Kendra Patterson

I tried for years to write every day and felt guilty and inadequate when I failed. I began to believe that I just didn’t have what it takes. I didn’t realize that self-discipline inevitably fails. What I needed was to relocate where I find my motivation.

Surrendering to the journey is what the labyrinth asks of us. You may be thinking, that’s all fine and good but what happens when you reach a fork in the road? You have to make a choice eventually – and you might choose wrong.

“Kendra,” my father said to me one morning before school as I sat at our battered oak kitchen table eating Cheerios, “if I throw this cereal box on the floor, would that hurt its feelings?” I looked coolly at him where he stood by the counter, holding the yellow box. “No,” I said, affecting nonchalance.

The key to this is to never force creativity. But how do you know when you’re encountering normal resistance, and when it’s forcing it? Why is forcing it so bad? And what do you do when you encounter that feeling of having to force it?

As a child, I thought that was just how things worked: you turn your childhood interests into a career. I can now see the privilege inherent in such a perspective, but also the psychological violence that underlies this seemingly benign belief.

Deciding you’re worth it doesn’t take away from anyone else’s worth. It just means that you’ve decided to advocate for yourself. Because – and this is really important to understand – no one else is going to do that for you.

I’m going to tell you a secret about creative work that will alter how you perceive it and make it easier for you to get your work out into the world where it belongs. Here it is: Don’t share your product. Share your process.

Confusion, anger, and despair are some of the emotions that can result from not getting out of life what you have put into it. First, you must understand that it’s not your fault. Please let this sink in for a minute. It’s not your fault. You are not lazy, a failure, a loser, or a bad person. Okay?

As the years went by and I continued to fail to achieve my creative dreams, I began to wonder if I was more of a never-bloomer than a late bloomer. But a recent study shows that certain types of creatives are experimental rather than conceptual, and they tend to do their best work later in life.

If we want to realize our full creative power, we must recognize taking time and space for our creative work as the glorious rebellion it is. We must learn how to steal fire from the gods and laugh as we abscond with our prize.

Studies have shown that while challenging goals do increase motivation and result in improved performance, they decrease people’s personal satisfaction with themselves and the results of their performance. It comes down to explicit vs. intrinsic valuation.

I only started feeling creatively fulfilled when I realized that productivity should never be the purpose of creativity, because the energy used in creative work is totally different from productive energy. Productive energy throws a wrench into the gears of creative flow.