Declare Your Independence

Today is the day we here in the United States celebrate our independence.  Celebrations of that independence will be going on all across our great land all day and night (though, thankfully for my sanity and my cats', with far fewer fireworks this year thanks to the desert-dry conditions).

I invite you all today to take time to celebrate your own independence, but not as (or in addition to) an American -- as a Creative.

There are some people -- you may be one of them -- who are doing things in their life that would otherwise be considered "creative," but are doing them based on someone else's commands, demands, and agendas.  They create to conform, because somewhere along the line they've got the notion into that they must conform to create.

For others, they don't create at all, despite having the desire to do so or the calling in their heart, because they fear the reaction of their spouse, their parents, their family, their friends, or the world at large.

Even for those of us who consider ourselves Creatives, there are times where we give in to outside pressures -- from our family, our friends, our church, our neighbors, our publishers -- and deny ourselves the chance to create what we truly want.

Why do we do this, any of it?  We act this way because we fear being ridiculed, being laughed at, being thought of as "strange," being ostracized, being ignored, or -- perhaps worst of all -- being successful.  The list of reasons why we don't create is nearly as long as the list of creations we could make if only we gave ourselves the chance.

So today, I invite you all to declare your independence.  Declare it and start creating.

Declare your independence from excuses for not creating: I don't have the time, I don't have the talent, I can't/shouldn't/mustn't.

Declare your independence from the opinions of others: I'll look like a fool, it won't be any good, no one will like it, my aunt won't speak to me ever again, my friends will think I'm a freak.

Declare your independence from conforming to what others want (or what you think others want): I can't write that because it's too shocking, I can't use that chord because people will think it's too jarring, I can't paint that because it's too controversial.

Today, of all days, I challenge you to allow yourself to create, what you want, when you want, how you want.  Some of us don't create at all because of the wall of thoughts and words we've had erected by others around us.  Some of us don't create because of the same sort of wall that we've erected ourselves.  Some of us create, but not what we truly want to because we're afraid of the impact it will have.

I'm sure our Founding Fathers had similar fears and apprehensions, but they made the bold decision to declare their independence from them, and from British rule, an act we still celebrate to this day.

So many Creatives and hopeful-Creatives, however, won't take that step.  "Creativity" in our culture has, quite frequently, come down to a matter of doing the exact same thing in a slightly different way (how else can you explain the explosion of Reality TV series that sprang up in the early 2000s, each not much more than a carbon copy of the next?).  As a society, we've come to accept mediocrity from our Creatives as the norm, though I think all of us get a secret thrill when we run across a truly original and unique creation, one where its creator stayed true to his vision to make it. 

No matter where you are on your Creative journey, today is the day to declare your independence.  Tell yourself that you're going to allow yourself to create, what you want, when you want, and as much as you want.

And who knows?  Two hundred years from now, our progeny may be celebrating your bold decision, too.