And that I suppose perhaps maybe is the whole point.

Life is in the creation. But perhaps more importantly, it’s the creation of self.

It’s the unfolding, the expanding, the evolution of self.

For in the words of Alexis Carrel, we are both “the sculptor and the marble”.
And in the words of Russ, “Drake said it best ‘I think I like who I’m becoming’”.

I heard someone describe it once like wringing out a dirty rag. The evolution of self, the creation and exploration are us wringing our all the useless parts of ourselves. It mighta been David Goggins – wringing out our own stank, the parts of ourselves that are no longer useful. We ought to shed the layers of deadened skin – it’s the musk of a personal plateau.

Among my greatest fears, perhaps the most rational is ‘staying the same’. Dan Koe puts it quite nicely:

As the weeks, and months, and years slowly tip toe on, we’ve got the choice to sit idly by as it crawls on behind our back, or to stare the fear dead in the eyes and take the step in to the unknown.

“Everything you have ever wanted is on the other side of fear”
George Addair

The steady march of time doesn’t yield to anyone. It doesn’t wait or sit around. Our bodies get older, our faces more wrinkly. It’s the slow decomposition of my own mind that gets me.

before my body fades out of life, like a candle being blown out,
before this pink squishy body goes back in the ground and is munched up by earth worms, I’d like to experience something. I’d like to contribute something.

“If you don’t stop and look around every once in awhile, you just might miss it”

Ferris Bueller

Mark Twight calls that the Collective Conscious.
Steve Jobs created for those who come after.

Afterall, everything we know is a result of previous humans. It’s just people exploring their fascinations. Gravity. Relativity. Dishwasherivity.

It’s all just one giant pool of exploration, contributing towards the collective conscious.

So then are we creating for other people or are we creating for ourselves?
It’s a tricky one.

But for our creation of self, it can’t be for anyone else. The development of self inherently requires that we create independent of other people.

There is no end goal. There’s no state of finality.

This desire to create is Evolutions way of staying alive.
The creation and curiosity course through our veins. It’s innate.

I used to believe that I wasn’t the creative type. But it was merely because of two things:
1) I wasn’t creating
2) I did not surround myself with inspiration

I was surrounded by “libraries that yawned themselves to sleep” instead of topics and people that excited me (until I started finding new crowds)



School didn’t excite me.
And I was pursuing the path of “success”.

But external success isn’t internal success.
Often, they’re even counter productive.

I was so concerned with getting the grade and doing the thing (don’t get me wrong, necessary to a degree), that I wasn’t focused on what actually made me happy. So I’ve spent the past 4 years rewiring my brain to pursue things I’m actually curious about.

Did you know sometimes trees bitter their leaves when giraffes eat their neighbors? Me neither. That’s crazy. (Hidden Life of Trees by Wohlleben)

Did you know China has a version of chess with more configurations than atoms in the universe?

It’s taken me awhile to figure out how to make my brain happy. Turns out, it’s by chasing curiosity. Imagine that.

If we chase the things people around us are happy chasing, inherently we set ourselves up for failure. (13 mins) Why Falling Behind Can Get You Ahead by David Epstein

School didn’t excite me. The others interests don’t excite me. Doctor and lawyer didn’t excite me.

But now I know, every time we find something we abhor, we’re one step closer to finding stuff we’re curious about, something we’re obsessed by.

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

Albert Einstein

The tricky part is that creation itself doesn’t often pay the bills.
It doesn’t pay for the wifi or celery sticks.

In the spirit of Yvon Chouinard – just be poor.
In the spirit of Siddhartha – think, wait, and fast.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take much cash to start most hobbies.
But I fear far too often we kick the can of hobbies and creation down the road until the holy ‘retirement’. It’s too late, my friend. You’ve missed the boat.

The creations got to be a part of the daily life. I’m more and more convinced – it’s not a luxury but a necessity. I’m increasingly convinced that art, that creation is the point.

“A life lived for art is never a life wasted”
Macklemore

“Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.”
Ai Weiwei

What’s the point of money if not to create space for these things?
What’s the point of being alive if the time is spent ‘in a miserable way’?
Why should we make money to go on living if that living consists of misery?
Alan Watts puts it best: (4 min) What if Money Was No Object?

I don’t suppose that everyone needs this amount of exploration or self-invention.
But everyone needs it a little don’t they?

Creation.