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

Creative Takeaways
Cultivate physical and mental strength and endurance so you can
approach the blank page or virgin canvas without fear.
Your pursuit of physical and mental strength and endurance should
support your creative work, not the other way around.

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7
INVEST IN YOUR SIDE PROJECTS
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to
be ultimately at peace with himself.”
– Abraham Maslow
A
FTER
WRITING
 a  lengthy  charity  grant  application  for  several  weeks,  I  was
exhausted. When my boss at my main gig asked me to perform simple tasks, I
tried not to snap at her.
When my friends asked how the new job was going and if I was still writing,
I cracked cynical jokes about how it was a waste of time.
I didn’t know it then, but I was burnt-out and unhappy.
The University of California’s Berkeley’s Christina Maslach and the NYU’s
Susan E. Jackson are authorities on the subject.
They  said  workers  who  are  burnt-out  “feel  unhappy  about  themselves  and
dissatisfied with their accomplishments on the job.”
I blame myself.
I should have listened to Abraham Maslow.
In 1943, this American psychologist explained individuals can be happy only
if they can express themselves and achieve their potential. These were all things
I wasn’t doing.
If  you’re  a  musician,  you  must  play,  if  you’re  a  writer,  you  must  get  the
words down, and if you’re an artist, you must fill the virgin canvas.

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Maslow  called  this  “self-actualisation”  and  cautioned  “the  story  of  the
human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.”
Don’t sell yourself short.
If your main gig isn’t giving you enough time or space to write, draw, paint
or play, if you spend your nine-to-five responding to the demands of others, or if
you work on projects only because they pay the bills, you need a side project.
Hell,  even  if  you  love  your  main  gig,  a  side  project  will  prevent  you  from
becoming burnt-out, and it could put food on your table down the road.