Whatever You Do, Create Something
Don't just consume.
I was reading an article on The Republic, an online African magazine, when the following prompt came on:
Don’t just read something, do something.
It got me thinking.
Don’t just read something — that is, don’t just consume it; do something — create something.
Imagine that plants, the primary source of production in the food chain were out of the equation. What will we consume?
Bear in mind that almost every food stripped down to their basic composition have a plant in them.
Think fruits — you know them.
Think salad — vegetables. Think spaghetti — wheat.
In fact, think chicken or beef; the animals consume plants or products of plants — fodder and forage — to grow and have enough meat in their bodies.
It’s going to be hard to sustain that kind of non-plant food chain as we know it. You know what? let’s not dig into the question of how possible a non-plant food chain is. That’s not the goal of this piece (this StackExchange thread explains it better). My point is:
We consume the products of someone or something’s creation.
Whatever content it is you consume (YouTube videos, music, paintings, etc), something or someone created it. You might also be thinking that if everyone is a plant (I mean creator), who will consume the contents?
Well, creation and consumption are not mutually exclusive.
You will always consume someone else’s material but that doesn’t stop you from creating yours. There will always be consumers.
But why do we consume without wanting to create?
It’s relatively easier to read a story than write one. And it’s definitely easier to eat shawarma than to make one.
Why?
Eating shawarma is chewing and swallowing. Duh!
Ok seriously, it’s because creation is unpredictable and messy. You never know exactly what will come out of it. For example, if you start scrolling on Instagram, you know what you’ll get out of it — whatever it is you get out of it. But think about making your own videos on YouTube. Now that’s work.
And even when you embark on it, you’re constantly deleting paragraphs if, like me, you’re a writer. Very messy thing.
When you’re trying to do something important, something creative in nature, you find that it takes some preparation to ‘get in the zone’. You realize that it takes a level of mindset and patience to get in the creative sphere.
But here’s the good news. You need to consume a lot to be able to create.
It might look like creators make something out of nothing but it isn’t really nothing; it’s a product of what they’ve consumed, both consciously and unconsciously with a sprinkle of their own personal uniqueness.
Think about it this way:
That composition you wrote in primary school about your vacation came from somewhere. The things that happened at the vacation are the conscious things you consumed. How it all made you feel which could be conscious, subconscious or even both is how you interpret the vacation.
Now your essay or composition will be a product of what happened and how it made you feel. That’s what you create. You’re not exactly conjuring up something from nothing.
And that brings me to my second point:
Consumption feeds creation too.
Those two concepts are intertwined. You consume to create and you create for consumption.
You can’t give what you don’t have. You have to consume something or a variety of things to be able to create something. In fact, I notice that when I’m trying to write a piece without researching the general idea, I struggle to come up with something to write.
So what I’m saying is, consume.
Consume a lot.
But don’t just consume. Make something out of it.
Why you should create something
1. Creation helps you grow.
An attempt to create something is an attempt to summarize the knowledge you’ve accumulated about a particular concept in a way that you can explain to yourself and to others.
It’s a perfect way to learn and show that you know what you’ve learned. It’s a win-win for you and the consumer.
I am into writing so it helps me structure my thoughts. If you’re into painting, creating more art will help you put your imagination on paper.
Whatever it is your forte is, doing the work by creating more and more helps you grow.
2. You’re unique and so is your creation.
Do you know how many random occurrences (and planned ones) happened for you to be who you are today? or how many will still happen for you to grow into some new self later?
It’s hard to replicate that exact copy out of the zillions of possibilities. You are unique, my friend. You’re fucking rare.
The interesting part is that your creations are fed from who you are which is a product of the things you’ve consumed, experienced, defined, etc. So, your creation is a piece of you.
It’s a piece of your rare self.
If your life were pizza, it’s a slice of the pizza. That slice and its composition are only unique to you.
Only you!
3. The more you create, the more you realize you have more to create.
The major hurdle to creation is starting in the first place.
Start and never look back except to assess your progress.
The more I write, the more I realize I have more to say.
I have a lot to create and share with the world and this is just the beginning.
Watch out.
4. When you’re a creator, you respect other creators.
You respect other creators (whatever it is they create) because now you’re in their shoes; you’re not just a consumer who oversimplifies what it takes to make the pieces work as one.
You know what it feels like.
It’s like this funny thing that happens in one of my friend’s house. Her younger brother can’t cook but he always has something to complain about in the food.
Now, this doesn’t mean you should/would accept low-quality things. No, not at all. What it means is you would be gentle with other creators’ work.
And you will respect and appreciate high-quality creations more.
5. Be somebody that wows others.
When was the last time you wowed somebody? When was the last time somebody said to you:
“Wow! did you make that?”
or…
“Oh my god! Was that you? You did that?”
If it’s been a while, I bet you’ve been slack creatively.
Creation makes its consumers sound like sirens. Wow-wow-wow.
By the way, where I’m from, that’s a dead joke but hey, it works.
Let’s wrap this up.
It is easy to close your eyes and allow the tide of life to dictate how you live. But when you create something, you give meaning to a part of your life that was once an idea.
You highlight a story in your life lying there dormant. You’ve given something life.
It’s like how my friend, Chioma describes the feeling she gets after writing a new song — like she was just delivered of a baby. That’s the feeling creation gives and mothers can attest to how magical that feeling is.
So, don’t just consume this piece.
Go ahead and create something too.
