The Essential Ingredient For Anything Worthwhile Made
To make something that makes us and others smile requires something we don’t know that we haven’t got.
Photo by Kyle Frederick on Unsplash
To make something that makes us and others smile requires something we don’t know that we haven’t got.
Welcome to The Reflectionist, a daily dose of reflection on the nature of the self, personal reality, creativity, life and work, submitted to the public record for posterity. Read personal essays and articles on the psychology of creativity to help you nurture and broaden your creative prowess.
If you think you’ve got it, you don’t.
If you’re chasing it, you’ll never get it. In fact, if you think you know what it is in the first place, then you don’t. If you stop chasing it, you’ll get it, but when you finally do, you won’t know you’ve got it.
So what is it?
It’s the magic ingredient to anything worthwhile made, and you can’t force it, coerce or coax it. You can’t find it, make it or steal it. You’re born with it, but somewhere along the way, you lost it.
The good news is you don’t have to find it again. It finds you, and it’s there, exactly where you dropped it.
It’s really never too far away.
Most of us think someone else has it and we have to get it from them. We believe it’s limited and we have to work our bollocks off for it. The truth is that all the effort in the world won’t win it. Only when we’ve tried too hard, failed and given up can it come.
It’s eternally elusive yet always available. You can’t speak of it because if you try, it still escapes explanation. Words are inadequate; they never get there.
You can’t control it. In many ways, it controls you.
It’s not in lovers, mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers. It’s not in jobs or gold watches or bank accounts. It’s not in awards, praise or applause. These things sure look good for a while, but you won’t find it there.
So keep looking.
Then one day when you’re not, as you’re immersed in your work, it will come upon you, and you’ll never be the same. And later as you try to recall it, you can’t.
So chill.
Get lost in something then see what happens.
Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff. Every morning you’ll find me sharing a new thought on life, art, work, creativity, the self and the nature of reality on The Reflectionist. I also write on The Creative Mind. If you like what I’m creating, join my email list to receive the weekly Sunday Letters