People who create for a living are no different than soldiers fighting a war.
They must put themselves onto a battlefield every day to get their job done.
The enemy isn’t “out there” for us to hunt down and eradicate.
The creative warrior’s enemy is forever within.
In an era of an insatiable desire for new and fresh content delivered at lightning speed in order to meet market expectations and pump up profits, the army of content creators faces a war with no foreseeable end.
While I have never been a soldier, I know all too well what it’s like to step into the unknown and pray that my training has prepared me for what is about to take place, which none of us can ever predict with 100% accuracy no matter how much time we’ve invested into planning.
Once out there in the open theater, anything can happen.
We face the blank screen. The blank canvas. The blank whiteboard. The blank stares.
Who has an idea we can run with today?
Will I be able to reach down to that deepest level within myself and pull out something that will keep me going just one more minute, one more hour, one more day?
Do I have it in me to take on the responsibilities of those in my platoon who are wounded and can no longer perform their duties as assigned?
What happens when there’s…just…nothing…left?
I think it’s this last question that scares us the most. Even when we’re exhausted, bloodied, and beat to shreds, as long as there’s still a drop of inspiration left in the tank, all is okay.
Our terror comes from the possibility of finding the creative well has gone bone dry — with no sign of rain on the horizon.
The wounds and subsequent scars we suffer may not be visible to the rest of the world the way they are in war scenes broadcast on the nightly news, but for anyone who walks the path of the creative warrior, the collateral damage is all too real.
And just as terrifying.
