You're Not THAT Creative

I'm going to sound like my school football coach, but talent is overrated.

That's it. I said it.

Many people have a hard time in their fields, whatever it may be, believing that the key to being successful is being talented.

Like if you're not born with that magical ability that you didn't work for, you are doomed to fail.

I've seen it in entrepreneurs, athletes, writers, and content creators.

For us, what we belong to the last two groups, what we long for is not called talent, it's called creativity. And they are not the same, but we can treat them in the same way. Expecting to be creative just because it's in your nature is a huge mistake.

If you constantly struggle with a creative block, you should approach it the way an athlete sees talent. Good to have, yes, but hard work and discipline always pay off.

99% discipline, 1% talent

I grew up in a small town where baseball was very popular, practically every kid wanted to be on a team. I grew up with a lot of boys who trained hard to be signed by a scouter from a major league team.

Throughout all my years living there, I saw dozens of outstanding, exceptional, and talented players. Everyone said that they'll make it to HOF.

What happened to them?

In the best cases, they played in the minor leagues of some great franchise and after a while, they quit.

What did they all have in common besides being very talented? The moment they proved to be a little better than the rest, they stopped training as hard as before. Recruiters usually give these guys pre-contracts, which come with a significant monetary incentive (big big bucks). Being signed for the first time, you could see them with big, luxurious SUVs at just 16 years old, and then you would never see them play again.

You'll only be creative when you accept the fact that you won't always be

What is the moral of that story? The first thing is that I should've tried harder on playing baseball.

Secondly, at the beginning being talented will make you stand out a little from the rest, but it's work and perseverance that will get you where you want to be.

The boys of my town, as soon as they let them know that they had something that the rest didn't have, stopped trying to improve.

Think of creativity as if you were an amateur baseball player: always assume that you don't have it, and therefore, don't stop working on it.

As a content creator, you can be very confident in your abilities to come up with good ideas, but don't take them for granted. If you think you already have something on your hands, obviously you'll stop looking for it. Assume every day that you must start from scratch, that will push you to always work hard.

When you're going through a creative block, don't despair. Don't expect inspiration to just come back to you. Stick to your routine and plan like any other day and just create something.

Allow yourself to doubt, run out of ideas, wander, make mistakes, and start over, but never allow yourself to settle.

Creativity without a strategy is useless.

Conclusion

Talent is useful, but that alone will get you nowhere, just like creativity. See it as an exercise, it's something you must do every day, constantly, until eventually it won't be an effort and it will be a habit.

Don't worry about not being creative, worry about being disciplined.

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