Why Does Creativity Take Courage?
You’ve probably seen Matisse’s quote ‘creativity takes courage’ about 56,279 times on Instagram, on Pinterest, on hand lettered chalkboards, and elsewhere. Why does this stick, and why does this ring true? And how does this impact the way you create milestone content, creative projects, and innovation? Let’s dive in.
It takes courage to go through the process of feeling while creating. Because creating something that matters almost always hurts in some way. It might be that acquiring the knowledge or skills took enormous amounts of effort, and learning it had been difficult. It might be because you went through something particularly distressing that taught you essential life lessons. It might be that a research trajectory was immensely time consuming and it took you years to deduce it back to its bare, crunchy essence.
But what you create isn’t valuable because the process of creating hurts a while working on it. It’s valuable because you’re brave enough to be willing to get uncomfortable while creating something of value for the greater good, without having any guarantees for the outcome.
That is why creativity takes courage. It takes you through the trenches of discomfort, as a creator. You feel and create, in order to move, confront, delight or change the people you’re creating for. It’s not just the craft of it. It’s not just your knowledge or skill. It’s the courage of it.
The reason for creating is because the reason for doing so made it necessary for the artist. It moved the writer, the content creator, the documentary maker, the communicator, the painter, the speaker, him or herself. The one who lived the process. This is why (most) TEDx speakers are on that stage. It’s not just their powerful message. It’s because they had the journey of living through it. The journey of creating something that matters, like a life saving invention, or something that provides you with insight in complex systems, like Hans Rosling did with his unforgettable talk about visual representation of complex data. Or because they teach you something because they lived through something, and you are the living proof of a key principle that just might be universal.
Speeches aim for this, and breathe this.
“I have a dream.” Hearing this speech paints a picture of MLK’s wishes for his country. Imagination, faith and determination, to achieve equal rights. You IMAGINE and FEEL something, you start to believe that the dream might become a reality, IF you take inspired action. This makes you feel empowered. For a better outcome.
“Yes we can.” Hearing Obama’s speech makes you Imagine what’s possible, paint the picture, grow to believe it, grow more empowered and determined to make it happen. You IMAGINE and FEEL something. And it makes you want to act, for a better outcome.
“For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it.” Amanda Gorman’s speech at the inauguration ceremony of President Biden, touched the heart and soul of so many people. Her message resonates all over the world, and for good reason. For the world is in turmoil, and we can’t look away.
In light of recent and current events:
The difference between riots and performance art lies in the fertility of the destruction. What grows from it, more destruction, pain and suffering, or insight, a new path, opportunity, growth? In the words you choose to define the outcome of your actions, lies the moral value of the results of your actions.
This is a single bullet point checklist to assess moral value of a performance action.
Does your action primarily benefit your own interests, or does it benefit the greater good?
Focusing on merely one’s own interest is not art. And not valuable for other people than yourself. Focusing on the greater good in some way, while creating, is art. This contributes to other people’s lives, and thus makes it valuable.
Did you break or destroy something for a reason, and did it have a valuable core for others to build upon? If so: good for you. If not: bad for you and for others.
Here’s some proof:
Covid rioters take destructive action, by destroying other people’s property on fire and (probably) contaminating others with the coronavirus. Because they themselves can’t mentally cope with the impact that safety measures have on their own comfortable lives. Or perhaps just they’re feeling angry in general.
Banksy however, spray paints his art, confronting visual messaging, in the public space. and these resonate all over the world. Apparently he feels the need to express his sentiment and insight on a societal issue, so that others might change the way they think, feel and act.
A grain of wheat needs to break to release its kernel of what will be new crops, and fields full of harvest. But a cancer cell divides to multiplies and eventually kills the host, if the growth isn’t stopped.
Selfishness destroys for no reason, other than to express individual pain and anger. Art destroys to make you feel, understand and grow a fertile seed that may instigate meaningful change for many.
Let’s switch over to your communicative art, or written content.
What is the fertile ground for the message and design of *your* milestone content? Is it a milestone about something your business has accomplished, which primarily benefits you, or is it a milestone that primarily moves, triggers, stirs, confronts, delights or even changes the people you created it for (and will benefit you in its slipstream)? It’s okay if this process stings just a little bit. As long as the core of what you create holds something fertile, beautiful, and potentially transformational.
Creating milestone content is so much more than being able to come up with crunchy headlines. It’s a process, and it’s worth it. If you have a dream. Because yes, you can. If you’re brave enough to be it.
So what do you think? Do you recognize having to be brave while creating your art, content or innovation project?
For dear clients based in the Netherlands, there a just two spots left for my January workshop ‘MIJLPAALCONTENT’: https://www.jojanneke.me/mijlpaalcontent. I can also facilitate this workshop in English, no problem.