The Power of Creativity \(Book 1\): Learning How to Build Lasting Habits, Face Your Fears and Change Your Life pdfdrive com

Creative Takeaways
Come out of your bat cave, go and meet your audience and show

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them what you’ve got. Study their reactions intensely.
Start tracking your progress and what you’ve learnt about your craft.

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5
FIND A CREATIVE MASTER
“No one is really going to help you or give you direction. In fact, the odds are
against you.”
– Robert Greene
S
TOP
IT
.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
You might think your problems are special, unique, or impossible for anyone
else to understand. But you know what?
We’re all struggling with the same basic creative problems.
You’re not the only one who struggles, wants to think outside the box, needs
motivation to keep going or craves critical feedback about their work.
You’re not the only one who spends hours tinkering with your ideas and still
hates them. And you’re not the only one who’ll do anything–clean the bathroom,
service the car, run a marathon–to avoid sitting your ass in the chair and doing
the work.
Almost  every  creative  person  faces  problems  like  procrastination,
perfectionism and self-doubt at one time or another. Even the successful ones.
But the feeling of being utterly alone on your artist’s journey is insidious. It
gnaws at your confidence and weakens your resolve. It causes talented writers to

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give up when all they need to do is keep going. And that needs to stop right now.
Your Map
Imagine the scene.
You’re driving along a deserted road.
You  haven’t  seen  another  car,  another  person  or  even  a  road  sign  in  hours.
The  car’s  old  engine  has  been  making  a  strange  rattling  sound  since  you  left
home,  and  each  time  you  hit  another  pothole,  you  think  the  engine  might  drop
right out.
Regardless, you push your fears aside, sit up straight in your seat, and keep
driving. Because while your destination is not on any map, others have told you
it’s  worth  the  journey.  But  it’ll  be  dark  soon,  and  the  fuel  gauge  is  straying
dangerously close to empty.
A while back, when my fuel gauge was close to empty, I came across advice
from  the  recently  departed  American  historical  author  E.L.  Doctorow  (1931-
2015). He once said,
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as
your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
It’s a powerful metaphor and one you can apply to playing music, painting,
drawing or most kinds of creative work. But if you’re anything like me, you hate
feeling lost.
You  can’t  stand  the  sense  that  you  might  be  on  the  wrong  track,  leaving  a
trail  of  wasted  time  and  effort.  Like  anyone  who  works  with  ideas,  I  long  for
road markings or helpful directions from someone who has completed the same
journey before me.