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The Biggest Barrier to Creating (Literally) Anything
Perhaps the biggest barrier to creating anything is the idea that what you want to create must be “good” or “useful” or “purposeful” — and this fucks with us quite a bit. I imagine it fucks with us in the same way that Americans (compared to Europeans) often stop playing music after a certain age because they’re not going to “do anything with it.” As if that was the point of playing music.
If every kid in an orchestra had missed their plans on making the New York Symphony or being Jimi Hendrix, the education and learning and development that came from playing that instrument wouldn’t go to waste. The same goes for adults: drawing, playing the drums, kicking a ball, learning how to cook, developing your crochet skills–none of it is wasteful, and I feel like many adults need reminders of this.
Your life isn’t split into two extremes: work hard or do nothing (in order to recover from working hard). There’s so much to do in the middle. Lately I’ve seen, heard or used the word “spectrum” an unusually large amount of times, and I believe it’s coming up for a reason. Many things live on a sliding scale, and I recognize that while polar extremes or absolutes might be easier for our head to wrap around, most of the time, it’s not where the truth lives. So what lives on the spectrum between work and doing nothing? Play. And get this, it…
