Unless something is on the page, you’re not writing

You can think about it all day long. And of course your creative act doesn’t have to be writing. But in order to be a creative man, you ultimately have to produce something new every day.

Think about it.

It’s good to think. Why not? You have a good brain, wired for creativity. So, yes. By all means think about it. You might even want to go overboard and fixate on something that you care deeply about, and spend some time with that new thought. Nurture it. Help that thought along. Writing about it might even help.

And then, act.

Because all those good intentions will eventually overwhelm you. They pile up; have you noticed? So take the ten or twenty or one hundred creative thoughts you had today: everything from “I can do this better than my boss,” to “Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if…” and do something with at least one of those creative thoughts today.

Really? Every day?

Yes. Every day. You know that feeling being overwhelmed, right? Of course you do. As a creative man, you have a much higher potential for overwhelm than many of the men (and others, of every gender) around you. The reason for your overwhelm is not unlike a boiler that has no pressure relief valve. All of that creativity builds up inside of you and needs to go somewhere.

Something new every day.

Imagine yourself at the end of any given day. Feel the frustration and pent-up energy that leaves you feeling exhausted. You know what I’m talking about. And realize that the major reason you feel overwhelmed and tired today is not because of what you made, but because of what you left unmade.

It’s not the things you do, dear, it’s the thing you leave undone — That gives you a bit of a heartache, at the setting of the sun.

That little quote from a poem by Margaret Sangster called The Sin of  Omission gets to the heart of the problem and the solution.

Writers write.

Whatever it is, do it. Writers write. Sculptors scupt. Chefs chef. Leaders lead. You get the point. Whatever your creative bent is, use that creative bent to bend something. Do what you do best, at least once a day. More is better — to get more congruent with expressing your particular kind of creativity.

Key point:

Do what you do best, at least once a day.

Read more.

I can help you act on your own best intentions, so you actually do what you do best — at least once a day.