Great Advice on Creativity

I just finished reading Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity. Great book. It’s a quick read that doles out brilliant advice on how to best be creative, but much of the advice is actually applicable to life in general.

A theme that resonates throughout the entire 39 chunks of wisdom is essentially to be yourself. Ignore others who don’t see your vision because it’s likely they just can’t see how great something is like you can. This is something I’ve tried to do with my life lately and I can attest to it making me a lot happier and more productive.

Although the ignore everybody message is most certainly the common thread that holds the book together, MacLeod offers up a bunch of other useful advice that I assure you will make you happier and more creative if you follow it. I’ve already incorporated much of his advice into my own daily reminders that keep me on track with my self-improvement, professional and avocation pursuits.

MacLeod became known in part because of his clever cartoons drawn on the back of business cards. Yes, you heard that right. He draws wonderful cartoons in business card size and has been doing them for years. That seemingly odd pursuit eventually brought him notoriety and simultaneously led him to realize some important things about harnessing one’s creativity.

Check out the book. You’ll be happy you did. Also check out MacLeod’s blog too. I plan to visit his blog regularly to see what else this very smart man has to say.