Everyone wants to unlock their creativity. Creativity, it seems, is the new mindfulness. And, like mindfulness, creativity comes in all shapes and sizes.
It isn’t just about writing, painting, playing the cello or singing like Lady Gaga. For some of us, expressing creativity is about planting a beautiful garden, baking a cake, even coming up with a mathematical algorithm that may read, to some, like poetry. Creativity is as natural to humans as breathing, and, in his new book, Keep Going 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, New York Times bestselling author Austin Kleon shows us how to be our most creative selves.
According to Kleon, one of the keys to creativity is to worry less about getting things done, like mindless errands, and pay attention to the value of what you’re doing, right here, right now. Walk outside. Breathe fresh air. Finish each day and be done with it, don’t carry negativity over to the next. Remember, “Tomorrow is another day.”
But first it’s important to stop fidgeting and be quiet! “Everything that’s created comes out of silence,” Wayne Dyer once said. “Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.”
And a connection with yourself. “Creativity is about connection,” Kleon says, “you must be connected to others in order to be inspired and share your own work. But it is also about disconnection. You must retreat from the world long enough to think, practice your art, and bring forth something worth sharing with others. Silence and solitude are critical.”
This little tome, and the wisdom of its author, offers practical ideas for anyone striving to live a meaningful life.