I stumbled across The Creative Act by Rick Rubin through a mention of it I saw on Instagram. I was hesitant to purchase it at first, because I don’t consider myself a creative person, and I wondered if it the concepts would resonate with with me.
I decided to listen to a couple podcasts that featured Rick (one you may be familiar with, Huberman Lab). Rick’s ideas really intrigued me, so I decided to get the book.
A few of my takeaways:
– I devoured this book within a couple days of receiving it. It doesn’t read like a story, but each chapter is a new idea on creativity and it’s pursuit from Rick Rubin.
– I was not familiar with who Rick Rubin was (oops!) before reading the book so if you don’t know either Rick is a legendary music producer and co-founded Def jam records.
– The book prompted a lot of self reflection about how we think about our lives and how we each operate as creators of our own lives, and I don’t mean in the social media sense. Rick shares that what we create, which is anything really – a bouquet of flowers, photos, a poem, cooking a meal for your family, decorating a room in your home. Anything we are creating is a reflection of who we are in that moment of time. And chasing perfectionism before sharing something into the world isn’t needed. We are putting out into the universe our reflection in this one moment of time, and that itself is special.
As I was reading I marked pages to save the passages that really spoke to me. Sharing those excerpts. It’s definitely one those of books I need to return to and read again, each time something different stays with me.