Finding Joy in the Creative Process

Ever noticed how time seems to fly when you're engrossed in something creative? There's science behind that magical feeling. Recent studies reveal that creative activities significantly boost mental wellbeing—63% of participants reported increased confidence, 61% experienced reduced stress, and 57% noted enhanced overall mental health.

Creativity exists on an infinite spectrum with countless forms of expression, but they all share one beautiful commonality: joy. Yet many of us lose sight of this fundamental aspect, becoming fixated on outcomes rather than enjoying the creative process itself. When we create without joy—merely to meet deadlines or achieve goals—our work lacks the love and energy that makes creativity fulfilling. This shift transforms what should be a rewarding experience into a source of frustration and even depression.

The journey to creative fulfillment isn't without obstacles. Perfectionism paralyzes us with impossible standards—as I discovered while building an English podcast despite being a native Italian speaker. Self-doubt makes us hesitant to even review our own work, while fear of failure prevents many from beginning creative pursuits at all. Fear of rejection, too, can sting deeply, especially when criticism comes with unnecessarily harsh judgment. Yet establishing structure and boundaries for our creative work—dedicated time, distraction-free spaces, even a sense of urgency—helps us enter that magical flow state where creativity flourishes naturally. When we're in this zone, enjoying the process becomes effortless.

Remember, creativity isn't just about producing something—it's about the joy experienced during creation. By embracing the journey rather than fixating solely on outcomes, creativity becomes freedom rather than pressure. What creative activity makes you lose track of time and fills you with joy? Share your story or connect with me on Substack! And if you found value in these insights, please subscribe and share this episode with someone who might need a reminder to make time for creativity in their life. Together, we're building lives that choose joy, one creative step at a time.

Chapters

• 0:00 Creative Activities and Mental Health Benefits
• 3:05 When Creativity Loses Its Joy
• 6:45 Five Barriers to Creative Expression
• 10:06 Fear of Rejection and Handling Criticism
• 20:31 Structure, Urgency and Creative Flow
• 23:45 Creativity as a Path to Joy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I was reading an article on Nemiorg about a study titled Creative Approaches for Managing Mental Health, which involved guys 2,000 people age 13 and older personal and mental health benefits for individuals who engage in creative activities, particularly within community settings and you know when people come together. And did you know that among those who participate in any creative activity, nearly two-thirds like of people so we're talking about 63 percent reported an improved sense of confidence in their abilities? Additionally, we have a similar percentage so 61 percent indicated that engaging in creative activities helps reduce feelings of stress or anxiety, and plus, we have another 57 percent stated that these activities enhance their overall mental well-being. Very, very beautiful. As you know, I love stats and this is gonna say to us how much helpful it can be to reach and explore a new activity. Hi guys, my name is Fabio from Journey to Success, and welcome.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Today we're going to introduce the concept of finding joy through creative expression, explaining how it can enhance our well-being and personal fulfillment. But, as always, before we go forward, please subscribe. So I know this is the right direction to lead you guys, to drive you, to guide you towards your journey to success, and let's get started right, as always. So creativity, creativity is a funny story. All right. Human beings can express their creativity in countless forms and ways, with millions of layers involved. I honestly believe that creativity is an infinite spectrum. I honestly believe that creativity is an infinite spectrum, right, so it doesn't have an end. And what fascinates me about creativity is its common factor the joy it brings. So, no matter how complex or simple a creation may be, whether it is unique or an inspiration taken from others, regardless of how many creations exist in the world from millions of people, creativity finally, at the end of the story, brings joy. Okay, see, guys, people in this world often associate success with money and consider achieving something in life as a key to feeling fulfilled. Okay, many dedicate hours to what they think is their creation.

