What is Creative Courage?
When I first started this blog, I wrote about courage. The courage to find yourself and to do meaningful work. The courage to keep persevering when things feel overwhelming or aren’t turning out the way you hoped they would. Creative courage shares a lot in common with “mainstream” courage but with some vital differences. Creative courage focuses solely on the creative process. So you could be incredibly courageous in your life but not with the work you are creating. Or you could be courageously creating but not courageously showing your work. To find your creative courage, you must go beyond the confines of what you are currently doing. It is a process of diving deeper than you thought possible, into realms that you may have only dreamt about. That little inkling of an idea that you keep dismissing? Honoring that idea and bringing it to life is creative courage. The work of art that no one else is doing so that you, too, ignore it because it feels just too “out there”? Making that one happen is creative courage.
So of course now you will ask me: how do I find creative courage? You return to your process. How familiar are you with your process? Do you know what keeps you engaged and what turns you off? Of course, this can change with time but many people recognize patterns in how they work best. It’s your process. Keep honing it, asking yourself questions, and discovering what moves you forward. Then just return, over and over again. Build the muscle of habit.
How do you find creative courage? You return to your daily practice. Do you wake at the same time every morning? Work into the wee hours of the night? Do you do morning pages, afternoon meditation, or coffee communion at regular intervals? Whatever your practice is, let it move you forward. Rituals are soothing and keep us on track. Yet keep some flexibility in your routine. When you are gentle with yourself, the habits you have crafted can fall by the wayside for a few days and you can more easily pick them back up again when you return to work.
How do you find creative courage? You keep your own counsel and work to reduce the outer demands on your time. It is incredibly easy to get distracted by the external world. And ridiculously easy to believe that multi-tasking is the best way to live a life. Multi-tasking can feel powerful but can often undermine the deep and sustained work you need to both find yourself and create your most powerful work. Minimize the information coming in from outside and you will see more clearly.
How do you find creative courage? You dive even more deeply into your work. Many creatives believe that work bursts out of us. Even when we recognize that revision is a vital part of the process, we still believe it should come faster than it does. Think of your work as a part of the rhythm of life. Let your work speak and also let it rest. Let it germinate, put out shoots, begin to bloom, and then flower. The germination process is part of the deep diving that your work requires.
How do you find creative courage? You meditate and walk, returning to the ideas that drive you, that keep speaking to you in the night. Do not be afraid of them. Those are the ideas that are yours and that you are meant to bring into the world. Find them. Remember them. Honor them. Build them. Then you will know creative courage.