Bring It, Baby! The Courage to Be Creative

There is power in daring to be different.

I encourage you to be a little bit more daring in your one true life. After all, it takes courage to be creative. 

Great advances have never come from the conventionally minded among us.  It always comes from us “idiots” who believe in love and freedom and goodness and peace. The fools of today are the visionaries of tomorrow.

Those crazy fools of the past gave us electricity, medicine, automobiles, a few trips to the moon and back, not to mention hair dye and microwave dinners.  God bless them all. Can you imagine the Wright brothers thinking they could snub the laws of gravity and fly?  Think about it.  

Many of us cower and shrink thinking we’re sapheads for believing we can write a screenplay that sells.

Just for a moment: try these practices to build the courage to be creative:

1. Dare to be alive, even on a Monday.  

• Take off your shoes, turn off the computer and walk outside into the sun.  
• Know the power, healing, and strength of having fun.  

2. Dare to rest when you are tired.  

• Take your thinking cap off and try on a feelings fedora. 
• Take scenic routes and detours along the way to your goals.

3. Dare to try new things and do them badly.  

• Sing off key, and then sing on key in a voice that melts all separation.  
• Ignore gravity and take flight.

4. Dare to find new ground.

• Wander down interesting paths and stuff your satchels with jewels.  
• Step into the river beyond the concrete structures of “how it’s always been done”. 
• Allow yourself to be delivered onto new and holy ground.

Prudence and conservatism have not advanced our culture.  It took the voices on the outskirts to make a noise that changed the world.  It’s taken a handful of rabble rousers to vote for women’s rights, freedom from slavery, and to oppose war, hunger, and hatred.  It takes fools to raise awareness and fools to raise the bar.  

It takes fools to stir the hearts of mankind into becoming the great lovers and leaders we are meant to be. 

Every time we watch the Academy Awards or the Olympics, I think of all the “foolish dreamers” involved who believed they had something in them that deserved commitment, development, and a jostling chance.  

Every hero begins as a fool.

So dare the ridicule of the narrow-minded and dim-sighted. 

Dare to still believe.

Dare to grow the courage to be creative.

Dare to feel. 

Dare to trust your crisp guiding light.

Dare to be a hero.  Dare to be a fool.