Ep 52: Are The Most Creative People Just Lucky?
SUMMARY
Have you ever scrolled through Instagram after finishing a creative project, only to see someone else's "award-winning" work that makes yours look like child's play? You're not alone. As creatives, we face a constant battle with comparison—and it's literally killing our creativity.
The Hidden Truth About Creative "Luck"
Are the most creative people in the world just really lucky? It might seem that way when you're constantly seeing other creators seemingly effortlessly produce masterpiece after masterpiece. But here's what I've learned: comparison is the enemy of creativity.
This truth hit me hard recently during my morning pages routine, and it was reinforced by a powerful message from my friend Blake about how comparison depletes our "food source of gratitude, which is the fuel of abundance."
KEY TAKEAWAYS
⚡️ — Your creative journey is unique, and looking back reveals just how much you've accomplished—be grateful for every step of the process.
⚡️ — Stay fully present in the moment instead of worrying about the past or having anxiety about an uncertain future—this releases you to create your best work yet.
⚡️ — Trust that your creative work will turn out better than you think, just as it has countless times before—the result will be exactly what it needs to be, and probably more.
NOTABLE QUOTES
💬 —"Comparison is the enemy of creativity."
💬 "External comparison keeps their eyes on their external situation and drives people to a conversation of haves and have nots, I deserves and it's not fairs, thus depleting their food source of gratitude, which is the fuel of abundance."
💬 "You are exactly where you need to be on your creative journey. You're not ahead of it. You're not behind it. You're exactly where you need to be."
EPISODE RESOURCES
⚡️ Be Where Your Feet Are by Scott O'Neil
⚡️ Morning Pages Practice (Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way)
⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here
TRANSCRIPT
Are the most creative people in the world just really lucky? Right? You sit in your creative space, you put the finishing touches on a masterpiece and you open up Instagram for a well-deserved mental break. A few scrolls later, you notice that the creative genius that you followed just released yet another award-winning piece that makes your work look like child's play. How do they do it? Are they really that lucky? Let's get into it today.
Welcome back to the podcast everyone. My name is Dustin Pead, creative coach and consultant. I'm so glad that you're joining us today. We're going to get into if the most creative people are really just that lucky. It seems like it sometimes, so we'll get into it. But before we do, I want to remind you that I'm here and everything that I release content-wise is to help creatives know themselves better, their process and their teams so that they can create greater things together.
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So today, I want to talk to you about something that I think we all face as creatives. I think all people in general face it, but today specifically we're going to talk about how it relates to creative people. And that is comparison.
I have a confession to make. I'm a very jealous creative—very jealous creative. But what I've learned, even as recently as this morning as I was writing in my morning pages, and then I'll share with you a note that a friend sent me this morning as well, is that comparison is the enemy of creativity. Comparison is the enemy of creativity.
My friend Blake texted me this morning about comparison. He's like, "Hey, I'm kind of in a space this week where I'm thinking a lot about comparison and I wanted to share this note with you and see if it resonates with you at all." And I was like, "Yes, I actually just wrote in my morning pages this morning that I need to stop comparing my current place in my journey with everybody else's place in their timeline, because what I have today and what's before me today and what I own today and the success that I have today is everything that I'm supposed to have. So why be worried about what I don't have?"
And he sent me this note that he wrote in his kind of morning thought time. And it rang so true. And I asked him, I said, "Can I share this? I'm actually recording a podcast episode today about this very topic. Could I share this with everybody?" He goes, "Oh yeah, absolutely."
So I'm going to share the second half of this note. And it rang so true with me. And I think it will to you as well. This is what he says about comparison: "External comparison keeps their eyes on their external situation. And it drives people to a conversation of haves and have nots, I deserves and it's not fairs, thus depleting their food source of gratitude, which is the fuel of abundance. Comparison does not drive us to internal development as we are more persuaded to believe that it does, but rather it pushes us to run to the open arms of that most comfortable thing. When we sit, it naturally assures us, the comparison assures us that all will be well as they lay us down into our grave."
