I’ve read a shit ton of woo-woo over the past ten years. Some of it I buy, and some of it I don’t. If you’ve ever heard a phrase like “open yourself up to the creative universe” you know what I’m talking about. In the self-help world, this kind of language sells because it sounds otherworldly, beyond what we experience during the day-to-day. It sounds spiritual, but not religious. And it sounds like the stuff we don’t normally do, something we need a guru to teach us how to do through books or online training courses.
The fucked up part of it is that anytime I’ve read the woo-woo and learned about these seemingly mystical things that are supposed to help me improve, or be more productive, or whatever, it usually works. But I’ve come to realize that all that mystical stuff isn’t really all that mystical. It’s more about simple and tangible behaviors like focus, motivation, and drive. Keep in mind that just because the concepts are simple and tangible, it doesn’t mean they’re always easy to execute. And that’s why people buy into the woo-woo, because they think they need some secret powers to get shit done.
For the past three years, I’ve generally struggled to unblock my own creativity. I’ve had pockets of creativity, recording and releasing this ambient album, developing and launching a few podcasts (this one, this one, and this one), and writing some new Here Inside music. But all of those projects were a lot harder to execute than my previous creative projects. I’ve been dealing with a ton of creative resistance and I finally feel like I’m starting to come out of the rut. In a sense, I’m opening myself up to the creative universe. Or one could say that I’ve finally gotten out of my own way and I’m working, even when I don’t feel like working.
You see, the common thread throughout all of this kind of woo-woo, and something that I wholeheartedly believe, is that ideas come from doing. You have to do stuff, and unless you’re the luckiest person in the world, the stuff you do will suck…at first. It will keep sucking for a while, but it will suck less as you go. And that stuff will present ideas; new ideas that you couldn’t have thought of without having done some shitty stuff first. It’s just the way it works. I don’t think it’s magic, and it can be very difficult sometimes to get the ball rolling, but if you can force yourself into the studio, or in front of the keyboard, or into wherever your creative space is, the creative universe will open up to you…or to put it another way…your brain will start functioning better, however you want to look at it.