It's Time To Create For Yourself, Not Others

When you can‘t write, you can‘t. And there are millions, billions of reasons for it. For example, laziness. For example, knowing that probably nobody will ever read your stuff. Or the belief that you‘re not as good as you think you are so you do not have an obligation to poison everyone‘s mind with your bulls**t.

Yes, whining about things you can‘t do is a chronical and stupid disease that nobody knows how to cure. You are the only one responsible for dealing with it since everything that is happening is happening in your own mind.

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Some manage to deal with it, some don‘t. What is the difference between those people? I don‘t know. Sincerely, I don‘t. Maybe in creativity, like in reality, only the strongest survive (though, in my opinion, the theory of selection doesn‘t work in these comfortable times we live in). That‘s why only a selective group of people that have enough determination and motivation can enjoy the benefits of sharing their work with others. Maybe those people have some inherent properties that help them manage stress and self-doubt to a certain level that they can finish their work in the way they see it in their heads.

I also believe that some people are driven exclusively by their success which is the biggest motivation to continue the work. For them, not creativity but the knowing that they are good at what they are doing is what drives them further, attention from others and those sweet sweet yields of fruits they are able to enjoy. But not every person can be as successful. What do others suppose to do then? The ones that are left behind the line of succession? Try again? Bang the head against the wall until the massive hole will appear and a ray of sunshine starts shining brightly in your face?

The creativity and, overall, creative work requires such a massive amount of efforts it‘s hard to describe it with words. It is a gruesome inner fight that is too hard to watch, so you turn the blind eye to it. Can this fight be a little bit simpler? Can we turn this fight into a diplomatic discussion where everyone just peacefully discusses the creative process and decides which word should lay down on a paper, which note should reach the audience‘s ears and so on?

I‘m not a very empathetic person, but at first, I was sincerely sorry for those who create art knowing that they do it for themselves only. Unsung heroes that buried their work in the flow of trashy information. In a place where everybody wants to be heard, but you‘re just a boy selling cookies in a huge supermarket during the endless Black Friday.

I believe that all of these creators should reconcile the fact that creativity is for yourself first, not the others, that maybe nobody ever will see what you did, or will never appreciate what came from your heart as you do. But maybe it is not such a bad thing. Maybe the purest art comes from knowing that nobody will ever care about it.

What is the point then?

Maybe there is none. Or maybe the meaning hides in the emotion you feel when you realize that you did what you wanted to do. The feeling you get when you can‘t find a way how to make it even better and you know you did all you could, you‘re finished. Maybe that‘s where the secret of creation hides. It is in you. The way you satisfy your hungry soul, the way you calm yourself down or maybe learn something about yourself, or about the thing you love to do the most when nobody ever asked you to do it in the first place.

Even if it doesn‘t sound as much, it is something. And what happens with the art you created, we already know. But in the information age that shouldn‘t stop you from creating, because being unheard is the new norm of the century.

Create for yourself and for your closest ones. Be happy that you are able to create in the first place, that you have some sort of a gift. Just don‘t get disappointed if you‘re the only one who appreciates it.

We are too many. We are too loud. It is normal.

Enjoy the journey.