Creatives week; Day 2
I was determined to be early this time for my class. It was the only thing on my mind the previous day and I made sure I had everything I needed ready. My clothes of choice were pressed, my school bag packed, alarm set and my breakfast tucked away in the fridge awaiting warming in the morning. It was my first class in leadership school. All went according to plan and the whole time as I made my journey to school I kept peering intently at my watch just incase I had read the time wrong and find myself in trouble. It must have been the nerves now come to think about it. I do not do very well with new things, thanks to my fear for the unknown. I was at school in time with 20 minutes to spare. The very first person who I met was a young wiry fellow with sparsely distributed facial hair and a minimal sense of fashion. He seemed to put very little effort in what he chose to wear. To him clothes were for just one primary function, to cover his naked body and that was more than enough. With earphones dangling from his ears like spaghetti he leaned over with a wide smile and welcomed me into class.
In no time we were settled in having performed all the pleasantries and the tutor came in and talked about life purpose. Mark you this was the first time I was probably interacting with this term in detail and if you are thinking this was a long time ago, no you are wrong. This was at the beginning of the year 2020. You see the brain is one little hypocrite, at one moment you are buddies and the very next moment it is accusing you of something you should have done a long time ago. I remember getting out of that class looking back at the gamble of life I had lived for so long. I was a blindfolded pilot of my own plane and I knew this had to change as soon as yesterday. It was time to identify my life purpose and make necessary strides to living that already. Do you know what a life purpose is anyway? Or are you like me then, hearing it for the first time.
A life purpose is simply that motivating aim of your life. The reason you get up every morning to do what you do. Have you given it thought? Why you do what you do? The reason for stressing about it? Experts say having a purpose in life is one of the fundamental factors of happiness for without it, you’ll live your life less focused, less efficient and you’ll often feel restless and stressed because you don’t feel aligned with the things you do. You can read more about it here. Being day 2 of the creatives week, I will talk about the need to be a creative in line with your life purpose. Like we reflected yesterday about the past year and how all of a sudden very many people have become creatives over night, I think it is important to have a focus right from the start to reduce on frustration, stagnation and or burn out in your creative journey. Find out what I talked about on day 1 for context.
My life purpose is to improve livelihoods by promoting better lifestyle through informed healthy nutrition practices. If you don’t already know, you will find nutrition insights on this site and everything that I do on a daily is in line with my life purpose. What I am trying to say is that as a creative you need to figure out what your life purpose is and create things in that line. When I was starting out on this site I jumped on anything and everything to write and soon or latter I discovered that people would get confused. Someone needs to come to your sight knowing what they are picking from there. For lack of a better word you may call it specialization. What value are people getting from your creation? When you are allover the place you will lose people because they do not know what to come looking for.
2021 is the International year of creative economy for sustainable development. This was declared by the 74th session of the UN General assembly in 2019 and this proposal recognized the need to promote sustained and inclusive economic growth, foster innovation and provide opportunities, benefits and empowerment for all and respect for all human rights. This is an opportunity for all of us as creatives to join in this cause. Identify your life purpose and make creations that foster all the above. It could be a product or a service that you create, it could be an awareness that you raise, the opportunities are infinite and inexhaustible. Tap into the very things around you and or within you and let us make this year a better year than the last one. Remember a journey of 1000 miles starts with one step. I for one, for the next 5 years my focus is mainly on children below the age of 5 years and differently abled children with disabilities that affect feeding. I will continue to raise awareness in this regard and who knows, their lives and the lives of those round them could get better.
If you should leave with anything today, please remember as a creative, it is important to identify your life purpose, make creations inline with it and lastly participate in this year’s theme; International year of creative economy for sustainable development.
