This has been a busy week for me. I’ve been getting to sleep a bit later than usual due to a backlog of work, and I have consequently been waking up a bit tired. This morning I didn’t feel up to working in the garage, so I used that time to relax and read. So I have no cigar to report on today. My busy schedule lately is also why I missed my post yesterday.
I started reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. To be honest, I wasn’t super interested in this book originally. Sometimes I was a bit skeptical, knowing little of Rubin beyond his professional achievements, that this was possibly a cash grab move. However, after hearing more about him and listening to him, I believe he is a genuine person, and inarguably credentialled to discuss such matters as creativity.
I am always intrigued by creativity and hearing perspectives from creative individuals. I consider myself creative, however, I can often be a bit too analytical which can lead my creativity to be less artistic. If that makes any sense. Often this leads to perfectionism and paralysis by analysis. I am getting better. I read The Practice by Seth Godin and it helped me curb my perfectionism and get better at embracing the process instead of craving the result.
My hopes with The Creative Act are that it can free me a bit from the paralysis by analysis I suffer from. I hope it can help me find inspiration, free myself from the chains of self imposed, or externally imposed, constraints, and create for the sake of creating.
So far I have enjoyed the read and I have found it calming. Often with philosophical works - which I consider this to be - I find that when I can recall less specifics of what I read, however I can feel what I read. It’s like the words and messages are stored in my mind and body, not my memory.
It is an interesting feeling because I have a good memory so when I read any other genres I store that information. I can recall the important things - or things that stuck out to me - after I read. With something philosophical, I have trouble recalling or explaining the things I read, but I feel the impact they made. When reading this book I feel a sense of clarity and calmness.
I hope that makes sense, though it doesn’t have to.
Take care,
-Trevor