy's blog. http://www.kanecreativeconsulting.com/CreativeCompass/
Thanks Kathy.
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Recently, I bought a book on creativity. The book was written almost 100 years ago. While struggling with an outdated style of prose I realized that these ideas were not new to me. They were probably not new then. They were truths that I see and hear often; that I know to be true; that I need to hear again and again. Lessons in creative courage.
Everywhere I look there are lessons. Some have come late; some were at my mother’s knee; some are being fired at me daily. Sometimes I have my Teflon shield up, playing Clueless Woman and letting the good stuff fall all around me. Other times, however, I get brave. I let my guard down and listen. Really, that’s the only way we really learn - with our eyes and hearts wide open. It takes courage and a small dose of humility. At least that’s how it is for me.
Henri Estienne said, “If youth knew; if age could”. What a lot of time wasted in between! Maybe the most important lesson is to look for the lesson; recognize the value in someone else’s story, know we don’t have to reinvent the wheel although we can certainly modify it to fit our journey. This is where we need that courage to open up to those lessons we hear over and over again; to see the lessons of those who went before. That’s where we could use a little of that humility to accept the fact that we don’t know it all and, as a matter of fact, we don’t have to!
As a recovering perfectionist I know just how tough it can be to take in those lessons. The lesson that says I can accept less than perfect from myself; maybe even small and crappy. The lesson that says I can continue to learn and that it’s actually fun; the lesson that shows me how to move toward my creative goals a minute at a time. I can listen to those who have struggled before me and realize that, okay, here’s another wheel I don’t have to reinvent. I can observe the joy of those who are sharing their story, who speak in the hope that I am listening and learning. I scrunch up my courage and jump in knowing the net will appear and changing my life in the process. All lessons I would have missed had I stayed wrapped up in the idea that I already knew it all.
Maybe I will pull out those water colors and leaf through a painting book and see how I might get back to something I put down years ago; something I avoided because I didn’t have the time to do it perfectly. I’ll take the teleclass in photography and, while my photos won’t be as wonderful as some of the others, perhaps I’ll develop a new way of seeing in the process. I’ll pay attention, drink in the lessons that are out there in the creative world of which we are all citizens. I’ll stay present and aware and let the lessons seep into my cells until they become a part of me. Maybe I’ll go back and revisit some of the lessons my mother taught me, too. I bet I’ve heard them a few times, too.
