10 Ways To Cultivate Your Inner Creative And Find Your True Trade
People are beautiful, creative, artistic and nothing short of amazing. We can take our inner battles, crazy thoughts and moments of awe and artistically repurpose them to touch countless lives.
After all, there is no greater feeling than that of working on an idea about which you're passionate and then seeing it become reality.
No matter how personal your creation, it allows you to better understand your emotions and perceptions of everything and everyone. The first step is finding your muse.
A muse can be someone you love or even a location; it just has to spark your artistic fire. If you can find your muse, you're off to a good start, but realistically, unleashing your creativity takes much more. To understand this, we must ask ourselves,
Why do we chase creativity?
It allows us to produce something of artistic genius and this process also helps us better understand ourselves and express our feelings to the world.
In order to begin the chase, we must understand what art is. Art is not just a painting; it's the outcome of every little clash of originality you create with the familiar vibrations of the world.
It is the result of being unique and the transfer of those differences to something that ignites perception. From the little doodles on your class exams to the way you negotiate, it's all-encompassing.
Sometimes, it takes a tiny moment of recognition to comprehend how huge a part of our lives art is. It's your chair that a masterful carpenter created and your iPhone's aesthetics that the best designers in the world produced. We enjoy these gifts of art, but we want more than to merely enjoy; we want to produce such amazing feats ourselves.
We are all looking for it, our creative genius. We know it's possible and others have found it: Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Leonardo DiCaprio.
We need it to make incredible things, whether that's a simple cancer awareness bracelet or the app recently valued at $10 billion, Snapchat.
If you're ready for the chase and want to make something amazing for the world or even just for you, here are 10 ways to help you cultivate your creative side:
1. Read
There are books written on every topic in which you might be interested. In order to understand anything in great length, pick up a book an expert wrote. To find your artistic creativity from reading, you should test-read many book subjects to identify your interests and, therefore, your passions.
Without passion for your artistic endeavors, you will never be able to produce anything meaningful. True art requires heart and soul, and reading is the fastest way to learn about these parts of yourself.
Moreover, reading parallels writing, which is among the most creative outlets. Understanding what comprises beautiful writing will give you tremendous appreciation for the diligence required to produce great works of art.
2. Audit a Class
In Steve Jobs' famed Stanford graduation commencement speech, he mentions having dropped in on a calligraphy class, which inspired the typography for the Mac.
Cultivating your creativity means diving into different subjects to find a small nugget of brilliance. And, dropping in on a class is among the easiest ways to adventure into the unknown.
3. Travel
Traveling is the best experience you can give yourself. Period.
Seeing the world's different cultures takes you from a small box in which you once lived and pushes you off a diving board into a pool of once-in-a-lifetime interactions and experiences. There's nothing like seeing a different place on the globe firsthand. TV, articles and pictures don't compare — even closely — to being there.
While traveling, you have to be flexible and patient when inevitable, unforeseen problems face you. These instances will test your strength and potentially change you forever for the better.
4. Fall in Love
Love can pull emotions from you like an endless anchor. Through the vulnerability, the ups and downs, it can task you with a better understanding of yourself. Love can be your muse and it can be your worst enemy. For many artists, it's a risk worth taking over and again.
If you're able to find someone who can inspire you to chase your artistic potential, you may have found the start to an amazing career. Fall in love for the sake of being loved, for the sake of living with risk and for the sake of finding your creative inspirations.
5. Change the Times You Work
Have you ever tried waking up at 4 am to work on creating art? Some people find that their creativity strikes its highest cord before dawn and others after midnight. When searching for your artistic moments of awe, you must explore everything.
You would be surprised to know the number of artists who work at peculiar times because it jives with their personal levels of creativity.
6. Find a mentor
Finding a mentor is a solid way to jump-start any undertaking. These people have been there and done that. They know many of the ins and outs of finding creative inspiration, completing many of the same goals and striving to not just be better, but also to be great.
Mentors help you skip the misguided steps along your path to completing a major work of art, give you confidence in your abilities and sometimes provide financial resources. Find an expert in your industry to be your mentor and prepare for your success to move along a little faster.
7. Do something crazy
Bungee jumping? Skydiving? Walking across the United States? Being an artistic genius doesn't come easily for all of us. Sometimes, we have to remove ourselves from our little comfort zones and apply some shock therapy.
Many of us rarely change up our schedules. We get stuck in monotonous routines and are constantly reminded that we haven't yet accomplished anything exciting (as in, your last Facebook photo is from a year ago...).
Push the limits; I DARE YOU.
8. Exercise
Exercise has tremendous health benefits for your brain. Studies show it increases your neurotransmitter levels, improves oxygen and nutrient delivery and memory, too.
A healthy mind is a creative mind. There are no reasons exercise shouldn't be part of your routine.
9. Let Go
The only way to uncover your ability to create something amazing is to leave behind everyone who doubts you. The road to revealing your creative genius can be painstaking, and you don't need obstacles with which you can do away.
Now, more than ever, you need words of encouragement from people who believe in you, no matter how close you are to failing or a mental breakdown.
Sometimes, this requires extreme action. Many people in search of their creativity find their best works come when separated, far away, from everyone and everything — aka, solitary confinement.
Art is derived from you and nothing else, which means it can take stepping out into the wilderness alone. It's not easy, but putting yourself in a situation where you have no choice but to focus can do wonders.
10. Eat, Sleep and Breathe Your Passion
Artistic genius is the product of hard work and determination. Don't expect to be spoon-fed nutritious food that contains creativity and inspiration. You should love what you do so much that you dream about it, build your life around it and are willing to sacrifice a whole lot to be great at it.
All the greats who were able to produce breathtaking works of art from their creativity won't ever tell you it was easy, so don't expect it to be. Stay hungry in the search for creativity to unleash your artistic genius; eventually, it will happen.
