Do you have a ‘rage to create’?  I adapted this description from an article I recently read in regards to a ‘rage to master’ within us.  I reference one story of a young boy and his incredible artistic abilities, combining colours and shapes on an obsessive level, working on each of his drawings for 1 to 2 days.  He was barely shy of his 2nd birthday when he began to create these abstract pieces of art and represents an ongoing  discussion of whether this intense ‘rage to master’ can even be taught or forced from youth.  These types of children are so focussed on their creative activity they must be dragged away from it in order to eat, drink and socialise.   If you are anything like myself when seized with an idea or inclination, you are beset with a frenzied mind, unsettled in stomach and torn by daily routine and obligations until a path is suddenly illuminated before you, enabling you to manifest the beautiful infestation within.  The artist and their canvas easily comes to mind in this scenario; however, it is also intrinsic to the need to write on subjects of passion or play a neglected instrument in order to expel the sounds (and voices) in your head.

Which is possibly why “Creatives” are always considered somewhat eccentric (although I question this terminology as I believe you are just more in tune with your soul).  It is a curse of affluent countries to prize monetary gain over spiritual and I do not necessarily infer religion.  As I mentioned earlier; it’s more to do with liberating your soul.  And it is the SOUL that causes some of us to twitch, remain in flux and be somewhat disengaged with our surroundings due to the simple inability to liberate our gift.

I am the product of working parents, a mother and father that scraped by on their combined nursing and engineering incomes in order to feed and educate me.  My Mother was of a more religious inclination, however my Father spent many hours honing creative gifts, time permitting.  He was a keen photographer, excellent calligrapher, badminton player and music lover.  I remember seeing him on occasion inventing melodies on my keyboard, experimenting with order of notes and acquiring numerous digital devices to capture them.  They took me to concerts and films, paid for various evening classes, bought me whatever books I wanted and let me sing in the car.  My focus was always drawn to art, music and drama, as well as the written word and languages.  It was no wonder to me that Maths was a least favourite subject (although I do envy the ability in others to make sense of all that arithmetic, I believe incredible beauty is found in formulas and logic).

The creative spirit is considered secondary in some circles.  It is understandable though when you are used to a certain lifestyle and the desire to eat at restaurants or upgrade your wardrobe to something less moth-eaten is an attractive idea. But a balance must be saught or you may sacrifice something profound, which is within you and unable to be procured behind that shop window.  And once again, this is largely to do with the surroundings we live in and the deplorable need to measure everything.  You can look at the market value of a web developer for example, considering their experience, skills and job history in order to evaluate their worth, but this cannot and should not be applied to creativity.  You cannot measure someone’s creative gifts, yet we do and it is all because of media.  For less creative minds, for them to even fathom a creative gift is only when it is successful, when they can refer to its actual existence by sighting it in a magazine, in moving image or airwave.  Infamy is achieved and they can accept your power on this “Commercial Map”.

But as any of us know, all of these creative pursuits began somewhere else and not on a changeable channel.  They began in a workplace where the water cooler conversation ran dry, they began in the studio when someone picked up a guitar to form a melody, they began when that idea flickered in your head and you wrote it down.  The important part in all of this is SHARING it.  I do not particularly care for the American attitude and this need to be successful; I believe it fuels self-loathing and unnecessary judgement of how others could always ‘do better’.  I equally deplore the English attitude though of not acknowledging one’s worth, where downsizing everything and not even being able to pay someone a compliment (as that could be considered sleazy) is so forefront in mind that an insane repression is rife.  We speak the same language (save some grammatical errors perhaps) yet we do not all speak in the same tone.  These are merely cultural afflictions though that are easily overcome and during a stint whilst living in Austin, Texas I purposely made a point to try and retain their sunnier disposition.

And this is what must be realised when pondering that itch in your brain that you cannot scratch.  You must apply certain factors to your daily rhythm in order to stimulate, grow and bring forth the talent within you. It is essential to capture it, so be sure to write down those thoughts, however small or large.   To stimulate further thinking, surround yourself with kindred spirits, those that recognise the fire within you (and certainly not those that see it as an inane pursuit, which it NEVER is).  Raise your cerebral stakes by applying yourself to challenging situations and witness the extraordinary capability you DO have when facing a difficult scenario (this breeds new reactions and therefore adaptation).  And always broaden your knowledge, you will never know everything, so it will be an eternal curiosity you will have much enjoyment fuelling.

There was a time when I first started writing a blog and a less creative soul commented on what the ‘point’ of it was, whether I would gain any money from it, let alone notoriety.  I had not considered any of these factors.  It was simply a tool for me to practice my art, a virtual mechanic for me to share my insight and experience in order to enlighten other’s eyes.  I wax lyrical on everything from food to philosophy as these subjects enrage me with such passion that I want everyone to have access to them.  I do not claim to be an ‘expert’ in my field.  That sort of speak is safe in corporate environments.  No thank YOU!  I am simply richer and more fulfilled in mind knowing that I can scribe in a fairly eloquent way about the rich and wonderful occurrences that are and can be had in the world we live in (as well as some poetry).

And whilst I have a platform to create, I damn well will.

As should YOU.

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