The Messy Art of Creating

Life is not just one long straight line from nappies to walking to careers and home owning to kids and then a journey into whatever abyss we all believe in.

The truth is we have been fed a story from when we were very young that life is linear. We do A to get to B and then receive C. It all looks so simple, so sanitised and logical. No blips, or bumps are advertised. Just one long straight road heading in one direction and we are all supposedly on the same path heading towards the same milestones.

 And then in comes in creativity or entrepreneurship and the linear path makes little to no sense and resembles absolutely nothing of your experience. Instead, you find yourself blindsided and manoeuvring curves and dizzying heights and looming lows. It’s all one big roller coaster that only seems to guarantee one thing, there is never a straight line being travelled.

 Now when you find yourself on a loop and are concerned that your path does not seem to be so straight and steady don’t panic. Nothing has gone wrong, in fact everything is exactly as it should be. You were just sold a lie. It was never meant to be straight forward, or even easy. It was never meant to be one thing after the other in one obedient straight line. There were always going to be dips and curves and corners you couldn’t see around. It was not predictable and was never intended to be.

 When creating anything new, there is a journey all of its own. Inspiration has its own timing as does its execution. The many failed attempts, the tweaks, the data telling you to head more in one direction than another.

 This is the journey that is not spoken about. This is not glossy or a great advert because it is messy and it is not pretty. It’s more abstract than it is a work of convention. You have to learn to appreciate its beauty in a whole other way. To believe that the mess you feel you are in the centre of is going to emerge like a kaleidoscopic image into what you have been working towards creating.

 Straight Iines are great when you are moving from one known destination to another. The turbulent ride is for the acts of creation, the manifestation of moving your imagined realms into that of reality. And it makes sense that when you are making something which is yet to exist aside from within you then the path towards it is not going to be one you have travelled before let alone one that is linear. So be a lover of the madness and the method that exists within it. For out of that hot mess comes an act of creativity that requires you to be a version of yourself that can see things that are not visible to anyone else and that is holds a magic all of its own.