Speaker 1: 3:17

But, generally speaking, if your focus point is merely your goal, the truth is that this can lead to stress, can lead to frustration and sometimes even depression. Why do I know that? Because it happened to me as well. I remember when I used to make reels on Instagram about motivational appeals. I used to create reels about motivational appeals In the beginning. I enjoyed the journey. I tried to make everything appealing, you know, with a black background behind me and the proper lightning. I also had some nice interaction, tiktok, you know, some nice following grow, but I was rushing to see my follower count grow quickly, and this desire ultimately led to frustration and feeling overwhelmed, and I realized that creating Reels might not be my strong skill to develop with time as my ultimate goal wasn't the Reel itself, okay, so I wasn't really passionate about the real itself, but the outcome.

Speaker 1: 4:26

And when you focus too much on the outcome, you lose sight of the creation's purpose and end up not enjoying it at all. And this is an important concept to understand. If you're creating something from scratch, all right, yet you don't find joy with it, that can be a sign that you're looking for something else, something that is not creative at all. And in my case, my primary motivation was to gain followers, okay. So, yes, create something that brings you joy, but only if you enjoy.

Speaker 1: 5:02

So if you don't enjoy what you're doing, can we truly call it creativity? The answer to all of this is easy Absolutely not, okay. No, of course, because you don't enjoy your journey. And when you don't enjoy your journey, it means you don't enjoy the process, all right. Your focus shifts to merely meeting deadlines and goals. That's not the purpose of creativity. So, in such cases, your purpose is not about the creation itself, but rather the end goal. Now, of course, it's essential to think about your goals. Okay, it is crucial.

Speaker 1: 5:49

However, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, it means you're not truly creating. You might be going through the actions without showing love for what you create, love for what you create. And when there is a lack of love in your work guys, you know your same work your creation doesn't reciprocate that love. Consequently, you experience negative emotions instead of joy, leading at the end to sadness. All right, sadness, all right.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Now let's discuss the common barriers people face in expressing their creativity, such as fear of judgment or lack of time. While there are various barriers to consider, I believe we should focus on five key barriers, each of which has its own layers and keys to analyze. Okay, so the first barrier is. So the first point, first barrier is navigating in creative projects. So, in my experience, barriers can arise the moment you stop enjoying what you're doing. Okay, for example, I like to make personal example, personal example.

Speaker 1: 7:08

So during my time hosting a guest podcast, I found that by the end, I wasn't enjoying as much as I had hoped, you know to to have a guest in my, in my podcast, I felt frustrated, which became a barrier to my enjoyment and creativity. Actually, sorry, while I loved engaging with my guests so the problem wasn't the interaction between the guest and myself the truth is that the preparation process was really annoyed for me, you know. Assigning topics, studying topics, crafting questions everything became so overwhelming and initially it was fun, but I realized it wasn't something I could do forever. It's not something for me, you know, even if I know most of the podcasters do host and guest, you know, especially because with host and guest you can reach also a bigger audience. But truly it's not for me and I had to change my approach to podcasting. So now I absolutely enjoy it. Sure, there are moments when I think I still need to schedule another month of recordings. I still need to schedule another month of recordings, but the truth is that when I write the script and get into the zone, that's when I genuinely enjoy the process, guys.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Number two perfectionism. So the second barrier is perfectionism. As a perfectionist, I can relate to this strangle, especially since I'm a native Italian speaker who is building the podcast in English, and you know, guys, without my grammarly tool here, and I'm not ashamed to say that I could make numerous, numerous grammatical mistakes. A lot, and I still do at times, maybe also now, even if I don't realize. But I write everything now because I don't want to be unprepared. But still I've come to realize that trying to be perfect is a trap. It's impossible. No one can truly achieve perfection. There will always be mistakes and things we don't like, and that's simply part of the journey, you know, and it's simply part of the process. So the more you engage in your craft, the more polished your work becomes. And just remember, even if you do your best to perfect your work right, you're still not perfect and it's okay like that. You have to accept it. That's the reality. Number no we still. We still have number yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Number three, sorry, I got confused. So number three the truth is that there is a fly here around me. It doesn't want to go away so I got distracted. So again, I'm not gonna cut this piece, this uh piece, so you can hear the real me. Anyway, yes, in the beginning I thought there was a mosquito and I have kind of a phobia about mosquitoes, maybe a phobia about their sound. But no, it's just a fly. So number three, sorry, self-doubt. It's normal to have doubts about your work.

