“If you are alive, you’re a creative person” – Elizabeth Gilbert
I am loving “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert right now! I’ve been listening to it via Audible during my commute and it is so damn beautiful and motivating! It really makes me want to sit down and write.
A chapter I listened to yesterday was so refreshing because she echoed a view I feel like I’ve developed over the past year, which is, You do not have to want to help people with your work. The messages that run counter to this are out there in abundance, like, “Focus on how you can help people with your business/profession/talent/whatever”, and “Your desire to help others should drive your business/profession/motivation/whateverrr”.
But she has something in this chapter that just made me laugh. She wrote, “When I hear that someone wants to write a book to help people, I think, ‘Oh God please don’t’ “. And that is so darn refreshing! Because to be completely honest with you, I don’t feel pulled to help people with my creative work. I write because I feel compelled to write and to share my writings with others. And even though I love and appreciate my email subscribers (so grateful to all!), I’m not writing for them. I’m writing and sharing because I feel called to do so. And if my writing resonates with someone then that’s fantastic!
And I align with the idea that Gilbert also mentioned in her book, that if you are authentic in your creative work, your work will likely end up helping people.
I’ve felt the truth behind this idea since I basically began my current spiritual journey last year… If we do what we feel called to do, we will help people indirectly (or directly if that’s what you’re being called to do!). I think if you really follow your true Self’s calling (bringing in the woo woo here), not for any reason other than you want to or are feeling pulled to do so, there is no doubt that you will help others in some way. On top of this, I think following this calling leads to personal success (many times as a result of helping others through your work).
Funnily enough, I read the final chapter of Deepak Chopra’s book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” this past week (after starting this book wayyyy too long ago), and he talked about how he encouraged his kids from a young age to focus on figuring out what they are called to do, without focusing on the risk of financial lack. And each of them wound up going into professions that called to them, and created successful careers for themselves.
Of course I recognize that not every high school garage band is going to make it big, and I can share my thoughts on that is at a later time, but I think the world needs us to do whatever we want to do, to act upon whatever we’re being pulled to do, because the authenticity of those actions cannot be replicated by anyone else. And that will undoubtedly help you and others get a lot more goodness out of this life.
And so I’ll leave you with another beautiful quote on this topic:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman