i'd like to offer some advice that i
wish i got when i began this whole
journey of making things the truth is i
spent
my whole life creating things
experimenting with self-expression and i
don't think this makes me special i
honestly think we're all artists there's
nothing pretentious about saying that i
think we all have an innate need to
express ourselves we are all creators
whether we like it or not when you speak
words you are bringing an idea into the
world so i'm gonna break down my advice
into six hopefully actionable pieces
without further ado let's dive right in
creativity will not fill metrics in our
pursuit to control all things around us
we attempt to measure everything with
numbers the truth is however that
creativity cannot be measured and it
doesn't work linearly there are many
very successful very famous authors like
stephen king ernest hemingway haruki
murakami among
many other examples that write or would
write when they were alive
for only four to six hours a day maximum
and once they did that amount of time
they wouldn't write anymore that was it
for the day and this does not just apply
to authors okay incredibly successful
scientists like charles darwin operated
this way we think people are lazy if
they work only four to six hours a day
but what these people understood was
that amount of time working has very
little correlation with creativity and
output these people would take naps they
would go on walks they'd have
conversations with friends and what i
think so many people failed to
understand was that this was part of the
work
these are tools and it makes sense to me
at least now that i've kind of thought
this through and gone through the
journey of trying to figure out what
works for me and what doesn't
i'm exponentially more creative when i'm
well rested
when i'm recharged by spending time with
the right people when i take care of
myself essentially you know i used to
work as a video editor before focusing
full time on youtube and at the end of a
long day there would be times where i
could spend three hours struggling with
a particular section of a video that
still needed to be edited or i could go
to bed and wake up with a fresh brain
and do that section in 30 minutes that's
like a perfect example of how non-linear
creativity is and that's a little
example imagine an entire lifetime of
this factories and industrialization
helped us standardize many things like
time tracking and we try to do the same
thing we try to apply the same
principles to creativity because we live
in a world that wants to be efficient
but it doesn't work and the sooner we
realize this
the sooner you stop falling for that
trap writing for me is putting in the
work then letting it sit walking away
coming back chipping away at it some
more walking away again then all of a
sudden i see that all this time i've
been focusing on the wrong thing so i
scrapped what i wrote but it isn't a
waste at all because all that work
helped me arrive
to this new and different conclusion
that i have it's meandering you know
it's wandering blindly and so what i
would say here is don't forget this when
embarking on your own creative endeavors
don't measure it like dollars and cents
and the sooner that you can realize that
the sooner you can build habits that
bring out your own creative best like
having a garden or
taking dance classes art is not a war i
don't agree with stephen pressfield who
wrote the very popular book the war of
art i don't think making art and
expressing creativity are like going to
war for me that just feels like there's
some sort of enemy to beat
and that's not how i see things there is
no enemy to beat there is no you versus
anyone it's not even you versus you
because the way i see creativity it's
you learning about you and this is
because creativity begins with a little
itch that you have to scratch a question
that you have to answer something that
is triggering your curiosity actor ethan
hawk said something that really stuck
with me on this point if you get close
to what you love who you are is revealed
to you and it expands and that for me is
just another way of putting how i see
creativity i never start any project
knowing where it's going to take me and
that's the point creativity is not
knowing where you're going to end up
just that you need to start it's the
process itself that is the only way
you're going to find the answers that
you're looking for it's messy which is
why it might look like a battlefield but
it isn't a war you're not fighting a war
now pressfield talks about it being a
war because you're fighting against your
own resistance to sit down and do the
work
but i don't see things that way because
i don't feel like i have a choice if
there's something within you that's
telling you i have to create something
there's a message within me that's
bubbling up that needs to come out in
many ways it's not about fighting to get
that message out it's about listening
and letting that message come out art is
oxygen and i have to breathe this is how
i make sense of the world and art is
decoding who you are and how that fits
into the world it's a tool to get
clarity but trying to force out your
vision never works it's more like little
by little the thing i'm trying to create
just comes through me the way i see it
is that we're landing pads for wherever
the creativity comes from it kind of
travels through us to manifest in this
world and so in that sense
creativity for me is less
about invention and more about listening
i have to pause briefly on the topic of
creativity to talk about the sponsor of
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on that i just don't think about it that
much i get a little bit lazy and this is
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without further ado let's dive back in
boredom is a superpower i personally
believe that you are already equipped
with all the tools that you need to find
the answers that you're looking for we
have truly incredible hardware our minds
and our bodies and really the focus
should be how to use that incredible
hardware to our own benefit you know the
interesting thing is that none of us
like to be bored
but almost all of the problems of
society today are problems of abundance
these are not the problems that our
