The Endless Creative - part 1 - Prologue
I’ve been toying around with this for a while (as in years) and have finally decided to give it a go. I’ll be sharing the better part of my book, The Endless Creative, with you right here on the site—one sweet post (likely one chapter) at a time, with some tweaking for this particular format.
What changed and why now? While I’m sure there are many factors, in the end, it seemed like the right time. Besides, I’m tired of this book just sitting there on my computer, not being useful to people.
With that said, I hope you enjoy the journey and I hope it brings you to a better place than when you started:
The Endless Creative
Prologue
In the beginning, the earth was formless and empty.
Doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? But don’t worry—it gets better.
Whatever your beliefs about its origins, I hope you can appreciate how our world—once a barren gray-brown rock—is now a dazzling place full of sound, color, and life. It has its troubles (some ugly, awful ones), but there is also wonder, beauty, and goodness to behold.
And we—you and I—are an inseparable part of such a wonderful world. We are inheritors of an incredible creation.
As residents of this world, we have a call upon our lives to take part in it, to mold and shape it, to leave a mark.
We were made to create. You, my friend, were made to create.
But there’s a problem. Two, actually. Some of us have forgotten our calling, and not every mark we leave on this world is an improvement.
There are many who have allowed their creative drive to go dormant. Their lives have fallen into the ruts of mindless work or mindless entertainment, perhaps jumping from one to the other. They do not challenge themselves, they do not take risks but instead remain on the traveled road of the safe and familiar. Such is the siren’s call of normalcy. Those tempting tunes tickle our ears from the moment we rise to the closing of our eyes.
There are others who abuse the power of creativity, causing harm instead of good. To them, it is a tool for self advancement, and a powerful one at that. Many a creative person has, through their own clever ingenuity, discovered ways to gain a leg-up on their fellow man; they’ve found loopholes in systems of justice, established secret patterns of abuse, or repressed others for their own personal gain. Such behavior may be found on a grand, political scale, within corporations of all sizes, or even in a two-person household. It always leads to tragedy.
Whether it’s the neglect or abuse of creativity, in either case, a person has strayed from their true story—the story of the endless creative.
Just as the ghost of Mufasa in The Lion King wisely instructed a reluctant Simba, you too must “remember who you are.”
Make no mistake about it: you are a creative.
It’s in your blood, in your very being. You have a purpose, a reason to use the gift of creativity that dwells within—perhaps deep and hidden, but still present.
No matter who you are or what you do for a living—whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, a preschool teacher, a construction worker, a politician, a beach bum, a shoe-shiner, the CEO of a global corporation, or anything up, down, and in between—the creative power lives in you.
It begins with your own little worlds, the spaces where you live—not just the physical places, but any areas of influence in your life. To deny yourself this responsibility is to deny a fundamental part of who you are. If this goes on too long, it will make you sick—an atrophy of the soul.
”Now hold on,” you say. “Can’t I live a perfectly happy and well-adjusted life without one ounce of creativity?”
Maybe, if you call that living. But there’s a world of difference between surviving and thriving. There is a chasm between happy and fulfilled. A creative does so much more than take the steps necessary for continued existence. He or she does more than live in pursuit of their own personal pleasure. A creative lives with meaning, determination, and purpose. In other words: a creative lives out their calling.
In the act of creating, we lose ourselves, and, in doing so, we become ourselves.
To be an endless creative is to answer the call of adventure, to embrace creativity in every area of your life—to the benefit of yourself and those around you.
Now hold up one moment. Before we take another step, there’s something you should know:
This isn’t about self-help.
You heard me right.
This is an invitation to be part of something more, something grand, something beyond you. Why? Because creativity ultimately requires an audience. It’s a key ingredient in creating community. To be creative is to be part of something bigger, something with a life of its own: a movement.
Will you discover some helpful practices and principles of creative living here? Undoubtedly. But there’s so much more to it than merely bettering yourself.
Self-help is too narrow. It’s all about you. Creativity requires a broader view.
What you’ll find here is a call to be part of that big, wild, impossible something—to make a lasting mark.
I’ll let you in on a secret: when we focus only on ourselves, the world misses out and we never find true satisfaction. However, when we work to improve the world at large, we also improve our own lives in the process.
Then what’s all this endless creative stuff really about?
Put simply: we’re going to cover some practical steps to living a creative lifestyle—one that produces positive change, both in you and around you. Because the specific methods that are useful for one person may prove a hindrance to another, our main focus will be on the overriding principles that anyone, anywhere can apply.
Ultimately, it’s about a story—to be specific, your story. It’s about an inward journey with outward results. It’s about living the greatest story—one where you discover and fulfill your purpose.
And what is that, exactly?
Well, you’ll just have to walk with me and find out. As with any journey, we’ll take it one step at a time.
And this journey begins with a story…