What if you only created things that started from joy?
Someone asked me this recently. What I would do outside obligation to others. Outside expectation of what others might want or expect from me. Just whatever might originate in the mushy meat of my creativity.
My first reaction is terror.
How would I make money? How would I prove myself? How would I be "good"?
Second reaction: curiosity.
Where would it take me? Is there something inside me longing to get out? Will it yank me down a path to ridicule, or will it tease me into getting lost? Will that matter?
My third reaction doesn't exist yet.
But I'm sitting in the possibility that it might, and that I might choose to take the plunge.
I'm starting from joy when I...
work on writing a novel
run far on mountain trails
assemble stuff (furniture, data, financial models, stories)
build stuff (programs, plans, projects)
say "no" to things I don't want to do
help would-be changemakers get clear on their path to action
make dinner for people I love
work on building a new skill
develop a persuasive and beautiful argument
play volleyball on the beach with friends
watch water move
get to know people well enough to be silly and intense together
p.s.