All those little things you think are weird about you? They’re the things that make you unique. That make you stand out. It’s time you embrace your weird instead of running from it. I’ll tell you why in this short episode.
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Transcript: Embrace Your Weird
Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. When you approach your creative work, do you embrace your weird? Hi. I’m Nancy with this week’s Creative Pep Talk. And, you know, I’ve been thinking about all of the strange kinds of things that we judge ourselves for creatively and how a lot of the time, the things that we think are weird or quirky or unusual, we expect to be off putting to other people. But a lot of the time, that’s really, really not true.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:46]:
Those things that are unusual and strange about us, a lot of the time, are what make us unique and appealing, and we discount them at our peril. I have seen plenty of interesting art, quirky writing, all sorts of unusual photography. You name it. It’s out there. And what makes it so intriguing is that it comes at what it’s doing from an angle that no one else can. And that’s true for all of us. We all have our own strange things that make us different from everybody else, whether it’s the kind of art that we prefer or the fandom that we’re a part of or something else. Everything about us is an unique combination of factors that make us all different.
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:40]:
And I know that to a degree that’s obvious, but the fact is that a lot of creative folks tend to totally judge themselves based on all of these things and decide that their work is too strange or that they’re too strange, and that gets in their way. And that’s even true when it comes to actually sitting down to do our work. A very long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, when I was an undergrad, I worked as a writing center tutor on campus. We had to go through about a week’s worth of training, and they put us into small groups so that we could get to know each other and get to know how we each approached writing differently. It was such an eye opener for me because I was pretty much, I’m just going to sit down and write, which is about as boring as it gets, but it works. Right? But other people in my group had weird little rituals that they had to go through in order to feel like they were ready to write. One of them had to clean the room, just could not stand having any kind of clutter anywhere because it it distracted them. Now, obviously, that’s the kind of thing where if you take it too far and you have to do a deep clean of your entire house, that’s probably an avoidance tactic.
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:57]:
But if it’s just, I need my space to be this way and it will take me five minutes and I’ll get it done and then I’ll be able to write, that’s not a problem. There was another guy in the group who loved to thumb through cookbooks before he started writing. And, you know, with no expectation of actually sitting down and making the things that he was looking at, I have a feeling that for him, it was the act of imagining all of those things in the cookbook, all of those different ingredients coming together in a particular way, looking at the pictures, all of that. I suspect that it activated his creative brain. And once he had looked through a couple of pages, and it didn’t have to be in great detail, he was good. He was ready to write. The more we judge ourselves about weird little foibles that we think just make us weirdos, which is a very judgmental term that we tend to use a lot, the harder we make it for ourselves to create. So I invite you to let your freak flag fly in whatever way applies to you.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:04]:
I’m thrilled that I managed to say that without tripping over it. Embrace what makes you different and unique. It is your your distinguishing factor as a creative, as a human being, in any capacity that you participate in. It’s not a bad thing. Embrace it, own it, run with it, and it will serve you well. If this episode resonated with you or if you’re feeling a little bit less than confident in your creative process right now, join me at the spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage. It’s free, and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:50]:
See you there, and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade. If you like Follow Your Curiosity, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to tell your friends. It really helps me reach new listeners.
