Have you ever thought of joy as a core value in your creative work?
It’s worth considering it. Joy isn’t just confetti vibes. It’s the conviction that you’re creating a piece of work that’s important to share. It’s expressing what you feel needs to be expressed.
I’ve been thinking about a few writer friends I’ve met along my journey. I remember they would read my work, and they would give me wonderful feedback. However, when I read theirs, they wouldn’t always take a compliment. Their reaction was actually quite harsh.
“I’m not that great.” “I’m supposed to be good at this, and it sucks. I write pages and pages, and I just end up with garbage.”
To me, these thoughts indicated that they were trying to achieve perfection to feel like their writing was valuable. Sadly, an activity that was meant to bring them joy had the opposite effect.
When you’re working on your creative craft, are you obsessed with how perfect the end result will look like or are you making sure you’re having fun creating it?