How Vulnerability Inspires Creativity

Hey friends, 

Today I am writing about a very emotional topic when it comes to being creative. Vulnerability.

Being vulnerable is one of the most challenging hurdles to overcome because it comes with a lot of baggage. It is associated, tied to, and intertwined with so many other emotions and experiences in one moment that it becomes difficult to even comprehend its impact and influence on our thoughts and actions. 

When we think of times when we are vulnerable, we might begin to associate those experiences with feeling scared. Maybe we are nervous or fragile. We could be unprotected or feel exposed. Ultimately, we surround those times with being at risk of having negative experiences. 

While all of this may resonate with you and your memories of feeling vulnerable, I’m sure you can agree that when you tie this word, and all that comes along with it, to moments of personal expression it becomes even more detrimental for our current state of mind, and future possibilities. 

Being creative in the mindset of my definition of creativity, which is your unique ability to help produce new results, can be heavily hindered and stifled when the fears and anxieties surrounding vulnerability come into play. 

But let’s take a quick step back and reflect on why we might feel vulnerable, to begin with? 

Maybe we don’t want to overstep any boundaries? 

Maybe we don’t want to be cast out of the group? 

Maybe we don’t want to possibly offend anyone? 

Maybe we don’t want to fail?

There are countless reasons that we avoid experiences where we feel vulnerable, especially in the workplace, because we write a story in our minds of the possible long-term effects or results of stepping into an unknown experience or being creative in a new way. Stories such as, I might get fired if my ideas are too abstract or unrealistic. I might be made fun of. I might hurt someone else’s feelings. I might fail… and I’d be a failure… and no one would ever want to work with me again because they would always associate my ideas with being stupid and wrong. 

These thoughts literally continue to go down a deep dark rabbit hole, and while that process and that hole are meant to protect us because that’s how our minds are wired, we are allowing that subconscious mindset to direct our actions and our thoughts in negative ways. And, believe it or not, but there is a way to take this experience and use it to empower you, which I’ll get to shortly.

But first, while we are taking all of those stories we tell ourselves in our minds, let’s go back and think about how that can play into our creativity. When we start telling ourselves that only bad things can come from our creative endeavors, it becomes part of our subconscious mindset to stop creative thoughts in their tracks. Our minds are at peace when we are comfortable and when we are in our routines and keeping to the status quo. But our creativity, our unique ability to help produce new results, is always interacting with us, pushing us to try new things, experiment, explore, and learn as life continues to progress. 

Which is strange, isn’t it? It’s strange that as humans, in the world today, we know that the only constant changes, and yet, the very core of our well-being resists those changes on a regular basis. The world continues to evolve, and our minds actively fight those changes

So how do we learn how to work with our vulnerability, instead of against it? 

This is where your creative grit comes into play, hardcore. 

When your voice in your head starts telling those stories, when you physically start to feel nervous and restrained by your anxieties, when you stop trying to actively create in any sense of the word, you must declare your commitment to this expression and accept your vulnerability as part of the process.

In my new book, “The Creativity Gene” I touch upon this topic throughout the book, but one thing remains clear. In order to be authentically and effectively creative, you must allow yourself to be vulnerable, to experience those feelings, and to welcome them as part of your creative evolution. 

You cannot improve your mindset, your creativity, your progress without opening yourself up to vulnerable moments. And while that may scare you beyond belief, you can rest easy knowing that everyone has felt the same way. You can rest easy knowing that you have felt this way many times, and have overcome each experience to get to where you are now. You can rest easy and simply take action. As you continue to move, those stories will slowly fade. They’ll reappear again, but you’ll have another story in your head told by the voice of experience. 

Acting upon your unique ability to produce new results, and mindfully being creative, will fuel that experienced voice in ways that your vulnerability can’t even imagine. It will be so loud, and proud, that any new changes that come your way will be greeted with a welcoming smile, and seated in a corner to watch the show.

This is the power of creativity. This is the power of YOUR creativity. 

Your creative abilities will welcome your vulnerabilities, and they will calm your anxieties, and they will inspire your movements. 

So what are you waiting for?
It’s time to create. 

Rose