Embrace Your Weird In Startups
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Get motivated. Get creative. Get weird
Master how to exploit your creativity with “Embrace Your Weird”:
We care way too much about people’s opinions of us to the limit where our ideas and feelings become so deeply suppressed inside our minds. We convince ourselves that this is common, and people’s vision of us is essential. Truth is, all that’s important is to free ourselves and be who we are, weird or not.
Embrace Your Weird guides you through the path where you can find your creativity and explore the truth behind your free will. Embracing yourself is a challenge, but it is a must to live happily and achieve your dreams. With the support and guidance of this book, you will overcome these challenges and finally free your spirit.
What is the real importance of creativity?
Creativity charges you with confidence and motivation. It gives you a unique power that makes you ready in the face of challenges so that you would get everything together and under control. Creativity makes you aware of all the possibilities and helps you reach your actual potential. Without creativity, everything is just a tad, well, boring.
As hard as it may seem for you little selfless people out there, creativity is something you find when you put yourself first and be a bit selfish every once and a while. That can be difficult when you have people breathing down your neck and telling you that you are crazy and delusional about getting outside the box. People tend to be judgmental when they see someone standing away from the so-called “norm.” The biggest shame is when they get into our heads and make us believe that our dreams and creativities are just a waste of time.
However, to get loose of all that, you should forget about the past, forget about the future, just live for this moment alone. Once you do that, your life will be worth living again.
The very definition of creativity is “relating to or involving the use of imagination or original ideas to create something.”
Reveal your true self — who is that, though?
The author, Felicia Day, refers to the inner self as the “Hero Self,” and it’s the part of you that you can’t tap into your creativity without.
The naked truth is that creativity is driven by our strong need to awaken our inner, authentic selves. That means not hiding anymore, showing our good sides, our bad sides, and our weird side in between.
Do you know who you are and what mark do you want to leave in the world?
So often that we don’t know ourselves at all, we are who we are told to be; we do what those around us expect us to do simply because it’s easier. But is living this way makes life worth the while and the effort? The answer is simple; No.
As we drift away in a life not worth living, we often lose ourselves and fail to realize that creating our “Hero Self” is what we need. We need an honest, thrilling, and achieving a life full of self-love to keep going. So, go ahead. Get to know yourself; what do you love? What do you hate? What is important? What is not?
Self-acceptance is the key here.
Think like a child:
Children are curious and creative. They aren’t yet introduced to the real world, the one that forces you to push your imagination and creativity aside. They sprinkle a little bit of joy in everything and never think to ask why. A child doesn’t care about anything, making sense as long as it brings them joy. But once we grow into adults, we want everything to make sense; and if it doesn’t, we neglect it.
Day mentions that her kid always makes up these fascinating new games that don’t make any sense whatsoever. But, her little child’s joy in her small ideas is infectious. You need to re-contact your inner child and pull back your creativity with excitement.
We are the same person we were when we were five, ten, and thirteen years old. We simply need to retain and process that part of us that still exists in the back of our minds by remembering our dreams and feelings that we experienced back then.
“The best lesson we can take from our childhood is that there never need to be walls when it comes to our imagination.”
-Felicia Day
Felicia suggests re-living your favorite memories from your childhood and comparing how you acted then to the way you would act now.
Are you blocked?
Being creative is a natural human state; we just turn it off most of the time. We build up blocks in which we block our creativity. Something as simple as an emotional memory can trigger this, like the memory of being laughed at or being told that you are not good at certain things. As a result, your mind turns into a pool of negative thoughts that derail your creativity little by little.
Try to remember the activities you did as a child that made you happy; singing, dancing, painting, writing, or whatever. You have to push those feelings back into your mind and slowly incorporate that activity into your bland life to make it colorful again. It is a challenging process, but it is worth the effort.
Why do you do what you do?
To embrace that creative-hero self of yours, you need to know why you do what you do in everyday life. Is it because you love it and enjoy it? Or simply because someone told you what’s best?
