(I use expression and creation interchangeably in this post)
I’ll start by quoting Jordan B. Peterson
“When you have something to say, silence is a lie”.
I have moments where I want to express myself in some way and I become hesitant to do so for many reasons that range from thinking—wrongly, I’ve learned—that my brainchild is not important enough to be given life, to thinking about how it would make me look a certain way.
Expression wasn’t always this complicated, especially as a child. I (mostly) said what I wanted to, (mostly) did what I wanted to and it was a life of reasonable freedom. While I cannot put my finger on what changed—or am not willing to go there, I did recently adopt new ways of looking at creation and expression that I’d like to share.
Firstly and most importantly, I think expression should be done for its own sake. Share that idea, joke, proposal and anything else you might conceive of because they are extensions of you that deserve to see the light of day. Plain and simple. It goes without saying that expression won’t always have pleasant consequences so prudence is required here.
Secondly, the fear of looking stupid is a very flimsy reason to not express yourself. It is not a consequence you should be worried about. The natural corollary then is that you should overcome this fear if you are to express yourself properly and the only way to do this is by, you guessed it, expressing yourself despite your fear (there are no shortcuts here, luv).
I think a quote from Justin Irabor is useful here
“everyone who dabbles on the risky side of things has had to shock themselves out of risk aversion. you can do that too, if you want. it isn't your eternal fate to be skittish.”
Thirdly, and saved for last because it’s a double-edged sword, what you have to give the world is probably going to be useful to (or enjoyed by) at least one person and I think that’s more than enough reason to create things. The unideal side of this is a situation where expression is done only to please others, a situation where the principal reason for creation is extraneous to the creator. There’s a loss of authenticity that occurs when creation is done in this manner, and this, in my opinion, defeats the point of expression.
Young lad or lass, let your light shine today.
My plan going forward is to put out one essay, at least, each month, because it seems that’s what I can manage.
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