Speaker 1: 10:43

I want to remind you for the second time again that I'm an Italian native speaker who has been creating a weekly podcast about motivation. Okay, I feel satisfied with my work now, but it was a disaster for years. Sometimes I like to listen to my previous recordings, guys, which are no longer available on the podcast. It actually was inside to another podcast that I deleted. Anyway, these recordings were terrible. For a long time I didn't want to hear my own voice. I felt ashamed, and now I genuinely enjoy my work and I can say that I'm a fan of myself in this podcast, in this beautiful project. I really like to listen to myself.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Self-doubt is always around the corner anyway, but you have two choices at the end right Push through or give up. I don't know what your choice will be, but remember, if you enjoy doing something and you persist, okay, life can surprise you, just as it has surprised me. Life can bring beautiful moments and your second version of yourself will start to emerge one day, talking to you in a way like hey, I'm here, I am replacing version one of you, but don't worry, it's still you and we're going to do fantastic things together, you know, but you have to go through, of course. You have to go through.

Speaker 1: 12:20

Number four fear of failure. So how often do we discuss the idea that failing is a good thing? Failure serves as a teacher and a spiritual guide. So imagine it as a strict but honest teacher say hey, you know what you made this mistake, correct it. I know it feels uncomfortable, but no one is perfect, not even you. Life continues, so enjoy your journey, work through it and one day I might surprise you by not mentioning this misstep anymore, this mistake anymore. That's failure, that's it. It's a way of saying that you are doing. Great is a bright silence. It's just silence, still present. Correcting the next mistake, the next misstep. Okay, this is how I look at it. I look at, look at this way and I tell you guys, I love mr failure more and more, and you should do the same, because only with mr failure you can, you can correct yourself and you can become better and better and better in what you want to become.

Speaker 1: 14:40

Number five so the fifth point is fear of rejection. Fear of rejection. I want to share an experience I had the day before working on this episode. It's a coincidence that this event happened while I was already scheduled to cover this topic, so I didn't prepare this episode specifically because of it, but it's funny how it coincidentally aligns with my situation. So pretty funny, since I'm going to talk right now. So, anyway, it's primarily about something that happened with my community on Substack.

Speaker 1: 15:18

So Substack has a great future that allows users to recommend each other right. It is an innovative system. I often wonder why different social media platforms have not implemented something similar yet, because it's very powerful. So this system automatically suggests recommending users to new subscribers, you know. So very, very powerful. So I'll occasionally select five individuals per day to explore reciprocal collaboration opportunities where both parties can mutually promote each other right. Most of the time, I receive positive feedback. Fact, I don't recall receiving negative feedback until yesterday, when a content creator rejected the collaboration. Actually, this was the second person, but the first content creator was very polite and kind in his rejection. And what I'm going to say to you guys, it's not about the rejection itself. There is nothing wrong with that. Rejection is a regular part of presenting any project. It's part of the process. So, whether it's a book you wrote you want to present to someone or something else, you know, you should always expect rejection, as it can help you grow.

Speaker 1: 16:39

The problem is that this person's rejection came with a judgmental tone. They because I don't want to mention who was a woman or man, so they assumed my intentions or behavior without asking questions or trying to understand my perspective. It felt like they were using their authority in a way that was shaming, which I really dislike. Actually, I hate it. And it doesn't matter who you think you are. You can't use your authority to overlook someone else. So, instead of inviting a dialogue, they closed off the conversation, which reduces the chance for learning or growth.

Speaker 1: 17:22

Right, and that, of course, brings me to my primary focus, and I don't want to judge the actions of this person first of all. That's not the point. But I want to shift the conversation to this chapter and reflect on my experience, on my experience. So it would be easy for me to think okay, you know, this person is probably right to act in this way, with this particular tone. They have hundreds of thousands of followers and significant authority in the market, while I'm just a small fish. Okay, but please don't make those mistakes. You have not to do these kinds of mistakes. You are the only person who counts on this journey. You are as valuable as any other human being, so don't feel intimidated by the prominent figures in the industry. Okay? So take the rejection, filter out the tone and the manner in which it was delivered. Learn if there is anything to extract from the experience. Time will tell and you will move forward. So eventually you know you have something your bag of experiences to use or not. Again, time will tell. Okay.

