There is a great power that lies in creating what you love. It’s hard to describe but once you have found it you never want that feeling to go away. Unfortunately, it does over time and if you are anything like me it’s bittersweet. As much as you want to be creating masterpieces one hundred percent of the time when that feeling slips it’s terrifying and exciting all at once. It is the beginning of something new peaking its head over the horizon. The promise that something greater is starting to emerge but usually we are held back by the security in our proven creations. That our own ideas are not enough to allow ourselves the time to explore them. That we need the approval or permission of others. We don’t but we sure do like having a hand to hold why we try something new.
Explore to Create.
I’m giving you the permission right now to explore and find what it is that you truly love to create. Is it cinemagraphs with an eclectic style? Twitter prose, a Facebook campaign or a series of short stories told via Instagram captions. If you don’t set that time aside each week to explore new ideas or creative methods you will end up creating for your audience and while that has merit it can also lead you down a path you don’t know how to return from.
When you create you are an artist. You take your audience by the hand and show them what life is like through your eyes. When you stop creating for you that magic, that unknown ingredient starts to become diluted. Yes, your newsletter will see some unsubscribes, your online following will juggle about but you will smile more, you will find a sense of self you didn’t know you had. Stop creating for an audience, create for you. Let the right audience come and find you. While it might take longer, you end up less anxious and stressed about deadlines as what you are creating flows a little easier. Seek out places online where you think your true followers might be. Where do you go online to escape? Is that somewhere that you need to be showing flashes of your work?
Unsucsbribers aren’t your Tribe.
When we create we are all at different points in our lives and hobbies. My love of creative writing hasn’t diluted my love of craft and indie dyers, it’s just a side of me that I want to share with the world. The people who leave you hit unsubscribe or unfollow, they only wanted something from you. Either that free guide you wrote to boost your list, that discount code you had from your guest blogger/on your show, they aren’t your true, dare I say it, tribe. They aren’t going to follow you as you grow, they won’t care that the piece you just made left a giant smile on your face for a week. And that is ok. When you start caring less about numbers and more about the content you create and how you feel creating it, the numbers start taking care of themselves.
If you want support you can subscribe to the newsletter here or come and join in our group chat here.
Take some time this year to explore your true creative self. While you still need to pay the bills, I bet if you sit down and look at your schedule and say I could watch less Netflix on Tuesday while I paint/write/pick up my guitar. If you lose yourself in what you are creating, you know inside that it’s good. Find a way to incorporate it into your blog/podcast/ online community and watch what happens. Stop waiting for there to be more time, there isn’t any; we can only choose to spend what we have wisely and who wants to be creating mediocre content when you can be doing something that makes you smile from your toes.
Be brave. Go explore! I promise it has the answers you’re looking for.
xxx
Want to support and Blog or Podcast? You can with a Ko-Fi!
