022: Stop waiting for the muse

Waiting for the apple to hit you on the head might have worked for Einstein, but it’s an easy excuse to put your hands up and absolve yourself from creative responsibility. Today we're diving into the problem with waiting for the muse.

Episode transcript:

Good morning, Daily Peppers. Happy Thursday. So there's this really cheesy scene at the end of A Cinderella Story where Hilary Duff's character and Chad Michael Murray's character finally get together. And she tells him in this big dramatic scene where he runs out of this football match and the epic music starts. She tells him, waiting for you is like waiting for the rain in this direct, useless and disappointing. Then they kiss, obviously. And I think this sums up exactly how I see Sitting around and waiting for the Muse. One of the main trap doors in the world of being a creative person is is buying into this myth that you have to wait for inspiration to strike.

And it is so tempting to think we have to wait for inspiration, but around here we are about making life happen, not waiting for life to happen to us. The thing is, waiting for the apple to hit you on the head might have worked for Einstein, but honestly, it's an easy excuse to put your hands up and absolve yourself from creative responsibility. If you're sat around waiting, you can pretty much do what you like because, well, it's a waiting game after all, right? But the problem with this is not only does it absolve you from all responsibility for creating your work, but it's really fucking convenient because it's relying on things outside of our control. It's like the ultimate cop out. Now, we have all met people who moan about not having the perfect job or the creative opportunity they dream of. And in reality, they're not doing much except for waiting for someone to knock on the door. They moan like it's their favourite pastime. And while sometimes we are those people, most of the times those people just really wind us up.

We can see the obvious. That is you have to take some action. And it's the same with inspiration. You have to take it into your own hands. So go work. Because not only is sitting around waiting for the Muse fruitless, it's also pretty boring. And it's got a way of making you powerless. And that's something none of us enjoy feeling.

So take back control. Go take responsibility for your own creativity. Get curious. Go read about something that's completely unrelated to your field and challenge yourself to find five commonalities. Go rewatch your favorite film and try to identify what it is about it that just pulls at your heartstrings. Go sit at your desk, put on a timer and just make yourself sit there. Like Picasso said, inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. Go do something.

Go do anything. I think that's enough. Pack for today. So see you back here tomorrow.

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.

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