Speaker 1: 18:38

So about this topic, remember these three beautiful quotes, guys. A first quote is criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots. Frank clark, albert Einstein. We have two quotes from Albert Einstein. The first one is what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right, and the other one is great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. So I hope you understood the meaning of all of this. I hope you understood the meaning of all of this.

Speaker 1: 19:19

Now let's talk about another topic, about the power of structure and the urgency in creative work. It's essential to manage your time effectively, guys. Setting a sense of urgency can be helpful as well. For example, to write this episode, I woke up at 7.30, my clothes and computer were already done the night before. After making breakfast. I arrived at the library by 9 am, you know, 9 in the morning. I try out a new app called Brainfm, which really helped me focus, and in just two hours I managed to write 1,300 words, and this was a record for me. Most of the times it's not like that. Most of the times I'm so distracted. So, like you, I'm really learning during my journey, and this example highlights how important it is to schedule and manage your time effectively. Being so structured gives you more freedom, as it forces you to stay focused. And, guys, when you stay focused, you can enter the zone more easily and if you are in that zone, you become more creative. And when you're more creative, you enjoy what you're doing. Okay, remember that.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Also, the sense of urgency having a sense of urgency is very important. I felt a sense of urgency today to finish early because my fiance and I needed to book the curtains for our house. Okay, and this urgency didn't conflict with my creativity, as I had communicated with her that I wanted to dedicate my day to the podcast. So in the end, we accomplished both tasks. We were happy and this is very important. You know, boundaries are very important. Remember, when you really want to be creative, boundaries are the best things ever. So I went to the library to prepare my podcast, because I know there are too many distractions in my house, and this situation reminds me of all the writers who often book a cottage in a remote, snowy or coastal location with a sea view and they write their book. Now I really understand why they do that and they write their book. Now I really understand why they do that Because it is important to enter in your zone. When you enter in the zone, you are more creative. When you're creative, you enjoy what you do.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Okay, lastly, explore various forms of creative expression, guys. It can be writing, it can be painting, it can be music, I don't know. Today I bought Sorry, I didn't buy a Lego. I had a Lego as a present for my birthday. So, you know, try always new things and discover how each can bring joy. All right, always try something new to see which resonates with your soul. And, lastly, if it brings you joy, it can develop into something unexpected, unplanned and wonderful. Who knows, you might even find financial freedom through it. Who knows, you might even find financial freedom through it.

Speaker 1: 22:42

So, to wrap this up, remember that creativity is not just about producing something right. It's more about the joy you feel in the process. So studies have shown how powerful it can be for our confidence, our stress level and our overall well-being. But here's the truth If we focus only on the outcome, we lose the heart of creation. That's when perfectionism, self-doubt, fear of failure or rejection start to arise. So instead, we need to enjoy the process, because when we do, creativity becomes freedom. Okay, not pressure. So make time for it. Protect your boundaries, whether it's writing, painting, music or something entirely different. Give yourself space to create and to play. That's where joy shows up, guys, often in the most unexpected ways. And who knows? That joy might even lead you to new opportunities, maybe even the kind of success you never imagined.

Speaker 1: 23:54

Ah, now I want to hear from you how do you bring creativity into your life? What activity makes you lose track of time and fills you with joy? Send me a message you know, share your story or connect. Connect with me on sub stack. I would love to know. And if you enjoyed today's episode, of course, you know how important it is to subscribe so you never miss an update. But what is especially important is sharing this episode with a friend who might need a reminder to make time for creativity in their own life. Thank you so much for being here on Journey to Success. Remember, together we are building a life that chooses joy, and this happened one step at a time. I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers, guys.