TRY. (daily video)

Creative, the cruelest thing about being blocked is it makes you think you CAN’T create.

If you don’t believe you can, you won’t really try.

Hear me, creative: that board can bear your weight. TRY.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT

You know, one of the worst things about being blocked in my book is
the cruelty of it, because it makes you think, you can't
do this, that you're not the artist that you want to be,
that, in fact, it was all a fluke, and all of
that passion, all of those creative dreams, are ash.
That is not true.
Hi, my name is Ruthanne Reid.
I am a stroke survivor and fantasy author, and I'm here to help you get out of
block and into a daily habit of creation.
So, this whole thing about block, what it
affects you, the way it messes with you, psychologically, is not funny.
You know you're supposed to create, to write, draw, saying whatever,
and you're not able to do it for a multitude of reasons.
After a while, you begin to feel like maybe you can't do it.
And the moment you think that you can't, you genuinely believe
that you can't, you are never going to
be able to fully try.
No more than you would be able to fully commit to stepping on a board that
you know is going to break under your weight.
You're just not going to do it.
Creative.
That means if you're gonna get out of block, you need to work on believing that you
can make the art.
Yes.
You can create.
You can get out of block, and you can create.
This is where those 2 rules come in.
They are calibrated to be something that you can use even at the top
of your game if you are a full, creative person, even
making money from it, and you can use them even if you
are a beginner, or you've been blocked for 20 years and struggling.
One, make one new thing every day.
This hits both psychological and physiological aspects,
psychologically by doing this, you are proving to yourself that
you can, which is actually a really big deal.
Two, physiologically, you're training your body and brain to accept that
the act of making new things is part of your
normal daily activity.
That is how you form habits.
How can you do this, though, if you don't know what to do?
You don't know what the next thing to write is, to draw is, to sing.
You're stuck.
You're blank.
That's where rule two comes in.
Let whatever you made, be tiny, terrible,
and incomplete.
It doesn't have to be good.
Everything that comes out of you doesn't have to be good.
This is about training yourself to create consistently
until it becomes more natural.
If you keep this up, you will create the habit
of making things.
And it won't always be tiny, terrible and incomplete.
See, this is the third aspect.
You have a problem solving brain.
You are a human.
When you are confronted with a problem, you work on ways to solve it.
This is natural.
For some reason, the blank page doesn't trigger this, but drawing,
writing, painting the wrong thing absolutely does.
Creative, you can do this, but I need you to accept at
least the tiniest kernel of belief that you can.
That board can take your weight it
can take it.
No matter what, find a way into creativity.
We need it more than ever before.
You can do this, and you are not alone.
Sit down with me.
And together, let's make something new.