Embracing the Jagged Path!

There is a big misconception about the creative process and that is, if it’s all a bit of a mess, not making sense, and not going according to plan then, it’s not working. There is an even bigger misconception, that if it’s not working, it’s all your fault.  

Hear me when I say; It’s not you, it’s the creative process! 

When we embark on a creative journey, be that creating a life, a career, a project or following a creative calling within, we often make the mistake of thinking that our journey and experience should unfold in a certain-slash-straightforward way. We compare our creative process with someone else’s creative results and naturally, feel like we’re feeling short as a result. We blame ourselves and then doubt ourselves, believing that we’re not good enough or talented enough to make our creative vision a reality and that we are failing in our efforts to do so. This is why so many people abandon their creative dreams (and their creative self) because they stop believing in themselves.

Living a creative life, pursuing a creative career, embarking on a creative project or following a creative calling, is not a neat and tidy business, it’s messy. Oftentimes, really messy – and what’s more, it’s meant to be that way! 

The creative path does not follow a straight road, it isn’t a direct route with clearly-marked signposts helpfully leading the way. It’s a jagged path with twists and turns and dead ends, usually, lots of dead ends. It’s miles upon miles in one direction only to discover that wasn’t the right direction after all. It’s reversing, rerouting, course-correcting, then stopping to marvel at the breath-taking views while experiencing the sheer magic of it all, before getting stuck, again, started, again, lost, again and feeling like you’re going around and around in the same old circles, never getting any closer to realising your creative dream, making you want to give up and choose a very different path for your life – a less jagged one!

Welcome to the creative process! 

It’s not for the fainthearted, or for the people that like to keep things neat and tidy. It’s for the bold, the brave and the gutsy. It’s for the ones who know they were made for more, made to do something different with their lives, made to create something meaningful. 

But, it’s not an easy path to choose or to navigate.

So, if things are feeling messy for you right now, rather than giving up on your creative vision, perhaps try to trust that you’re exactly where you’re meant to be, in the gloriously messy middle of the creative process and that everything is unfolding exactly as it’s meant to.

There are no straight roads to fulfilling creative visions, only jagged paths.