If No Recipe Exists [#177]

Guidance for artists, entrepreneurs, and writers

When creating new things, things that didn’t exist before, you face uncertainty. Artists. Entrepreneurs. Writers. They all know it.

Bringing new ideas to life is difficult because no step-by-step process exists. Our degrees and apprenticeships only get us so far. Our industrial age wants to convince us to follow the conventional paths worn out by society. The predictable effort & reward relationships established over the years. If you get degree X, work at corporation Y, you will get rewarded life Z. But this recipe doesn’t exist for creatives. There is no recipe that guarantees success. Not for artists, entrepreneurs, or writers.

So what is the best a creative doer can do? Trusting the process. Doing the work. And persisting. As no recipe exists that guarantees outcomes, you are on your own. And all the answers are ought to be found in a place within you. The self. So the best shot you have as a creative is sticking with it, doing the work, and practicing consistency. If you stick with it long enough, you can eventually achieve “success”. But that’s no guarantee.

The challenge we face is resistance. As it is hard for our thinking mind (the ego) to do work that is surrounded by uncertainty, we experience fear. And fear is what keeps the creative from doing the work. That’s the enemy. The goal is beating resistance.

But that’s not all. If you beat every other day, that is not enough. You need to establish your identity by beating resistance over and over again. Only if you are persistent in your pursuit, you get a shot at “success”. Creativity rewards the disciplined.

So what to do if no recipe exists? Do the work. Trust your self. And persist.