3 Lessons About Creativity From “The Creative Act” By Rick Rubin.

Inspiration = inspiritus (to breath in spirit)

Here are 3 main key takeaways that I found valuable from The Creative Act: A way Of Being by Rick Rubin that can help you in your creative journey…

Daily Routines that can help

“Living life as an artist is a practice. We tend to think of the artist’s work as the outpost. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.”

Do: Find daily routines and habits that put you in a good and make you feel good. Do something for your mind, something for your body and something for your soul. This will help you get into the state of flow.

Practice: mindfulness, meditation, gratitude journaling, reading, taking long walks, running, yoga, Whiff Hoffman breath work, listening to high vibrational music - classical or binaural beats, adaptogens. Read: Atomic Habits by James Clear. Start little by little. Compounding Effect.

Managing your Inputs

“As artists, we seek to restore our childlike perception, a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation Broadening our practice of awareness is a choice that we can make at any moment. In service of this robust instinct, consider submerging yourself in the canon of great works.”

Do: Practice full awareness. Find quality inputs. Have a journal fully dedicated to your creative ideas. As soon as the come in, write them down and act on them, otherwise, it will go to someone else. Keep a dream journal as well. Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. The more you do it, the more you will remember your dreams. A lot of ideas can come from your dreams like Salvador Dali.

“The objective is not to learn to mimic greatness, but to calibrate our internal meter for greatness. So we can better make the thousand of choices that might ultimately lead to our own great work.”

Practice: Curiosity, taking long walks without headphones, finding new music, devouring films, going to art galleries, museums, theatre performances, take a new class, learning philosophy, traveling, drawing, painting, dancing, writing, exploring, connecting new ideas with the ideas you already have. Creativity is about connecting an existing experience with another one. The more experiences you have, the more you have to pull in from. Keep yourself organized in your journal, Notion or on your Notes App. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. Read: Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon.

Artistic Rules and Limitations

“The rules artist learn are different. They’re assumptions not absolutes, they describe a goal or method for short-term or long-term results. They are there to be tested, they are only of value, as long as they are helpful.”

Do: Take clases, learn the basics and fundamentals about design or your creative practice. Know and learn the rules so you are able to break them. Think outside the box. You can only connect the dots looking backward, as Steve Jobs said. QUESTION EVERYTHING. 1 + 1 = 3. Follow your intuition. Practice awareness.

“Be aware of any assumptions based on conventional wisdom. Rules obeyed unconsciously are far stronger than the ones set on purpose, and they are more likely to undermine the work.”

Practice: Journaling or questioning yourself: Where am I being limited? What is blocking me? Is this serving me or hurting me?

Sources: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. The Creative Minds: A High Vibration Artistic Community.