ancestors have we're overstimulated too
much information too much sugar
to make choices too many distractions as
naval put it to be successful in society
today one must be an aesthetic which
you know if i were to simplify that a
little bit it basically means to
practice self-discipline learning how to
shut things off to impose limits the
incredible thing here is that boredom
being less stimulated activates the
default mode network which is a part of
your brain
that is incredibly powerful
particularly for creativity believe it
or not and basically it goes to work
connecting dots creating potential
solutions so that when you come back to
whatever problem you're trying to solve
you come back with a bunch of new
options new ideas new angles new things
that you can try and this is why common
pieces of wisdom like sleep on it are
more powerful than you might think what
i'm saying here is use this superpower
it's built into you don't think the
truth is i have never thought my way to
solutions whenever i felt lost in life
which has happened often thinking has
never helped me find my way out it just
never worked thinking your way through
solutions feels tempting because you
feel safe you know you don't have to
throw yourself out there into the world
but that's precisely the problem
thinking is full of holes and it leads
to incomplete untested conclusions
instead i suggest trying things it's a
way more efficient way of finding your
voice as an artist and figuring out what
feels right why because when you try
something you get immediate feedback one
of two things happen either it feels
right it feels great and you can stick
with it or it feels wrong and you move
on to trying something else both
possibilities are really valuable
information and so looking at things
through this lens it's kind of
impossible to fail now how do you know
when it feels right there's just
something energizing about something
that feels right something just clicks i
feel this kind of buzzing within me and
when i have that feeling i know i'm on
the right track you'll just know nobody
needs to explain it to you you'll just
know in your body trying things
especially things that scare you is a
way to massively accelerate the process
of figuring out who you are as an artist
it really is like pouring gas on the
fire and i mean think about it
creativity requires flexibility and
thinking outside of the box it isn't
intellectual in an iq test sort of way
there's a malleability and looseness
that's required right i feel like we can
all agree on that here's the thing
that's directly related to how you
interact with the world if you're afraid
to try new things
energetically speaking you're not being
flexible you're being rigid and rigidity
is the killer of creativity don't think
just do things make things and the
answers will come if you're feeling fear
that's a good sign it means you're alive
and it means that you're working with
something that you care about it's
always tremendously scary to put
yourself out there and to expose
yourself to criticism especially if
you're dealing with something that
matters to you but i find it helpful to
remember that genuine is always better
than popular talk is cheap you know
people will say just about anything on
the internet okay
at this point i feel like i've seen it
all and it's because they can and it
doesn't cost them anything you cannot
let people that have no skin in the game
stop you from expressing yourself
creativity is like a muscle like you
don't work out eight hours a day okay if
you did your body would be like what the
are you doing to me and eventually
you'd get injured creativity is kind of
like that you know i think creativity is
an unlimited force but on a practical
level as a human being
day to day you have a limited amount of
creative energy so this is going to
sound like a dumb piece of advice but
get enough sleep properly taking care of
yourself is one of the only ways to
increase that amount of energy each day
play the long game please and take care
of yourself people underestimate how
much energy it takes to be creative you
know it is way more energy efficient to
go on autopilot and to let other people
tell you how to live your life and so
the only way to stick with this long
term i think is to take care of yourself
developing your own voice okay the last
thing i'm going to say here is that i
think the place most people start is by
imitating you know when you're starting
out you're not good and you don't know
what you're doing so you mimic and i
think the way you find your voice is by
being eternally unsatisfied it's going
hmm you know this could be better how do
i make this better and then
experimenting endlessly it's important
to remember there is no getting there
many of my favorite artists would master
a format and then they would move on
unsatisfied forever playing with the
creative process so those are my
thoughts on creativity i hope you found
that helpful i really appreciate you
taking the time to watch i would really
love to hear your thoughts in the
comments below do you agree with me is
there anything that you would add to
this list if you like this video it
would help me out a lot if you gave it a
like which could help it reach more
people and then i just wanted to say one
more thing which is that
i finally have some merch all this time
this was on my head and i didn't say
anything my first ever merch drop is
coming out on friday january 28th and it
will be available for only one week so
the merch is amorphati which as many of
you know is a latin phrase that i
absolutely love it means a love of fate
i interpret it to mean love everything
that happens to you good and bad good
and bad are just
subjective labels that we place on
things anyway i've never done this
before so depending on how well this
goes i might do more merge drops in the
future this will be available for one
week there are shirts sweaters hoodies
consider checking it out it is a huge
way to support me and my work and i
think it looks cool this is in
collaboration with the guys from seek
discomfort and what they're doing is
extremely cool i mean i love what
they're releasing it's carbon neutral
it's a way to show the things that you
care about the way that you see the
world so thank you so much for watching
and i'll see you all very soon