{"id":376,"date":"2011-03-14T10:35:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T10:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/03\/the-importance-of-being-creative.html"},"modified":"2011-03-23T11:21:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-23T15:21:31","slug":"the-importance-of-being-creative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/03\/the-importance-of-being-creative.html","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Being Creative"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s holding you back from being creative? Maybe you’ve got a book idea or you’ve always wanted to be a part of community theater. Really, what’s stopping you?Ever since I was in the second grade, I’ve wanted to be a writer. When the Challenger shuttle exploded in 1986, I was seven years old. I still remember the speech that then President Ronald Reagan gave to the nation afterwards. Using a quote from poet and pilot John Gillespie Magee, Jr., he said of the fallen astronauts, “We shall never forget them nor the last time we saw them, as they prepared for their mission and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.” Like it was yesterday, I remember how the words affected me and how, even as a child, I knew that I wanted to use words that way… to evoke emotion and feeling. I wanted to be a writer.Of course, when choosing a career in the creative, one is immediately met with resistance. Well-meaning people want you to choose something stable and practical. There’s so much fear surrounding it. They wonder if you could ever write a book. Do you think that will pay the bills? And even if it’s massively successful, you will probably never be able to top it. I think all those concerns boil down to one thing that people really want to know: “What if you try and fail?”… as if that’s the biggest devastation that a person could ever face. Don’t believe the old movie quote that says failure is not an option. Failure is always an option when you’re being creative. That’s what creativity is. It’s risk. It’s stretching your imagination beyond the boundaries of everyday living into the unknown. Sometimes it catches on. Sometimes it doesn’t, but I think it’s more important to try. Eat, Pray, Love<\/em><\/a> author Elizabeth Gilbert gave this great lecture on creativity that I want to share. I hope it inspires you to pursue those creative dreams. You never know where they might lead if you’re willing to try.