Creativity Is Not A Competition

Bringing artistic expression back to its communal roots

Sometimes I won't post something, because someone else has already posted about it. I saw someone with a bigger budget or more education or better content skills make the point that I want to, so I shy away from making it myself. I almost feel like I’m copying someone even though I came to the idea myself and wanted to share it in my own way.

To combat this tendency in me, I went deeper into my rationale, to see if it's something I truly believe, or want to continue to believe.

I started thinking about what it means to be a Creative, and what our role is and was in society. We are meant to bring art, entertainment, and ideas to others. Before the internet, and before global mindedness, we were all in our own small communities, and each community needed their own set of roles to be filled. They needed a poet, a painter, a craftsman, it didn't matter that someone out there in another community might be doing it better, or doing it at all. The size of the platform didn’t influence one's status as an artist. There was a need for each role in every community. 

The value of our art is not outside ourselves in comparison and competition;  the value of our art is in touching the lives of our community members.

The perfectionism and the vulnerability in us wants to guard ourselves from judgment and shame at the expense of our art and our role in our communities. When I narrow my aim of whom I want to share it with, it helps break that barrier and allows myself to create more freely and meaningfully.

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