There are things we must do, in order to live an authentic, meaningful life, which is the principal must-have for a creative life.  Firstly, the plan of your life needs to be meaningful. Secondly, the work you do needs to be meaningful and thirdly, the way you spend your time needs to be meaningful. This may sound complicated to you but it isn’t. Because we are writers, I will say that writing truth and loving deeply is most important.

 

Create a life plan sentence such as I intend to stand up for basic principles of fairness and justice while manifesting my creative and relating to others in a human way. A sentence of this sort will become the actual blueprint of your life. It is an important task. You and not the critics decide the worth of your work. That is sometimes difficult. It takes work of its own to maintain that meaning. This is one of the reasons that being a creative person is not always easy. It may look like fun to others not to punch a clock, but it is not easy to always create what we envision. Whatever your medium, you give birth to beauty of some kind whether it is music, writing, dancing, singing, painting or writing. Keeping it real and authentic is like a second job.

 

Jackson Pollock is quoted as saying, “Painting is no problem. The problem is what to do when you’re not painting.” Tennessee Williams has stated, “Once I finish writing, the rest of the day is posthumous.”  A creator’s time not creating does also need to have meaning. We cannot live in suspended animation. Creative people find the suspension of time to be morally repugnant. Time is of the essence. If we do not go forward with our ideas to create something, a play, a photograph, a painting. then often there is an onset of depression. Time slipping through your fingers is not a cause for guilt.

 

Grant meaning to the seconds, minutes, hours and days that face us as we look at our day. Grant meaning to the bare necessities of life, sleeping, eating, sleeping. Give meaning to being in the present. The past is gone and tomorrow never arrives. The present is really all that we have in any point of our lives. Make the present count, make the present meaningful. For creative people, being intentionally present is an improved sense of being present; an aware state that carries with it the tension of a life carefully lived.