He's using this comparison as, or using this metaphor that comparison is a person and that as we kind of start to freak out, the comparison reaches out to us and goes, "No, it's going to be okay" as they calm us down and lie us into the grave.
Listen, I believe, like I said, that comparison is the enemy of creativity. I think comparison is the enemy of a lot of things, but specifically we're going to talk about today how it's the enemy of creativity. And there are three ways—there are multiple ways, just get that out there first of all—but this is just three ways that I want to share with you today to combat up against this comparison battle we face often as creatives.
First thing. I want you to think about this as like a linear timeline for these three things. So we're going to start on the left of the timeline. Put yourself in the middle of the timeline as the present, right? This is the ghost of Christmas present, right? In the middle of the timeline, on the left side of the timeline, we're going to have the past. On the right side of the timeline, we're going to have the future.
So let's start all the way to the left of that timeline. And I want you to just for a second—I want you to close your eyes and I want (if you're not driving, don't do it if you're driving)—I want you to close your eyes and I want you to remember how far you've come. Think about that for a second. How far have you come in your creative journey? Do you remember the first creative work that you produced and you released into the world? Do you remember how that was? Think about that over time and how you feel now when you release content. What's the difference?
Think about how far you've come in your success. Think about how far you've come in life. All the things that you've been through, the highs, the lows, all of it. And be grateful for it. We've talked on here before, thankfulness is the key, right? Thankfulness is the key to get yourself out of this comparison trap. So the first way to combat up against the comparison battle is to look at that left side of the timeline and remember how far you've come.
The second thing you need to do is you need to—I love this phrase that came up earlier this week in a separate podcast I was recording with a business partner and he said, "You need to be where your feet are." And I looked that up. It's actually from a book made famous by Scott O'Neill. It's actually called "Be Where Your Feet Are." And in this book, he says this: "How you live is truly a choice. What you're going to do and who you're going to do it with. Those are choices only you can make." That was his aha moment when he realized he needed to be where his feet are. That's so powerful. So powerful. What you do and who you're gonna do it with are only choices that you can make.
So in that moment, let's be fully in that moment. Not necessarily worrying about the past. We're going to remember it and be grateful for it. Not necessarily having anxiety about the future or what may or may not happen because that hasn't even happened yet, right? Right here today in this middle of the timeline present zone, we are going to be where our feet are. That will help us stop the comparison battle that goes on in our minds and it will release us to create our best work yet.
So you're going to remember how far you've come. You're going to be where your feet are. And number three, you're going to trust that the end result, it's going to be all that it needs to be and probably more. If we're honest, and as you look back in that first step and you look at how far you've come, I bet there are many times, multiple times throughout that left side of the timeline where you thought that things were going to turn out mediocre, seven out of ten, right? And you got to the end of it and you're like, "Huh, that actually turned out better than I thought."
It's because you learn eventually over time that the result will probably be better than you think. In your mind you've created this scenario where it's probably not going to be so good because you're comparing it to other people's success, but then when you get there you're like, "Wow, that was actually better than I thought it was. It turned out greater than I thought it was. It had a better impact than I thought it would."
Now that's not going to be every time. But I will say that I think as you look at and you step back and you look at the grand scheme of things and you look at the totality of the timeline of what has been your life so far, where you're at right now and the trajectory that it's headed, I think you'll understand that when you get there, it's going to be all that it needs to be. It's not going to be any more and it's not going to be any less. So trust the end result will be all that it needs to be and probably even a little bit more.
So our call to action today, the thing that I would encourage you to do, the thing I'm encouraging myself to do in this episode is to live and work in the confidence that today, right here in this timeline moment, you are exactly where you need to be on your creative journey. You're not ahead of it. You're not behind it. You're exactly where you need to be.
If you need help with this comparison battle and how you can live in the moment and be where your feet are, I would love to chat with you more. Head to dustinpead.com. That's P-E-A-D. Click on the "Let's Chat" button. Let's just have an honest conversation about where we're at. Just two creatives talking about where we're at and how we can move forward together.
Thank you so much for your time today. I cannot wait to be with you next week on Creativity Made Easy.