004: The myth of the lone creative genius
It's one thing to stubbornly chase after your dreams, it's another to make things harder for the sake of it. Today we're diving into the myth of the creative genius.
Episode transcript:
Hello, hello, good morning, happy Monday and welcome to the Daily Pep, the only daily podcast for creative and multi passionate women. I'm your host, Meg Kissack, and today we're going to be busting some myths about the idea of the lone creative genius. I want you to imagine that you are in the middle of a beach. It's just a heads up, this is not one of those visualization things. Don't worry. You're in the middle of a beach and suddenly you realise that you're sinking, your feet are getting lower and perhaps a mild panic is creeping into your chest and you realise you're in quicksand. So you start to worry. But out of the corner of your eye you see a rope attached to a pretty sturdy pole in the ground.
And they're both within arm's reach. Question, what do you do? You might be wondering if I'm asking you a trick question. Nope. Obviously, you grab the rope, you get to the pole and you pull yourself up and you simply get out of there as quick as you can. Because nobody likes being in quicksand. The idea makes me feel a bit, hmm, not even gonna go there, but nobody. You're not just gonna sit there and just be like, wonder why this is gonna end. We all know how that is gonna end, and it's not so great.
So why am I starting your week of talking about drowning in quicksand? Let me explain. The simple truth is, if either you or me were stuck in quicksand, we would be doing whatever the hell we could with what we had to get ourselves out of there. We would look around for resources, we would see the rope, we'd see the pole, we'd put two and two together and we'd just get ourselves the hell out of there. So my question for you now is, why do we give ourselves such a hard time doing that for ourselves in our own life? Why is it just so hard for us to use the things that are actually designed to help us? Why is it that we think that looking at Pinterest for color palettes is cheating? Why is it when we go to write our own work of fiction, we think that going back to books that we loved as a child or books that just make us feel all the things is somehow, again, cheating? Me and Mr. Meg were talking about this the other day. As you'll know by now, he's a baker and. And for a while he was giving himself a really hard time about using his mixer because all the books that he was reading were saying about, you know, doing it all with your hands, which maybe that works if you're making one or two loaves of bread, but when you're doing 20 at the same time, that's just not feasible. That's not.
Why wouldn't you just save your hands and use the mixer? I think we can get so caught up in this creative myth of being a lone struggling artist. This idea that everything we have to do has to be a million percent original and it all has to come from such a labor of love. It has to be literally ripped out of our hearts. It's that kind of myth that we have of this genius. And I just call bullshit. You are allowed to help yourself. Things do not have to be hard for the sake of being hard. It would be a bit like getting really stubborn in that quicksand and being like, I am self sufficient, thank you very much.
I might die, but at least I didn't have to use the pole. I mean, if you think about it, and this isn't to judge you or me, it's just a bit silly. It's ridiculous to think that we can do everything on our own just for the sake of it. I really love the book Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon because it just gives you full frontal permission to take inspiration from other places and that you don't have to do all of this alone. How would things change if you allowed yourself to work with what you have and stopped judging yourself for needing help or using things to help you? That's the question I want to leave you with today and start looking around your own life. What are your pieces of rope? What are your poles? And what can you use that already exists to just make your life that little bit easier? I am all about being stubborn when it comes to dream chasing and sticking to your goal even when it's hard. But I am totally not about making it harder for the sake of it or buying into the myth that there's this idea of this lone creative genius. It's bullshit.
I know that you know that. So let's just see how our lives change if we just say fuck it and use what we have. I would love to know what are your pieces of rope? What are your polls? Come and join the conversation using the hashtag dailypeppers on Instagram or Twitter because I know this is something so many of us struggle with and it's as simple as this. You don't need to struggle alone.
Episode transcript automatically produced by Castmagic.io
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The Daily Pep! is the rebel-rousing, daily podcast for couragemakers, creative, multi-passionate and unconventional women. If you’re surrounded by people who don’t get who you are or what you do, if you want reminders you’re on the right path (no matter how scary it feels), or you’re sick of being your very own worst enemy, this is the podcast for you. Every weekday, your host - writer, coach and professional rebel-rouser - Meg Kissack helps you build a creative and wholehearted life, one day at a time. Through short and snappy insights, reminders and stories, The Daily Pep! is here to remind you you’re not alone, and that everything changes when you believe you matter. Each episode is short and snappy, designed to fit in with (or help you start) your habits and routines
