While meeting with an incredible prospective client today, I uttered the words, “We create from chaos.” Like a lot of my wisest words, it’s most likely borrowed from someone else and has been sitting, not in my head, but in the expanse that is my soul, echoing off the walls until it comes out of my mouth. It came from the part of me that lit up when I first experienced coaching myself, my inner leader. Instantly, we leaned into that statement’s resonance because we both recognized deep down that people like us, the creatives, adventurers, and seekers of the world unconsciously know that to be true: We must create from the chaos.
As Elizabeth Gilbert has put it in her book Big Magic:
“If I am not actively creating something, then chances are I am probably actively destroying something — myself, a relationship, or my own peace of mind.”
In these chaotic times, it’s crucial to focus first on having our basic needs met like food, water, shelter, toilet paper, but if you’re a creative, an explorer, a seeker, like most of us are, you also need to create. Whatever shape that it might take, whether it’s how you homeschool your children, or how you organize your closet, how you run your meeting, how you’re building your next business, how you cook chili for the 10th time… whatever it is, put need your creative energy into something so that you don’t end up destroying something. It’s not selfish or indulgent; allowing yourself the space and the room to make something, even for just 10 minutes, is actually being of service to those around you. Your being able to honor your creativity means being who you are, truly, and the people in your life need you, all of you. For your sake and ours, please go create.