The Five-Pointed Star of Why

The other day I was on the phone with my friend Neale James and we were talking about a recent episode of his podcast The Photowalk, on which he was talking to our mutual friend Sean Tucker about creativity. “I invite you,” Neale begins the episode, “to imagine a five-pointed star. Now on each point of the star, I’d like you to think of a word that’s important to you in terms of creativity or your creativity. Each is a kind of cornerstone of the why and even how you create as of today.” As an aside, if you’re not listening to Neale’s show, you really should give it a try. Neale is a terrific host and his episodes are masterclasses in audio production and atmosphere. Anyway, as we were talking about his episode with Sean, he asked what the points on my creative star might be. On one hand, “why do you create?” is a deceptively simple question that many of us spend inordinate amounts of time wrestling with — at least I do. I think that Neale’s clever addition “as of today” gives us a little wiggle room and leaves the possibility open that these five terms don’t have to define our making for all eternity, but rather just for now. It’s one of the reasons that I love this as an exercise. While the creative process itself is important, I think that checking in with ourselves around why we create is equally valuable — maybe even more so because it allows us to square what we’re making against why we’re making it.

QUESTIONS
What are some of the points on your creative star?

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