Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff
I finished Steven Pressfield’s book Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work
just the other day. It’s good, and I enjoyed reading it, just like I enjoyed reading his previous book The War of Art
. For the record, I also enjoy reading Seth Godin’s books like Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
. They all help me recognize the fear we all have that holds us back and generally makes our lives miserable.
A friend asked me what I thought of Turning Pro, and I hesitated. It’s a good book, but it requires some filtering. I still hadn’t found a book that I’d recommend to someone who wants to overcome the barriers to creativity and to do the things that are worth doing precisely because they are hard.
But then I read Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff
. This is the book that I was waiting for. It covers some of the same ground, but from a Christian worldview. It’s solidly theological, grounding creativity as part of what it means to bear God’s image. It’s concerned with God’s glory and the benefit of others, not just on self-expression and art for the sake of art. It’s practical, encouraging, and challenging. Since everyone is born creative, everyone can benefit from reading this book.
I began reading this book as a writer, and I’m glad I did. But this book applies to more than just writing, music, and other creative endeavors. It applies to life in general. Many of the principles in this book are transferable to almost anything in which there is an element of risk and creativity. It applies to church planting, for instance, as much as it does to drawing a picture.
This isn’t a long book, but it’s certainly worth the $2.99 that it cost me, and more. If you think you’re creative, you need to buy this book so that you can be encouraged in your creativity. If you don’t think you’re creative, you need this book even more to correct your thinking. I loved this book, and I’ll be returning to it again. I challenge you to do the same.
Read more at Amazon.com
