Give Yourself Permission to Create

Why is it so hard to give ourselves permission to create? It should be as simple as breathing, yet it’s the last thing we allow ourselves to do.

Creating isn’t a guilty pleasure. It’s the expression of being alive. It’s what makes us human. So why do we struggle to pick up the brush, the pen, the guitar? Why is it so hard to say yes to a glorious enterprise we dream of doing?

I can think of a few reasons that have battered me in my creative life.

1. Societal Guilt. Creative pursuits seem frivolous, unimportant, maybe even indulgent. It’s not going to change the world. It’s not going to pay the bills (yet, maybe). It’s a dream, a fantasy that we can create something worthwhile.

As we grow up, we’re discouraged from pursuing creative jobs because they’re extremely competitive. The myths of the starving artist and writer are alive and well. Why not pick a dream like professional sports because at least those activities have the added benefit of fitness and community, unlike the creative who is sedentary and sequestered away, alone in silence?

2. Money is tight. We have to be pragmatic with our time. Financial pressures can rob us of our creative juices.

3. Fear of failure. No one likes to fail, not even the chaps who tell us to “embrace failure,” “fail forward,” and “failure is the best education.” These are the cool answers today. Can failure stop us in our tracks? Sure, but I believe there’s darker stuff that eats at us, such as…

4. Fear of discovering you’re no better than the riffraff. Those are the creatives whose work is below par. You know, the ones you ruthlessly disparage. Their lack of skills is so obvious, and it kills you if your work doesn’t rise above their station.

5. Fear of not measuring up to your expectations. This is along the same lines as the last, except this bar is set much higher and the level of riffraff. This is the crowd you aspire to be counted among. But you fall short, and that’s unbearable. This inspires fear because we don’t like to know that we’re not as good as we imagined we are.

6. Fear of not being as good as you once were. You’re only as good as your last project, they tell us. And we believe it. We think our creative growth should be the steady rise of a diagonal line. It’s never steady. It’s bumpy. There’s up and downs, and everyone experiences that—even the pros. And we know it, but we give those two steps back more gravity than they deserve.

7. The pressure to finish the last project first. If you start this new creative project, then you’re in danger of abandoning the last one. We have to finish. We have to deliver. This is true. Sometimes what we need to do is press on through those harder strides on a project. But, sometimes we need a break. Sometimes it’s best to have more than one project in play at the same time. It can be distracting, and it can be refreshing. You have to determine that.

8. Fear of the new and unknown. This is a good feeling. It means you’re stretching yourself. You’re stepping out on a limb. That means you’re growing. This really hangs us because we do everything we can to hedge our success. Truth is, you have no way of knowing how to do that until you do it. You can read all the books and watch all the videos. Until you get your hands dirty, all that pre-work is academic. Academic is safe, and it feels like progress. That value is more limited than you think. You have to roll up your sleeves and make a mess before you can go any farther

9. Fear that inspiration won show up or last. Let’s get some things straight. Waiting for the Muse is like waiting for a bus that is never on time or never shows up. You don’t need it. You don’t want it. And you certainly don’t want to base your creative efforts on something so fickle.

10. I need to buy this or that. Don’t buy it. Do you need supplies you don’t have? Sure, then go buy the cheapest things you can find. But if you can start your project the last thing you need to do is buy a bunch of shiny bobbles that you think will help your inspiration or motivation. It won’t. You don’t need the best camera, finest brushes, or fancy software to do what you want to do. Use what you have and grow into your work. Until you’re creating you don’t know what you’re going to need. Use what you have. Use free. Buy cheap.

People whose creativity has to wait for the universe to speak to them, or some other nameless cosmic energy to gift you with ideas, are just playing games. The muse is your enemy. It keeps you from learning your craft. It keeps you boxed in to your current skills. It doesn’t grow your creativity. It undermines it. And it won’t be there for the long haul of hard, consistent work that you need to get the project across the finish.

We want our creativity to be human. That’s what gives our work connection to others. Our humanity speaks through our work. I don’t want to hear what the universe gave you. I want to enjoy your connected human expression. The you of your work is what gives your work its meaning and value.

So, figure out what’s stopping you from doing what you want to. Call it out, then get to work. Give yourself permission—nobody else is going to do it for you.

Now go create something.