“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” — Carl Jung, Psychologist
To live authentically is not easy. From the day we’re born till the day we die, we’re taught either explicitly or implicitly to follow rules — rules that are not our own. Of course, there are logical reasons for this; a young child knows not the game of survival nor the rules of engagement with the world around him. But we all know that our families, our governments and society in general are always demanding that we obey. But expectations breed both fear and greed, the twin desires that lead us to conflict. Thus it’s almost unreasonably difficult to find our true selves and ultimately, our destiny.
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain, Writer
This is why we must write our own rules (visit my 10 Rules for Creative Living) and then adjust them as we develop greater understanding. To embark on this journey takes the trio of discipline, perseverance, and patience because the path to discover ourselves is the most difficult thing we can do. It also happens to be the most rewarding.
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.” — Silvia Plath, Poet.
There’s no easy answer or quick fix that can be found either here or elsewhere, but there are things to avoid. In my experience, there are a few caveats to beware of in a global society that is quickly growing more capitalistic and technological. To me, they are the greatest dangers to honest and authentic living and represent probably the most hostile yet most insidious obstacles to creativity. They are as follows:
- Comfort
- Convenience
- Conformity
Challenging Comfort:
Clearly, we’re not talking about avoiding that chair that eases our back pain. Rather, we’re concerned about choices that side with familiarity and easy decision-making, the kind unopposed by fear and emotional discomfort. When we’re not challenged, we slide from control to complacency. We also begin to lose our ability to deal with distraction. Any and all kinds of information soon becomes hard to absorb or understand. Once susceptible to noise, both internal and external, we lose our ability to focus and pay real conscious attention to things. Our intended path begins to develop forks in the road, each one possibly leading us astray. This is highly erosive for the creative mind. Unable to deal with discomfort — which always come with the hardship of learning something new — we fall prey to chaos or those who profit from our attention. It’s not surprising that everywhere we go we see people preoccupied with devices or entertainment, incapable of dealing with quiet or solitude, unable to bear their own thoughts. This, our course, leads to inner emptiness, as we reformulate a mind no longer our own. For craftsmen, the danger lies in using formulas and tricks we know work — the dirty way out that stops us from growing and from reaching flow or optimal experience. Whether we give into distraction or escape from challenge, the descend towards psychic entropy begins. Take either route and we can pretty much forget about the concept of excellence because we’ll never develop the skill or mental fortitude to persevere through difficulty.
“For all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.” — Baruch Spinoza, Philosopher
Confronting Convenience:
They say it’s always wise to be wary of that which has been presented to us on a silver platter. Those who want us to behave in the way they want always make it easy for us to do their bidding for them. Fast foods/services, cheap prices, and automation make it all too easy to abide. Shiny on the outside but empty on the inside, they prey on our laziness knowing we’re conditioned to immediacy. It may seem logical to save energy, time or money but the cheap and easy always comes with hidden costs. Corporations that require massive marketing/advertising campaigns to sell their goods and services work hard to give it all to us with easy access and low prices, so that we don’t bother to question the compromise in quality or whether the employees have been exploited or that the environment has been inadvertently harmed. How else can such monstrous profits be achieved with such poor products? Products which, if we were not familiar with the branding, we would never otherwise buy. Instead of going with the conveniences provided for us, we must instead try to see the big picture or at least make it more conducive to do the right things — things that enrich us and not merely provide us with short-term gratification. The very definition of the artist is one that makes the unusual choice, taking instead the original path KNOWING that it inconveniences him. The creative individual both strives for excellence within himself and in things he comes into contact with. He values quality over quantity, and real value over convenience.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., Minister & Activist
Countering Conformity:
It’s natural to conform. It’s biological and historically sensical to not abandon the tribe that protects us. But we no longer live in the tribal age confronted with the daily fear of hunger or death. Instead, our active desire to belong is purely social, to help us deal with the hardship of being alone. Unfortunately, this social need, when it’s obsessive easily becomes an impediment to true self-actualization. How can we be ourselves if we have to be like others? Searching from within is the only way to find our real talents, our real untainted desires that flow from both our spirit and our biology. This means dealing with solitude and sorting through the chaos of our own minds. Again, this is harder now than we can imagine. We have to dig out and dig thru the noise to find ourselves. And, in our day and age of increasing automation, we’re so used to following the trend that we don’t even choose for ourselves. We’ve outsourced not only our labour but our thinking. For instance, note how difficult it is to read or concentrate on something that is long, slow or hard to immediately understand. Soon, we might outsource most of our day-to-day decision-making. We already do so with simple things like buying books or choosing restaurants, consulting online the opinions of others instead of trusting or experiencing for ourselves actual reality. We have to be wary of what’s presented to us so alluringly. Sometimes, this even means avoiding the advice of friends or family. The company we keep matters. To do the right thing we need to derive our choices from within.
I work inside out, like nature.” — Jackson Pollock, Artist
In summary, all that can be said that matters is that we must work very hard to confront the forces that detour us from becoming our true selves. Only then, is there hope that we can live an honest, creative and original life. And what if we fail? So what. We mustn’t be scared of being true or of failing to become so.
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett, Writer.
“I would rather be dead than afraid.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.