No matter how much I think and rethink the creative work that I do, no matter how much I prepare and obsessively tinker with it, I notice there is a trend for it to never be “perfect”.
This is the trap of creativity.
I could potentially work at something for the rest of my life without ever reaching its ideal shape. Get stuck in an endless loop of edits, upgrades and pivots.
So I have to catch myself whenever I begin to chase my own tail, if I ever want to finish something. Remind myself that my job as a creative is to do my job. Everything else is beyond my control.
The reason I am sharing this is because it gives you – the reader – more context, and me – the writer – confirmation as to why I decided to leave my Stuff Manifesto as a live document.
Just a few hours after making it public, my brain was already weaving new insights into the manifesto.
Things that I am already practicing in different mediums and format, but that only became clear once I published that initial version and had time to digest it a bit more.
Working in this way is giving me the opportunity to stay playful and be messy, while at the same time making small progressive steps that will compound over time into a solid project.
Without further ado, here are the newly added guidelines:
In an era of instant gratification, in which the value of a person can be quantified by engagement rates, think longterm.
Being present in the now doesn’t exclude the ability to think over wide spans of time.
I am building a lifelong practice.
There is no rush.
When living creatively, “mistakes” can often open pathways that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Stay open to those. At worst, they become feedback.
This is not to say that mistakes don’t carry consequences, just that they are not fully definitive of someone or something.
Mediums come in all sort of shapes.
They are the channels through which a person expresses their inner world.
Not only relegated to the arts. They can also be found in other types of activities, such as sports, businesses and personal relationships.
When looked at carefully, mediums become a way of understanding oneself. The way I act and interact within the realms of a specific medium says a lot about how I act and interact with the rest of reality.
After adding these 3 new guidelines, the current version of the Stuff Manifesto looks like this:
If you want to see what the previous points stand for, you can see the live document, where you will always find the latest updates to the manifesto.
Side note: I am thinking that it might be possible to group some of these points together under broader categories, but I still have to think about a bit more.
I’m always happy to hear your thoughts and feedback, so don’t be shy and send me a message if there’s something you feel like expressing.
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