I can’t ever give enough praise to the gem of a book that Hugh wrote (a few years back) on the subject of creativity: “How To Be Creative” Read it right now if you haven’t. It’s that good.
As the internet rages on, I become connected with more and more people. I read their status updates, quick blog posts, tweets, etc… I’m seeing more and more comments from genuinely creative and talented people about feeling lost, not as good as they want to be, and generally in creative daze. To me, it seems their connectivity seems to be a cause of their creativity rot.
In a world where everyone has a blog and a Twitter account and a Facebook page, it makes it much easier to compare yourself to… anyone. Celebrities, artists, politicians, musicians, philanthropists, they all “blog,” “tweet,” and update their status on Facebook. Some actually do it themselves, while others obviously have minions finish their dirty deeds. The playing field has seemingly been leveled. If they blog and you blog, why aren’t you the famous/rich/important one?
Being connected brings great things. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. In this case, your responsibility is to yourself. A responsibility to be the genuine you, to embrace and push through the frustration that comes with being creative. If you aren’t where you want to be and are frustrated with that painting, that design, or that photograph, it’s probably a sign that you’re actually on the right track. Ignore everybody else and focus on yourself.
When in doubt, remember Hugh’s first rule: Ignore Everybody.
That means, it’s okay to quit looking at Facebook and Twitter and MySpace for a few days.
And while your at it, close your RSS reader for a day. ;)
Ms. Wildflower is discussing. 
Ms. Wildflower 5:04 pm on 30 Sep 2009 Permalink
These are the words of another…however, I believe once they are released into the UNIVERSE they belong to us all. Thank you for the compliment Noel. I will continue to try to SUBVERT NORMALITY as much as possible. Please, read my autobiography: ANTLERS AND RHINESTONES: A TALE OF A QUIXOTIC GIRL LIVING IN A CHAOTIC WORLD.