rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_e76107ea-eebd-5add-bc33-cea4e03f142c">Part One | The Cycle of Creativity
Chapter One The Cycle of Creativity and Its Parts
Chapter Two Know Your Purpose for Creating
Chapter Three Visualize What You Want to Create
Chapter Four The Joy of Knowing and Using Your Tools
Chapter Five Working Your Craft: Blending Visualization with Your Tools
Chapter Six Editing and Refining Your Work
Chapter Seven Sharing Your Work
Part Two | Overcoming Barriers to a Creative Life
Chapter Eight Make Time to Create
Chapter Nine Take Long Walks and Adventures
Chapter Ten Find and Put Art into Your Life
Chapter Eleven Lighten Up! The Role of Humor for a Creative
Chapter Twelve Additional Tools to Help You Live a Creative Life
Creativity is a word many people associate exclusively with filmmakers, musicians, or artists. Many people even fear the word. They say, “Oh, I’m not creative,” and leave it at that. That is a big mistake. By putting up that barrier, they’re stifling themselves and staying within their comfort zones.
While it’s true that creativity flows easier within some people more than others, everyone has a bit of creativity they use every day. I can’t paint or draw like Picasso or Goya, but in my line of business, I have to be creative to find solutions to everyday problems. I have to be creative to work with people with different habits than mine. I need to move the needle forward with people who move as fast as I do and with those who don’t. And because not everyone responds the same way, I have to be creative in how I address them. Creativity isn’t limited to a few people or professions. Everyone has it, but they don’t always realize they’re using it.
As a bestselling author, my creativity flows in the stories I tell. The stories of true, tested leaders that get up every day with the purpose of making life better for someone else—whether it’s a total stranger, family, friends, or employees. For example, I’m always telling the stories of the hero CEOs I’ve encountered along the way. People who aren’t famous or celebrities, but who use their creative gifts to move the needle forward, people who find creative solutions to problems, and people who genuinely strive to create an environment that encourages creativity.
Marc’s book provides practical steps that readers can apply to their daily lives immediately. His easy-to-read, hands-on advice encourages stepping out of one’s comfort zone in order to make changes that will lead to a creative outpour, regardless of industry. The good news here is, you don’t have to be a rock star like Mick Jagger, sing like Lady Gaga, or have a number of Oscars under your belt to be creative. Unburden yourself from the stigma that creativity isn’t for everyone and read this book. You’ll realize that you’ve always been creative and can unleash that power at any given point moving forward.
JEFFREY HAYZLETT
Primetime TV and podcast host, speaker, author, and part-time cowboy
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”
—L.P. Jacks, Educator
This book will show you ways to transform your life to have a more creative existence—every day. You may already be an artist in some field that you want to broaden your skills in or you may want to add more fun and creativity into your life as whole. In either case, following this book’s steps will help you advance toward your goal.
Many people look upon creativity longingly, as something that a few artists and lucky “creatives” get to indulge in. But when it comes to having a creative life, they may feel like a land-locked surfer yearning for those beautiful waves with exhilarating rides.
A common misconception is that only artists and creatives can pursue a creative life. Coupled with this is the notion that just a small portion of one’s life could be seen as a creative outlet. For example, playing guitar or singing a few hours a week—but what happens to the other 165 hours in a week?
The truth is that many very successful people view their life as art and incorporate creativity into every aspect of it whether at “work” or “play.” Such examples are: an entrepreneur creating a new product or parents creating fun (offline) activities for their kids rather than letting them sink into small-screen obsession. Truthfully, for very creative and happy people, life is an art form; conversely living itself can be an art.
We will be exploring the many ways to add art into your life by reading stories and advice from those who have excelled at doing so. For millennia, humans have passed along wisdom by telling stories. The magic of storytelling is that one doesn’t need to hear the precise story that suits their exact needs. By engaging their imagination, the listener or reader fills in his or her own specifics into the story line and thus achieves greater understanding.
In this book, Create, I take the same approach that I have with my previous books: I explore common points of creativity from my own experiences, from people I have researched, and those of the seriously talented people I have interviewed. I’ll break these down into their components and make each one clear and easy to follow.
If you want to go deeper, I’ll give you practical exercises to do in your life. This is where the changes can really occur, so be ready to roll up your sleeves and work/play at transforming your life with them.
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