See sheep here.
I’m happiest and healthiest when I’m expressing my creative call. But, alas, I am prone to distraction, especially if laughing is involved or making purchases on Amazon Prime… or laughing at all the purchases I’ve made on Amazon Prime. I can easily be lost in distractions for hours and, one time, for about six months.
When I get frustrated with myself, I mosey over to my creative laboratory (i.e. I take a walk) and ask questions about how to get me back on the track of my real bliss. I'm here, literally and existentially, to share those findings with you.
Distractions can be fun but they are hollow rewards compared to myriad gifts won by showing up to the creative process. Distractions are a fine place to play after the soul work is done.
Here’s a point of view I came up with for us. I’ll break it into three parts for your eye-pleasing ease and reading convenience:
Number One
Preferring to be different is a characteristic of most creative people, right? To act creatively is often seen as unconventional -- there is a freedom, satisfaction, and delightful sense of rebelliousness in that.
We don’t want to be like “everyone else” unless it involves standing in line for a crazy-wild art exhibit, a popular poetry reading, or a dinner party where the dishes are sculpted into animals of the Serengeti. Part of the appeal of being creative is expressing the self in a way that differentiates us from everyone else. We sashay to a different drummer. We may get inspiration from others, but defining ourselves as individuals is part of the joy of being creative.
Bottom line: Creative people like to be different.
Number Two
Many, MANY people intending to put time into creative pursuits are letting their attention be hijacked by social media, surfing the net for hours, mindless computer games, binge watching Netflix, Youtube and Hulu. And because so many people are in this same boat, there is a sort of “popularity permission” to succumb to it. “Everyone else is doing it so I’M going to do it too.”
Bottom line: Being distracted is something a LOT of people are doing.
THEREFORE
If 1) we like to be different and 2) being different means showing-up for our passions instead of being intercepted by distractions, then LET’S REBEL AGAINST being a HERD MEMBER of the SIDETRACKED RELENTERS.
Use your tendency to be rebellious to escape the masses and choose creativity over distractions or ...wait! pretend you're SUPPOSED to be lost in social media, rebel, and sneak off with your creativity.
If you'd like to join the rebel faction, here's your club card. There's strength in numbers. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony but I tend to attract the exceptional person to my writings).
As I get older, my creative pursuits have become more important than spending time with people that don’t get me, going to social events just cause everyone else is, or passively watching creative things other people are doing (unless they serve to inspire me.) I gently show up for my creative time more and more, and find I'm better for everything and everyone when I do.
If I continue to resist, I ask myself: How can I make this fun? How can I make showing up easier? And instead of focusing on the fact that I’m NOT getting to my intended activity, how can I focus on what I love about it in the first place? From these questions,I find myself effortlessly making my way back to my creative call. Rinse and repeat.
If I resist more than seems reasonable, I question whether I've confused a creative call with some pressurized delusional "should".
“Just keep being true to yourself, if you're passionate about something go for it. Don't sacrifice anything, just have fun.” ~Blake Lewis
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