Justine Musk / Because You're a Creative Badass.

badass creatives can change the world

I believe that you don’t know who you are until you know what you can do.

I believe that education and false myths about creativity have distorted our sense of our own creative intelligence, which can’t be measured in a tidy IQ score.

I believe that ‘good girl syndrome’ (and male equivalent) does a lot of damage: when we spend so much time trying to please others, we sacrifice ourselves in all the wrong ways. You can’t be yourself if you can’t speak your story. Yet truth itself is often difficult, messy, challenging to the status quo, and inevitably offensive to someone — qualities that are associated with the ‘bad’ or ‘fallen’ woman.

I believe that when you tell your story, you give other people permission to tell theirs. And we need that diversity of stories (and voices) — which is why sharing yourself can be a political act as well as a personal one.

I believe in the pursuit of excellence and mastery, so you can tell your story better than anybody else could ever tell it for you.

So I believe in the third option: being neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’…but badass. The divine feminine = the badass feminine, and not the Victorian ‘angel in the house’ crap which denies us our delectable full-blooded complexity, our strength, our desire to live out quest plots of our own outside of, or as well as, marriage-and-children.

I believe in fierce compassion.

I believe that my creativity is my identity is my spirituality, although the ‘woo-woo’ stuff gets on my freaking nerves. (Give me empirical validation. Ground me in neuroscience. Don’t insult my intelligence.)

I believe that our childhood wounds shape both the ‘why’ of our life purpose and the abilities to achieve that life purpose. Both of which require some intense figuring-out and rigorous self-reflection. When we create according to that purpose, we can heal ourselves, others, the planet.

I believe that badass creatives will innovate the solutions that change the world.

Oct 28, 2011 ·

9 comments · Add Yours

I really like this. It reminds me of the Nicene Creed — what Catholics recite every week somewhere towards the middle of the mass. I grew up saying that, and I actually have thought (on a couple of occasions) about writing my own.

You did, and it’s excellent.

John J. Walters
Oct 28, 2011

I’m a little confused as to your mentioning creativity is your spirituality, but then saying the “woo-woo” stuff gets on your nerves. One person’s spirituality is another’s woo-woo.

Jeff P.
Oct 28, 2011

@Jeff P. “woo-woo” is about bad marketing. it’s the bullshit pseudo-spiritual trappings and symbols that get marketed as the real deal but are empty, without meaning or substance. it’s what sentiment is to real emotion. it’s spirituality — which I define as matters related to consciousness, since I’m also an atheist — co-opted.

justine
Oct 28, 2011

Justine, this is such an inspiring post! (As are all of your blog posts!) You have an amazing capability to motivate and make that emotional connection in your writing. The funny thing is, if “woo-woo” is spirituality, that’s part of who I am—but despite our differences in that area, every time I come here I walk away more certain of my purpose in writing. So thank you for the time and effort you put into helping others. You can know that you’ve made a difference in my life and my path to creativity. It’s a great reminder that no one else can tell my story better than me. I love that, yet it’s crazy how often I lose sight of it!

Barb Riley
Oct 28, 2011

Thank you – I needed this today. Sometimes in the noise of it all I forget the sound of my own voice.

Pamela Day
Oct 28, 2011

I really needed this message, right here, right now in the place I am! How inspirational and motivating…

BarbiChevy
Oct 29, 2011

I hate this idea that going to college is the only way to go. The economy is driven by these really driven entrepreneurial college drop-outs that weren’t getting what they wanted(or needed) in school. Anything you can learn in school can also be learned on your own, without wasting time on stuff that you might not even need later in life.

I completely agree that badass creatives are going to change the world. It’s always been, and it will always, remain on the shoulders of people that have a strong desire to shake up the status quo. The world needs people that will say, “It’s not working this way after [however many] years and I’m going to change it.”

This was an excellent read. Thank you.

Liz K Zook
Oct 29, 2011

I can totally relate to this, especially in my current season of life. Thank you for saying what I feel

Mary Jo
Oct 29, 2011

How true the above article makes good common sense, On been told good is really been bad for oneself. So lets be a Bad-Ass person to be creative for all and self worth…

Ed
Nov 20, 2011