creativity

Get to work

Make your creative work easy to do. Not that creative work is easy, but make it easy to access. Reduce the friction that keeps you from doing it. Take away as many excuses as you can before you even start so that starting is easy. 

Put your creative time on your calendar. Block it off. Do it at the same time every day. Never double-book during your creative time. Give yourself a quiet space to work. Have your commonly used tools ready and available so that all you need to do is to pick them up. Tune out distractions or better yet, turn them off altogether. 

Whatever you need to do in order to make it easy to do your creative work, do it. Every little thing adds up. Remove all of the obstacles in your path until it is just you and your work. Now the easy part is done. The hard part is actually doing the work. 

Now that you have no excuses, the only thing standing between you and your art is you. When you have removed all external resistance and you are finally standing face-to-face with your work, and you still don’t want to, don’t know how to, or can’t get started, you have just met the real problem. 

Get over yourself and get to work. 

I have more time

A funny thing happened when I lost access to my Netflix account. I decided to do nothing about it to see if I would really miss it. While there have been moments late in the evening when I am restlessly looking for something to do besides what I should be doing, which is sleeping, for the most part I haven’t noticed. I haven’t missed it.

More importantly, however, I have had more time. I have had more to work on things that I’ve been putting off, things that matter. I’m writing more, doing more creative projects, and having more ideas. I feel more open and receptive to what I’m called to do from, as opposed to feeling like my attention is being pulled toward some distraction.

While there are movies and series I enjoy watching, the truth is that I’ve lived long enough to remember a time before Netflix, or streaming services in general, and I kind of yearn for it. I miss being bored. I miss not having immediate access to so many options and having to find something to do. I miss doing nothing, having no distractions, and enjoying the quiet.

As I write, I’m reminded that this isn’t about Netflix. Netflix is a service, a symptom. I could be talking about YouTube, Facebook, or Disney+.

This is about distractions and what we do or who we are when we don’t have them. It’s about is finding ways to create more space and openness in our lives so that we have the energy and attention for that which truly matters to us.

When I think about the things I want to accomplish and experience in this life, binge-watching Black Sails or re-watchingThe Matrix for the hundredth time is not high on that list. But distraction is more convenient and more comfortable than doing work that matters because work that matters means that I might fail.

Sound like yourself

My favorite bands don’t sound like anyone else. They sound like themselves. 

The music I like the most, the first time I heard it, I wasn’t so sure. Nothing in my previous experience had prepared me for it. It was unusual, somewhat foreign, and sometimes even quite jarring. 

Sometimes it took me a while to settle into it, to get comfortable with it, and to hear the beauty and the truth in it. 

That’s the thing about new ideas. In the beginning, they have no audience. They can’t have an audience because they are new. They haven’t been heard or experienced before. 

It’s difficult to relate to new ideas. Something about them feels off. They make us uncomfortable. But if they are true and we give them a chance, they will change us. 

Music changed me. A thousand times over, it turned my inner life upside down and transformed me into someone new, someone I would and could never be if I hadn’t experienced it. 

I can say the same about books, paintings, films, poems, and even certain meals. 

When someone creates something, and they do so with love, truth, and conviction, it is transformative. It has the power to change the lives of those who experience it.

This is why it is so important to share your art. Even if it is nothing special to you, if it comes from your heart, if you mean it, and it is uniquely your own, you never know who will be moved by it. 

Remember, the best music doesn’t sound like something else. It sounds like itself, like the person or people who created it. For this reason, the best art is a courageous act. 

So act bravely and make art that sounds like you. We may not understand it at first, but we may come to thank you for it later. 

Your creative voice

The only way to find your creative voice is to use it. If you want to be a better writer, write more. If you want to be a better painter, paint more. If you want to be a better chef, cook more. 

But you can’t stop there. You have to share your work. Put it in the world. Let people interact with it. There is only so much you can do to refine your creative skills in isolation. 

Art needs to be seen, heard, and felt. It needs to be experienced. 

In order for you to find your creative voice, your voice must be heard by others. 

Make your art. Share your art. Put it into the world and see what comes back. Do this over and over again and you will find that you are changed. 

You begin to be more like yourself. Your work starts to feel more like your own. You discover that what you have to say is worth saying and that you are the only one uniquely qualified to say what you have to say in the way that only you can say it. 

If you want to find your creative voice, you will have to be brave. You will have to risk being ignored, misheard, or misunderstood, and you will have to speak up anyway. Speak up through your art. Say what you have to say loudly and persistently enough that you cannot be ignored. 

Finding creative freedom

As creatives, we don’t get to decide what of our work will resonate with others and what will fall flat. There is no way of knowing which pieces will find an audience and which will die a quiet, lonely death. Create anyway. Share your work anyway. Create some more.

As people who are called to creative work, our joy and satisfaction must come from the creative process itself or we will find ourselves disappointed and frustrated when our work doesn’t get the response we desire. We have no control over the response to our work. All we can do is create and share. The rest is out of our hands.

The audience gets to determine whether or not they find value in our work, but their response can’t be our focus or we will create fearfully. When we create in anticipation of a response, it changes the way we create. It holds us back and stifles our true voice.

The only way to do work that matters is to create it without the audience in mind. What they do with our work is none of our business. Focus only on listening to your inner voice. Create that which your inner voice begs you to get out.

Listen for where the fear and discomfort is, and lean into that space. The work you are most afraid to do, that part of you that you are most afraid to share, that is where your best work will be found because that is the work that only you can do.

Create from where you are most vulnerable and tender. Share that part of yourself that you fear most being rejected for. This is you. This is your work.

As you create and share, your work will evolve and change, and you will evolve and change through the process. You may never become fearless, but through the process of creating and sharing bravely, you will begin to fear less. You will find a new kind of freedom.

Journey of Imperfection

One of the most difficult things about writing is knowing where to start. A blog is no different. 

As creatives, we tend to have high standards for ourselves and for the work that we share with the world. We want our art to be perfect before we put it out there for others to interact with. 

The truth is, however, perfect does not exist. Perfect is a lie we tell ourselves in order to hide. It is a shield we use to cover up our vulnerabilities in an attempt to keep them hidden away from the world. 

But the best art is fueled by vulnerability. It is formed from the broken pieces. It is shaped by the hurt, the pain, and the confusion of being a sensitive human in an often insensitive world. 

This is not to say that art is sad. On the contrary, art is hopeful, uplifting, and inspiring. Art is transformative. It connects us soul-to-soul and tells us that we are not alone. 

And in that spirit, I write my first blog post.* My goal with this blog is to embrace both my imperfection and the imperfection of the world around me, and to simply write. 

Unlike my other projects which have specific external focuses (foci?), each representing a different part of who I am, this blog and this site is just about me. I will use it to tell stories, share my ideas and opinions, and to wax philosophical as whim dictates. 

My main goal here is to follow my muse wherever she leads and to share what I find with anyone who is willing to join me on this journey of imperfection. I am not asking permission, I have no one to answer to besides my own conscience, and there are no rules other than that I remain true to that which calls to me. 

And so I will write… 

Regards,

Robert Van Valkenburgh

*I have been posting to my other blog, Holistic Budo, for several years, but this site serves a different purpose for me than Holistic Budo has. While Holistic Budo is largely advice written to myself, my writing here will be largely about myself, my experiences, and my observations.