Unleash your Creative Potential

Unblock your Creative Potential

There are two truths hidden in the headline of this article.
First, you have creative potential. Creativity is nothing you need to gain or learn, but is your very human nature. Second, at least a part of your creative potential is currently bound and not actively available to you. 

This article is dedicated to freeing up space inside of you for creation. 

To begin with, I will share some of my background so you know how my life was before I arrived at the underlying realisation that helped me create 2 books, write 60-70 songs, build nourishing relationships all over the world, create happiness, and design workshops within 7 years. 

I've written this so you can see what is possible for you.

...even if you are stuck neck-deep right now!

Cold and filled with terrors...

I remember a grey and cold winter about a decade ago. I worked for KPMG, the auditing giant. I rented a small studio in Frankfurt, had an assortment of tailored black suits, and a spot in an underground car park for my polished car. I remember barely sleeping, feeling lonely and scared. I had no friends in town. I watched porn a lot. My eyes twitched in the dark. 

I dreaded waking up. I felt lifeless, zombified. Empty.

Driving to work – a depressingly dark building in a suburb – everything was linked to bleak outcomes. My mind was filled with terrors, compulsively obsessing: “next time you drive past this street sign, you will think about your parents dying”. At work, I smiled and then went and hid in the toilet to cry, masturbate, or both. And then continued smiling and following orders. 

To summarise this depressing time of my life, I was quite fu**ed up. 

I dreamt about doing something more creative. Something with people.

But I continued living a shadow-existence for the next 4 years, pretending and lying, not getting any closer to my vague dream of being more creative and with people. One day in yet another corporate job, I doodled logos for my imaginary author alter-ego into my journal. 

Yet I was not creating anything. Or… was I ...?

You. A creative genius?

That question slowly paved the way for a game-changing realisation. 

I would love to tell you my turning point as a dramatic, satori-like twist. Yet, this would not be true here. Arriving at the realisation I am about to share was a slow and steady process, fuelled by meditation, journaling, traveling, workshops, psychedelics, and telling the truth…

...and a whole lot of philosophising about creativity!

Here is what I believe is true about you, right now. 

You are always creating. 

Right now, your life is a genius creative act. At any given second, you are the creative powerhouse of your life. Literally, you can never not create your reality.

You create all your joys. And you create your downs. And your last failed relationship. And your dissatisfaction at work. The truth is that all these situations take effort, energy, and ability to create. And you are the creator behind them, making them real for you.

Even scarcity is a rich creation.

Being dissatisfied for days on end might be a more difficult creation than writing a book.

You might not view any of the above as pleasant creations, yet they are creative acts.

Let’s go a bit more in-depth here.

Reactive vs. Active Creation

What do you reading this article and Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel have in common? You are both human. And as such, you are both creative geniuses in your own regard. Sure, the content of what you create might be different, yet you are both creative masters at the same time, fueled by the same breath and heartbeat, living the same moment. 

There has never been a moment in your life where you were not creative. 

Even if you tell yourself that you are not creative, this is, in fact, quite a creative story to create. And it’s genius to hold this idea in your head for days on end, and make yourself believe it. 

Now I can imagine you might be wondering...

But why would I create all this stuff that I don’t like? Why do I feel so bad?

I get it. This was the same question I had. And even today when I don’t want to take responsibility for my life, I take refuge in the idea of being a passive receiver. 

So let’s look at the Michelangelo example again. 

What’s the difference between you two?

Likely, you are more or less reactively creating your life, driven by the past and other’s expectations. You might not even think that you are creative (which, as we now know, takes creativity to create). He is more in charge of his creative faculties, stirred forward by vision. 

Yet, you are both equal in your ability to create. Only the content varies. 

What sets you and your favorite artist apart is not that they are more creative, as we will see in the next chapter. What sets you apart is reactive versus active creation.

Creativity as your Nature

Let’s play a quick game.

Pick a random object in your proximity and point your finger at it.

Good. That’s where the object is, right now. And now, point to where you create this object. Where is the source of the object being the way it is? Inevitably, your finger has to point at your own head. This is where you create the object now and all your world, always.

At any given moment, you are the creative center of your world. 

You create your whole world inside of your own brain, fuelled by your senses. And you are the only person who sees the world the way you do. On this level, there is not a thing you can do to enhance or diminish your creativity. When you die, your world ends. Before that, you constantly create. You are the playwright, lead character, and spectator of your life, all at once.

And you might write a sad and depressing, or an uplifting story. It does not matter. The mechanics of creation stay the same. The only difference is if you are aware of your creative role, or not. 

Even now your brain creates this article, supported by your eyes and language-skills.

Where is the center of an infinite universe? Answer: In the brain, trying to answer the question. 

Shifting towards conscious creation

Okay, let’s take a breath here. 

Likely, you have not given yourself credit for the creations of your life, have you? If you are like me, your go-to strategy is seeing yourself on the receiving end of life. Life just happens and there is nothing I can do! But where do you create life happening to you?

Looking back at my story, I was unconsciously creating my life.

That means I was driven by my past bullshit and, without questioning, replaying the same loops. I had no perspective on my creative nature, no space between impulse and reaction. My mind was filled with negative self-talk and I made myself believe my self-defeating stories.

And despite this being unpleasant, it’s nevertheless quite creative. Isn’t it? 

My friend Brad Blanton once told me:

“You seem to think of yourself as a shit-sandwich. Yet when I look at you, I see you as a creative genius. So we have a pretty different idea about you. And I recommend you to try out my view for change and see how that feels.”

So what if you would see yourself as the creator of your world?

At this point, we have to quickly talk about control. Of course, being the creator of your world does not mean you are in control. You have no control over the outside world and what people tell you and how you feel and which thoughts come to you. Yet, you are creating your own experience. You are always the source of your experience. 

You are the creator of your world. And you are out of control. 

How does that make you feel?

Sit with that for a while and allow yourself to notice all your feelings and thoughts. 

In Part II, we will look at concrete ways to free-up space inside of you that are currently bound in your unconscious, creating, and re-creating based on your past. We will see how you can reclaim authority over your life and create more actively. And then it does not matter whether you set out to write the next great opera, start a family, or build your entrepreneurial dream business, if you chose to do so.