Creative Calling: Establish a Daily Practice, Infuse Your World with Meaning, and Succeed in Work + Life

by Chase Jarvis

Creativity is a natural, life-sustaining, human function that is essential to our health and well-being. It’s as natural as breathing.

Creativity is the practice of combining or rearranging two or more unlikely things in new and useful ways. That’s it, though this simple definition has hidden depth.

Regardless of your intentions or where on the creative spectrum you fit, you are a creator and your creativity is not an indulgence or a luxury; it’s required in order to thrive.

Creators create. Action is identity. You become what you do. You don’t need permission from anybody to call yourself a writer, entrepreneur, or musician. You just need to write, build a business, or make music. You’ve got to do the verb to be the noun.

Life is messy, and without creativity, it’s incomplete. Creativity is not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. Think of it as putting your own oxygen mask on before helping others in your row.

Regardless of what our culture will try to tell you, your age, gender, appearance, and background don’t matter. Every aspect of you is fuel for your creative fire. If you want to act, you don’t need to look like Halle Berry. We already have Halle Berry. Somewhere out there, films and plays need your face, your voice, your body. Likewise, a clothing designer doesn’t need to wear all black and a poet doesn’t need to live in a cabin in the woods. Let go of all your ideas about how a particular kind of creator looks or acts.

You are not your art. The greater the separation between your ego and the products of your creative efforts, the happier and more productive you’ll be.

The question isn’t “Where will I end up?” but rather “Where should I begin?”

The things that made you weird as a kid make you great today. —JAMES VICTORE

scattershot one? Zero in. If someone will give you money to learn something new, take it, but don’t put a section full of dog photos on your website if you don’t want to be a dog photographer. If you want to be a dog photographer, then include only those photos. William Wegman built an entire career out of photographing one breed. You can’t boil the ocean. No matter what your creative calling, breadth is helpful only when you’re exploring.

Make meaning, not money.

In blazing your own trail and leaving your own footprints, you are far more likely to make something better—effortlessly, through the joy of exploration and discovery. When we love what we’re making, we lean into it. We progress so much faster. And people will love it not because it’s more of the same, executed perfectly, but because, however rough, it’s a breath of fresh air.

When it comes to creativity, you are your own worst enemy.

Trying to Be Liked Makes You Less Likeable

The self-defeating desire to be liked does more than hobble our creativity.

We hide in all sorts of other ways; we’d rather be invisible to friends than be seen in a negative light by a stranger.

I can take a bad photo without becoming a bad photographer or, worse, a bad person. (Illogical as it seems, it can sometimes feel that way.)

Focus, improve, and take your ego out of it. Stop hiding.

It’s simple: you can’t stand out and fit in at the same time.

If you never make anything, if you make only what you’re comfortable making, or if you make but you never share, you’re hiding. Once you start hiding, you stop growing.

Creativity requires risk, real risk—something has to be at stake for you. What you’re doing has to matter. Mistakes should hurt. All those bruised hips and scraped knees taught me how to ride a skateboard. If you know what the outcome will be before you start working or you don’t care what happens either way, where’s the lesson? Where’s the growth? We improve as artists by taking chances. If you never fail to do what you set out to do, you’re not learning and you’re not growing. Mistakes are a sign that you’re pushing yourself to your limits by tackling meaningful challenges.

A creative failure doesn’t cost you much beyond a little embarrassment; selling out for a quick buck can cost you everything.

As artists, our attention is a vital resource. We can’t afford to squander that mental energy. Facebook will never have enough of you—Mark Zuckerberg will never say, “You’ve scrolled through enough updates for today, Allison. Better get back to writing.”

This is one of the creative industry’s biggest secrets (that hides in plain sight). Creative inspiration comes from other inspired creations and creators.

Pursuing small, imperfect, playful habits today—having a regular creative practice—is far more important than chasing a long list of perfect things you want to create tomorrow.