I won’t take credit for the idea of creativity being a muscle because the idea isn’t mine. I’ve heard the phrase many times, but an insightful article by Ayodeji Awosika made the idea fresh again. Creativity is a muscle. If you don’t use it, you lose it. That hit home. It was time to reexamine my life, my creativity muscle, and where I’m going with both.

Awosika’s honest, vulnerable article resonated. Like him, I’d thought many times of giving up on writing; giving up on creativity. Where I once had so much to say, I find myself now without a voice. When did I lose this? Where did it go? I don’t know, but a small part of me hopes that this blog becomes the  “exercise” that rebuilds my atrophied creativity.

I have no expectations of a miracle to charge me suddenly with creative superpowers. No, I’m just hoping to start a cold engine. It’s been sitting in the garage for a long time, and it will need some tender loving care ever to take me anywhere again. My first trip might just be rolling into the driveway followed by a quick return to the relative safety of the garage. But that’s a start, right?

All I Need to Know About Overcoming Fear I Learned from Star Wars

Yoda was right. Fear does lead to anger. In my case, not a raging anger that destroys the things around you in a crash, but a silent, senseless anger over what my life hasn’t become. That anger leads to the Darkside.  Of this, I’m now certain. I’m not an angry soul, but I’ve become bitter and let the Darkside of fear cast a shadow over me. I’m shrouded by all the things I think I can’t do.

Working on the process of my creativity is the only way to not the let fear win. I need this. I need to build a habit of writing. I need to parlay that habit of writing into growth, and I can’t expect to grow and learn by doing nothing. I need to write. When I was young and full of energy, the prospect of working on the craft of writing always took the back burner to where it might take me some day. After years of starting and stopping, hopes succumbed to fear and doubt.

For a long time, I’ve let those feelings of doubt, fear and bitterness rule me. Why would anyone want to hear what I have to say? I’m not that creative, right? Those kinds of thoughts eat away at you. For me, it’s time for that to stop. It’s time for me to exercise again. It’s time for me to write.  It’s time for me to throw my own personal Emperor over the rail and leave the Darkside behind.

A Small Dose of Courage Is Where Creativity Starts

If I can take the first few steps and get my creative engine to turn over, I can start to move. After all, creativity IS a muscle. It’s just one I’ve not flexed in a while. Right now it’s weak, but that will never change if I do nothing. Once I start to move again, I can steer and choose a direction. Fear has held me back, but optimism from another writer has given me a small dose of courage. Enough at least to get a domain, load WordPress and write this little tome of beginning.

Where will all of this take me? I don’t know, but my plan will be to write every day. In doing so, I hope I can learn every day as well. We grow stagnant if we don’t continue to learn. It’s my hope that my learning is broad because creativity is endless. Writing is only the beginning. There’s much more to explore.

It’s cliché to say, but the first step of any journey is the hardest. But I’m taking that step. I’m writing again. It’s a start. I’ve been silent for a while, and it’s time to flex my creative muscle again. Why did I start today you ask? Because “I’ll do that tomorrow,” seemed like nothing more than an excuse that would lead to nothing ever changing. So here we go.

Also published on Medium.