Most people believe they aren’t creative. Usually, because they can’t paint or draw. Or they don’t play an instrument. They have this narrow view of what it means to be creative and they label themselves without exploring where their natural creativity can lead.
It’s easy scenario to fall into, since more often than not, we are trying to live up to someone else’s view who we should be – instead of who we authentically are at our core.
Meet Chase Javis
CreativeLive’s founder / CEO dropped out of medical school to pursue photography in his twenties. That was after he left an opportunity to play professional soccer. Yes, before he started listening to his inner creator, Jarvis was trying to live up to someone else’s dreams for him too.
What he learned along his journey was that creativity is not a skill, it’s a habit. And no matter how disconnected you feel from it – you can tap into your creativity with intentional practice. This discovery lead him to Creative Calling, his new book, which examines how to develop a daily creativity practice and outlines a framework to help readers see their creative ideas into reality.
To kick off the release of his new book and his accompanying CreativeLive class, we sat down to ask Jarvis a few questions about his journey through creativity.
You have been a champion of creativity for a very long time, from CreativeLive to your podcast Chase Jarvis Live, what inspired a book?
Over the course of my work in photography, at CreativeLive and on my podcast, I realized most people had a very limited definition of what creativity is. This book is my attempt to, first, be a rallying cry for the creative community, second show, the world that everyone is creative – not just people who identify as such – and, third, provide a repeatable system for adding creativity into our lives to add meaning, value, and opportunity to everything we do.
If we keep using our creative energy by making new things day after day, month after month, something incredible happens. We feel better: awake, fulfilled, whole. By creating regularly, we access a new source of vitality that everyone deserves to experience.
How do you define creativity and why is it so important?
Creativity is not “just” art. It’s even more simple – but more far reaching than that. It is the practice of combining or rearranging two or more unlikely things in new and useful ways.
It’s so important to our lives because when creativity is flowing through us, judgement can’t grab hold. It’s impossible. This book will show you how to trust yourself completely – even in all our imperfection. Because it’s in that imperfection where we can find the genius we all have inside.
What is the biggest mistake you see people make when trying to tap into their creativity?
They don’t start. I did it myself – I waited. I avoided pursuing what truly called me and spent half my life trying to live up to other people’s expectations, to march to their drum, to live out the script that the world wanted to write for me rather than what I wanted for myself.
Just start. Whether you think you are inspired or not, whether you think you are creative or not… because you are. Let’s be clear – again – creativity is not just art. Yes, art is a subset of creativity, but creativity itself isn’t limited to specific crafts. It’s the ability to make your ideas manifest in the world. It’s problem solving. It’s business and activism. It’s raising a family. It’s everything around us. Literally everything was created.
The book encourages people to develop a daily creative practice, why is this such an important part of the process?
By creating in small ways every day, we come to understand that we can create big changes in our lives when we desire or need them most. It’s only through developing a capacity to create something that we can create everything.
Tell us about the CreativeLive class that you are doing with the book.
The book is officially out September 24 and anyone who purchases the book before September 24th will be able to participate in a special live, online companion class to the book- on October 5. In the class, I will walk through the IDEA framework which is the basis of the book (a repeatable creative process), bring on some very special, renowned guests to talk about their journey through creativity, and give some actionable insights that you won’t find in the book. The class is free for anyone who buys Creative Calling – so I’m really excited to bring the book to life in the CreativeLive class. [editor’s note: if you buy the book in any format, in any country, you can go here to register for the companion class by uploading your receipt number: creativelive.com/creativecalling.
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The Creative Calling book tour kicks off in Jarvis’ hometown of Seattle on September 23rd (see below for more tour dates and locations).
Book Tour Dates:
- September 23 – Seattle, WA
- September 24 – New York City, NY
- October 2 – San Francisco, CA
- October 5 – Worldwide, Live Stream