Felecia assures that every person has a creative part in him; he just needs to unleash it with confidence.
“We already have everything we need within us to start creating.”
-Felicia Day
Our regular day is based on a specific routine. We base our whole day upon one particular routine that we don’t even know the reason behind. Shake it up a notch! Stop circling on and on in a loop that has no purpose.
The point is, where you stand now is only a tiny part of who and what you are. So, there is always room for revealing the other aspects of your reality.
Fire your emotions freely:
Emotions are the center of creativity. To properly use your creative spirit, you should express and talk about your feelings rather than holding them inside.
Many of us avoid talking about our feelings because somehow, society makes us believe that emotions make us weak when it’s quite the opposite. So, take time to identify your feelings and what triggers them in each state of being you land on. Like what makes you sad, happy, or angry. The more you free and understand your feelings, the more powerful you will feel.
Make your dreams your reality:
Making contact with your dreams can help trigger your creativity. For example, when you flip through a magazine and find a beautiful wedding dress, you will start envisioning your own wedding in this dress. This way of imagining helps develop your thinking and creating skills.
We all have dreams, and while some of them don’t come true, this shouldn’t stop you from achieving others. With a little effort and hard work, you can achieve anything.
You should learn how to think outside the box, explore, and search for ways that make your dreams come true. While some dreams aren’t realistic, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go all out in creating your path; you just need to choose the achievable one.
“Dream it. Question it. Commit to it”.
-Felicia Day
Surpass your creativity enemies:
We all have creative enemies, whether from the outside or within our own minds. Surpassing those intruders is crucial for you to use your confidence on your terms.
The most potent enemy you can have is your inner voice. This voice doesn’t like taking risks. It keeps you on the safe side by telling you that your ideas are stupid, pointless, absurd, and not worth it. Most likely, you will listen to that voice over time, and that’s when you’ll fail to reach creativity. However, this can be conquered. It’s common for you to feel frustrated while being creative, it’s part of the process, but you should never allow this frustration to knock you off course.
We all have the power to change the way we live. When we convince ourselves otherwise, we start losing our sense of creativity gradually. Don’t wait for someone to tell you that you can when you know that already!
Grab your power back:
A great way to keep a sense of your power is by decluttering your working and living places. This is a way to help you feel your free mind and explore your creativity.
Walk around your space and search for the areas that drive your comfort away. Once you find the spot, declutter it and turn it into something that gives you peace of mind. When masses surround you, your creativity runs away.
You can also declutter your mind by taking your power back and start standing up to people and saying ‘no’ for once; even if you might let someone down in the process.
Anxiety, be gone:
Doubtless, that anxiety is one of the world’s biggest concerns. Anxiety can rob you of yourself. It can cripple your creativity and shut your confidence down. Your current state of anxiety doesn’t define you. Yet it is a hard life experience, but that is it, just an experience.
Learning how to manage and deal with anxiety is hard because anxiety changes your mind and body’s physiological elements. Though it can be done, there are a lot of help and advice sources out there for anyone who struggles with anxiety problems regularly. You shouldn’t let anxiety control you.
Keep your allies near:
As we mentioned, you need to identify your enemies. However, you should determine your allies too and keep them close to give you a hand with boosting your creativity. We all need someone to cheer us up when we feel down and hold our hands and tell us that problems aren’t the end of the world.
You should also have mentors and role models to guide you and inspire you through your creative journey. Mentors can teach you how to overcome blocks and problems in person, while you probably will never meet a role model.
Go and play freely:
Creativity thrives the most when you allow yourself to play and be happy for a moment. Playing makes you more comfortable, healthier and inspired. You’ll start creating the thing that brings you joy and encourages your playful mindset. You can head to the mall and maybe look for five people who look like they can be in a secret ninja institution. It doesn’t have to make sense; it’s just for fun!
All of this trains your mind to be more creative, and creativity is all about building ambitions, making dreams, reaching goals, and if they don’t make sense at the moment, so what? Perhaps you are just embracing your weird.
