We had seen how much our creativity was hindered by obstacles that a few simple exercises could overcome, notably the idea of writing three pages every morning.
To continue this effort to track down these blockages, I suggest we go further in our awareness that we ARE creative and that expressing this creativity is our DUTY.
Jacques Brel said that "The hardest part is not leaving everything and going to the Marquesas Islands, but going to Orly."
When we embark on a project, such as writing a show, we talk about the project of "putting something together." We don't realize how much this expression implies "achieving something that is not accessible to us," like balancing on a shaky stack of chairs.
For Julia Cameron, creating is, on the contrary, "DISMANTLING something," dismantling our fears, our beliefs, and rather than "ascending" to some unknown ideal, it is more about descending just below the surface of our consciousness.
How many authors have claimed to have "caught a poem, a paragraph, a song" and considered it a miracle.
In reality, it wasn't a miracle: it's the norm. We are the instrument of our creativity; we are not its author. In short, we just need to listen to ourselves.
One of the main obstacles to listening to ourselves is what is called "perfectionism," which is often associated with humility or the desire to "do things well."
In reality, it is a refusal to move forward, a loop, a closed obsessive system that focuses us on details and makes us lose our overall vision, and above all, prevents all creativity, like a parasite preventing us from listening to ourselves, a kind of coach fly.
Think of the draftsman who would redraw the line of a chin, again and again… until the paper tears. It's hard to find a more telling image, isn't it?
The perfectionist loses the pleasure of creating by constantly having one eye evaluating the result, which must be perfect, definitive, and the other eye turned towards what the public will think.
In reality, this "quest for the best" is the pursuit of the worst in ourselves; it is giving full scope to that part of us that tells us that what we are doing will never be good enough, brilliant enough, has not required enough effort, and that we must constantly redo it, at the risk of never finishing.
In reality, a work is never finished (the writing of a play, a novel, the composition of a piece of music, a painting...) so it is up to us to decide when it is.
Let's ask ourselves this question: "What would I do if I didn't have to do it perfectly?" : undoubtedly much more than what we are doing!
If we absolutely want to compare ourselves to others, then let it be constructively!
The problem for a young filmmaker is that he doesn't compare himself to George Lucas's films when he was a student, but he compares his first films to Star Wars!
Let's let go, take the time for sketches, drafts, unsuccessful attempts, because in reality, NOTHING IS A MISTAKE.
We choose to set our limits in a place where we ensure success (or by idealizing the success of another); it is probably a comfort zone (we think) but it is a comfort whose price is far too high.
"Often, people try to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want to be happy.
The way it actually works is the opposite.
First you have to be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want."
