Simple advice for creative people

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 this video which is hule which i'm quite pleased about because i like them a lot okay confession time i like snacking i'm a big snacker and unfortunately this is not a super healthy habit and by not super healthy i mean it's really unhealthy most snacks have absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever you know you load up on carbs and who knows what else they put in there i'm not like proud of it but i usually have so many other things going on that i just don't think about it that much i get a little bit lazy and this is something that i'm working on this year enter heal complete protein which is a 100 nutritionally complete high protein snack made from sustainable hemp faba and pea protein it is a way healthier alternative i saw a lot of positive reviews on it on the internet then i tried it for myself and was like yup this is good also i really like the flavors that they've got they have a chocolate flavor that i'm really enjoying as a replacement to hot chocolates but they also have an unflavored unsweetened version which is great if you want to just really go plain and simple it's very practical i'm not gonna lie it's a great source of vitamin d and amino acids it takes like two seconds to prepare so if you're interested you can use the link in my description to get started with fuels complete protein and if you do i'd love to hear what you think thank you huel for sponsoring this video all right 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

Channel: Nathaniel Drew

Views: 141,240

Keywords: creativity, creative, boost, how to, how to boost creativity, how to be more creative, what we don't understand about creativity, science of creativity, motivation, productivity, nathanield rew, nathaniel drew, nathaniel drew creativity, nathaniel drew creative, permission to be creative, tips, tricks, tips and tricks, how to become more creative, boost creativity, creative thinking, tedtlk, tedtalk, permission to be, creative expression, expression, self expression, understanding

Id: S9LYW731Iqw

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 25 2022