"Have a drink, then write your blog" he said. "It'll be great" he said.
A very talented musician recently told me how he writes his best songs. When everyone in his house has gone to bed, he cracks open a bottle of red and starts writing. But, he said, you must be committed to it, you cannot delete it or edit it the next day. I love this! Am I brave enough to try? Let’s see.
So, I’m currently sitting at Heathrow Airport, with a 4hr wait for my flight back to Melbourne. I didn’t crack a bottle but I did have a sneaky couple of glasses - for research purposes you understand!
Unleash the creative
What stops us from just saying what we want to say, doing what we want to do, writing what we want to write? Is it fear? Fear of not being liked? Of being ridiculed? Of not conforming? And why do we care so much? And how many opportunities are missed because of this fear?
As William W. Purkey puts it “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth. Wine helps.” (Okay, so I added that last bit.)
There are many influences on what we put out there, our contributions. Influences like our state of mind, our past experiences, our environment, our history, our stage of life. Our creativity can also depend on our state of dress, the time of day, sleep, nourishment, exercise – or just cracking that bottle.
Earlier this year I realised I needed to unleash my creative, so I left a senior corporate role to set up my own practice. While being in the corporate world has been incredibly rewarding for me, I needed to try something new and different, to experiment. But I didn’t jump in head first (I felt the fear!). I engaged in many conversations, invested financially in my personal development, spoke with mentors past and present, and most importantly for me, I sought a tribe of wonderful people, where I could learn and contribute.
Importance of contribution
We know that not everyone is afraid to unleash their creative and for many this also means not conforming to expectations. These are often the people we admire and maybe secretly wish we had the nerve to do what they do. There are many people I admire and respect for not allowing themselves to be restrained by convention. By doing this, they become valuable contributors to our world.
A recent example is Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister, who just last week made history by bringing her three-month-old daughter into the United Nations assembly hall. Good on you, Jacinda!
An Australian example is Dr Fiona Wood, the inventor of spray on skin for burn victims, who was instrumental in treating the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings. In an interview with The Australian newspaper she shared "It's kind of high-risk research, and if you asked me whether I know it's going to work, no, I don't. But if we understand this, can we use that information to drive different healing patterns? That's what I want to try and contribute." By believing in herself and pursuing her ‘creative’, her contribution helped save 25 victims in Bali.
On my flight back home, I watched “Studio 54: The Documentary.” It’s the fascinating story of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who in 1977 transformed a theatre into a nightclub in NYC. This club attracted many non-conformists. It essentially gave people permission to unleash their creative, without fear of ridicule or repercussion.
Rubell famously once said that "the key to a good party is filling a room with guests more interesting than you" and with similar humility admitted: "If I wasn't the owner, I wouldn't be allowed in."
Thank you, contributors!
It’s very easy to sit back and learn from others, hear their stories, learn from their mistakes and sometimes even point the finger. If it wasn’t for the contributions from those who unleashed their creative, and especially those who refuse to conform, the world would be a very dull place.
Thank you to my musician friend. Thank you for encouraging me to let go (just a little) and write something I would not normally try.
So, did I follow his advice and commit to the original post-wine version of my blog? Of course not, but it is close. I’m not that brave - or mad, you should have seen what I deleted!! This is not Facebook after all.
