The Creative Act: A Way of Being

by Rick Rubin

Attuned choice by attuned choice, your entire life is a form of self-expression. You exist as a creative being in a creative universe. A singular work of art.

it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.

Many great artists first develop sensitive antennae not to create art but to protect themselves. They have to protect themselves because everything hurts more. They feel everything more deeply.

We are all antennae for creative thought. Some transmissions come on strong, others are more faint. If your antenna isn’t sensitively tuned, you’re likely to lose the data in the noise.

If a piece of work, a fragment of consciousness, or an element of nature is somehow allowing us to access something bigger, that is its spiritual component made manifest.

If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules, it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things. We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process. To make and put out successive works with ease.

Ultimately, your desire to create must be greater than your fear of it.

By accepting self-doubt, rather than trying to eliminate or repress it, we lessen its energy and interference.

The work is not about perfection.

In Japanese pottery, there’s an artful form of repair called kintsugi. When a piece of ceramic pottery breaks, rather than trying to restore it to its original condition, the artisan accentuates the fault by using gold to fill the crack.

Impatience

is an argument with reality.

Innocence brings forth innovation.

innovation through ignorance.

Experience provides wisdom to draw from, but it tempers the power of naivete.

Accessing childlike spirit in our art and our lives is worth aspiring to.

When flowing, keep going.

Approaching the practical aspects of your day with military precision allows the artistic windows to be opened in childlike freedom.