Writing is work. Hard work. Mentally draining, emotionally exhausting, and physically demanding (the last because we often forget to eat, sleep, and exercise as we craft our stories). We give all we have to the creative process as we “breathe air into the lungs of people who only exist on paper” (Taylor Dupape, age 17). And in the end we wonder if it was enough. Were we enough? We attach our value as a person to the success of our product. Good or bad, success or failure, we see our worth and the perceived worth of our story as one and the same.
Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) in her presentation on nurturing creativity not only reminds us to celebrate the creative process, but offers insight on how we can separate the value of our work from our individual worth as creators. Her talk is a good reminder that regardless of the outcome, “olé to you nonetheless” for sharing your story with the world.
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
“Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk” (from ted.com).
Thoughts? What from Elizabeth’s talk stood out to you?
photo credit (featured image): Copyright © 2009 Steve Jurvetson via Flickr, cc Some rights reserved
