Advice to creatives: Rachel Power

There was a lot that Rachel Power said in her talk, 'Giving yourself permission to create' at the Big Hearted Business Conference 2013, that resonated with me. But one thing that keeps making me smile in recognition and further fuels my desire to create is this:

Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because the what the world needs is people who have come alive. 

A painter friend of mine recently told me that for her without art there is only shopping, and I completely understood what she meant. 

If we’re not producing something, we’re consuming something. For artists, writing or drawing or making music is what keeps us satisfied. Ignore that and you’ll end up spending way too much time in Ikea trying to fill that hole. It gets very expensive, and, worse still, when creative energy isn’t being used to make art, it can just as easily bend its talents to evil ends. When I’m not writing, I find my powers of imagination go to feeding my fears and anxieties instead, or to ugly bouts of self-scrutiny and criticism.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Who knew that my best budgeting strategy might be to indulge my creativity?