Business Book Club Recommendation - A Quick Take: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
A Quick overview of BIG MAGIC by Elizabeth Gilbert.
In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert explores the concept of creativity from a perspective that you might’ve not thought of before. She doesn’t put herself in a guru position, she doesn’t force practical advice on you - she simply showcases her own perception of creativity, the way she envisions it, and gives you new ways to look at it, on a more spiritual, if not sacred, level.
She gives you a lot of examples that, according to her, prove how creativity is a magical being, void of human characteristics, but made up of abstract ideas that only want to be made manifest. She offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration, and allows you to aim at the wonder of creation, instead of focusing only on being rich and successful.
Main Takeaways:
Fear is boring and useless: when it comes to creativity, everyone has the same fears, and these fears keep telling us the same old things. There is no place for fear in the creative realm - live creatively without being afraid.
Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege: creativity allows us to explore the wonders of our imagination in the way WE want to, but when an idea comes and we decide to say yes to it, it becomes our whole life, keeps us up at night and we HAVE to fulfill it.
We are born to be creative, we are all the chosen ones: we are all makers by design, we don’t need to have grown up in a particularly fostering environment to be creative, you can always develop your creativity as you grow older. No one is born a genius, we all have the genius of creativity.
Done is better than good: we need to stop being perfectionists and we need to start feeling positive about our creative work, even if it doesn’t meet the initial standards we had posed ourselves.
We don’t have to suffer throughout our creative process: you’re an artist even if you don’t suffer while you’re creating. You can enjoy the creative process because your art loves you as much as you love it. It’s okay to have fun while creating.
We can learn how to fail, and we can learn to take criticism, without taking it too personally.
Creativity is the most efficient pathway to wonder: our soul doesn’t care if we fail or succeed, our soul only wants to be nourished by creativity.
Exercises:
What is stopping you from leading a more creative life? Do you feel like you’re too old or too young to start one? Do you feel like you’re not qualified enough? Like your family and friends are going to judge you?
All these fears do not have space in the creative realm - there is nothing concrete stopping you from leading a creative life. And, most of all, everyone feels the same kind of fear: you are not alone in this.
Defending yourself as a creative person begins by defining yourself. Who are you? Do you write - then you’re a writer. Do you sing - then you’re a singer.
Write down who you are and BELIEVE it by defining yourself.