The Transformative Power of Daring

-Vuyo Mthetho

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“Skill and attitude are essential. Authority is not. In fact, authority can get in the way.” - Seth Godin

The path taken to move from inspired to inspiring is unexpectedly short, and it’s one that welcomes anyone who would choose it. One would think that you need to have expertise or some kind of authority on a subject before people would be willing to listen to what you have to say. But, really, people are hungry for inspiration. I am learning that becoming inspiring is as simple as showing up consistently, with what you know, allowing yourself to be a vessel for connection by letting your ideas flow through you.

When I first began adopting my identity as an artist and introducing myself as such when meeting strangers, I would brace myself for the questions they would ask next. I feared being found out – exposed that I wasn’t a “real” artist, that I didn’t have a fine arts degree, or any other formal training. It was an unfamiliar experience. I would defensively add that I was a self-taught artist, perhaps as an act of exoneration from the judgement I expected to receive. As an artist, I have often felt that I had to prove my artistry, with a gallery exhibition, released music, or a published anthology. My experience, however, has been the opposite, and instead I have learned this truth that Rick Rubin shares, “To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention.” Which is to say, the art is in the making, the process, and what comes out as a result of the art – the song, film, or framed painting – is only the by-product of being an artist.

The only way to get better at being an artist is to continually ship your creative work. Shipping here, as defined by Seth Godin is the work of Creative people and a Creative person is, “Someone who commits to making things better by leading through their work, and bringing insight and magic and utility to interesting problems.” People – other artists – need you to share your work. The beauty is in watching yourself transform, and allowing yourself to show up unrefined, because that is where authenticity lives. It exists in the unfiltered art birthed from your experience of the world, rather than what you believe the world expects of you. We may be tempted to condemn ourselves to creating art that we never share, holding onto the pieces that we believe are “not ready to be seen”. This is a valid argument – of course, we want the audience to see the best of us. We want to show up when we have perfected our craft and we know exactly what we are doing. I have been learning that the opposite is true – that doing what you can with what you have, is the greatest gift to yourself and the audience. By showing up even when the conditions are sub-optimal, you are proving to yourself that you are what you claim to be. “Runners run. Writers write. Establish your identity by doing your work.” (Seth Godin). Nobody expects anything more from us. Rick Rubin puts it best when he says, “The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world.”

In fact, perfection gets in the way. It forces you to fixate on a single detail, missing the greater story, which is that, by showing up with what you have, you are casting a vote for the person you want to be and the life you choose to live. Julia Cameron says of perfection and its impact on creativity, “Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move forward. It is a loop—an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole.”

When we allow ourselves to be bold on the way to becoming, we flex and stretch our boldness a little further, and then suddenly, we are doing what we only used to think of as a distant dream for some tomorrow version of ourselves. "The willingness to show up changes us, it makes us a little braver each time," says Brene Brown. When you realise that your art is a necessity for someone else’s healing, you start to accept that ideas are not had by us but rather that we are had by ideas. Often, ideas arrive to multiple people at the same time, because they are needed by the collective. Ethan Hawke said in an interview, “Most people don’t care about poetry. Until something comes along and they need a way to express themselves. That’s when art is not a luxury. It’s actually sustenance. We need it. It’s not just nice. It’s how we heal each other. We start to witness each other’s common humanity.”

Cape Town is arguably the South African centre of cultural excellence with a fast growing poetry community. I’ve been exploring the poetry in the city for the past two years and each time I have stepped into the spaces where poetry lives, I have marvelled at the wealth of poetic talent that exists. Now, you might think that when I say talent, I mean “special people who are gifted unlike the rest of us, so called normal folk”. Which would be understandable because in our culture, that word has primarily been used as a divisive tool to separate those who “deserve to be celebrated” from those whose natural gifts slip by under the radar. Instead, allow me to shift this perspective. I am referring instead to Rick Rubin’s version, which is that talent is the ability to let ideas manifest themselves through you.

Through attending poetry open mic nights and poetry book launches around the city, I have had the pleasure to be inspired by so many incredible poets that now say I am inspiring. Thandiwe Nqanda, Zizipho Bam, Khanyisile Mthethwa, Abi Windvogel and Caryn Tiana of Reciprocity Poetry, are just some of the women whose energies have ignited my creative brazenness on my path to becoming. What began at one of Third House Poetry’s open mic events as my own journey with my creative practice, has since transformed into a network of gorgeous humans seeking something greater than themselves and finding that they are the greatness they seek.

Cynthia Occelli says, “If you love beauty, it’s because beauty lives within you. If you love art, it’s because you are creative. If it wakes up your heart, a receptor for it already exists within you. Your soul is drawn to the things that will help you unfold your most glorious expression. Give in.”

So many people are afraid to own their artistry, being quick to say, “I’m not an artist.” They would rather reject themselves than believe in their own expansiveness. I have learned that when we choose to tell ourselves a narrative, our subconscious believes us and will look for instances that would validate that as truth in our lives. When you choose to live inspired, you give into the possibility of creativity, which doesn’t question the probability of creating something from what was once only thought. In turn, you allow yourself to believe in your own artistry. When you begin to believe in yourself as an artist, you give everyone else the permission to see it. And then, before you even have a chance to try and explain yourself, you become the inspiration.