A random thought passed through my mind this morning as I was going about my morning practices:
If clutter is the enemy of creativity, why are so many creatives hopelessly cluttered?
Maybe the thought wasn’t all that random. We have been talking about mental clutter in our Journey to the Center of Your Heart group coaching program all week long. We’ve talked about the clutter of all of those BRILLIANT IDEAS that pop into our heads at inopportune times that demand our attention. The ones that take us off task, that sound like the BEST IDEA EVER and ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO BE DONE RIGHT NOW!!! Except that they aren’t… because the next great idea comes along and the old great idea goes to that cluttery spot in our brains called the lost island of good ideas.
Come on, admit it… your lost island of good ideas is about the size of Australia right now isn’t it?
Yeah, I know. But please don’t ask me how I know. Just understand I only write about things I have a very intimate first hand knowledge of.
I am a Creative. I write, I paint, I am a photographer, a weed collector, (um… I mean gardener) a foodie-cook, an actor and a director. Professionally, I coach creatives into transforming their lives from a dull To-Do list driven existence to living a vibrant, heart-filled, passionate, exciting life where their creative passions are a front and center part of their thriving world.
And yet… for a large majority of frustrated creatives, the one thing that follows many of them around like Pig-pen’s dust cloud is clutter. Physical-stuff clutter. Emotional-feeling clutter. Big Idea- gonna do-it-someday-clutter… To Do List clutter. Fake Friendship Clutter. (You know who they are- they suck up all your time and you don’t want to hang out with them anyhow.) “Supposed to” and “Should” and “Guilt” and “Nagging Voices in our Head” clutter.
To be clear, I’m not talking about creative stuff. All creatives collect stuff. Our hobbies have tools. They have shiny things.We are kinda, sorta, all right… heavily addicted to shiny, new, bright, novel, interesting thingie-doohickies. We stick them on things, glue them places, write about them, twirl them, stare at them and overall just pick them up and put them down without even knowing we touched them.
That’s not clutter to a creative. That’s our stuff. Please don’t touch our stuff. It sparks our creativity. We NEED our stuff.
I’m talking about clutter. Clutter is the opposite of stuff. It doesn’t spark creativity. It repels creativity. We see it, we feel it lurking and we run in the opposite direction. It sucks creative breath. It makes it hard to swallow, let alone have a creative thought. Creatives are allergic to clutter.
And yet….I have clutter. You have clutter. But if we want to be LIVING CREATIVE here is what we have to face about clutter:
Clutter is the enemy of Creativity. It is an evil, sneaky bastard. It eats creativity, feeds off of it and then breeds. It piles up in our heads, in our lives, messes with our relationships, stunts our businesses and overwhelms us.
You want a more vibrant life?
Get rid of clutter.
You want to be more creative?
Get rid of clutter.
You want more love in your life, both toward yourself and others?
Get rid of clutter.
You want more clarity?
Get rid of clutter.
You want a more successful business?
Get rid of clutter.
I think you get the idea. I have to go. I have some clutter of my own to kick out. After all, it’s a journey. Not a destination.
If you are ready to start living a vibrant, heart-filled, passionate, exciting life where your creative passions are a front and center part of your thriving world, get in touch. Your Creative Life is waiting.
