The Life-Or-Death Pursuit of Creative Joy

I have been thinking about the number of times I have laughed so hard snot flew from my nose and tears streamed from my eyes. I have been thinking about the magnetism of joyous people. I have been thinking about the sound of children on a playground. I have been thinking about the look on my nieces’ faces when they showed me their new puppy on Christmas many years ago. Joyful people fill our hearts. Joyful sounds resonate beyond what words can explain. Joy is precious. I want more joy in my life.

Novelist Justine Musk believes that joy is as vital to life as air. Ultimately, she says our survival as a species depends on our ability to be joyous, innovative, fearless, and creative. I agree with her. Musk looks to author Ben Cosnocha who explores, in The Start Up of You, the idea that we are all entrepreneurs of our own lives. Musk summarizes, “Creative joy — if you’re willing to listen to it — is the unifying thread that leads you from one dot to the other to the other until you can connect them or ‘stitch together’ into a greater whole.”

An entrepreneur guided by creative joy must:

Research creative joy

I completed a doctoral dissertation focused on the existential concept of wide-awakeness a few years ago. (Creative joy seems a conceptual sister of wide-awakeness.) I looked at the role of the high school drama teacher in creating the capacity for wide-awakeness in students. Thinking back to my own profound high school drama experience, my life was changed and saved by the fire that was awakened as I felt the power of being a cast member, the rhythm of the music as we danced, and the resonance of the lyrics and lines we performed. It all happened with a gentle yet fierce intensity reserved for moments when a soul burns. I was the teen-age embodiment of creative joy. Now, I turn my researcher’s gaze to the creative joy in my day-to-day life.

Know Creative Joy

Having researched creative joy, the next step is to know creative joy. Knowing creative joy means being able to sense joy in the very synapses of our beings, to have identified moments when we feel so incredibly joyful that our muscles can remember the experience. This is theory-building time in which we personalize what creative joy is for each of us. This is where theory builds from personal experience. It is data collection through paying attention. It is the intersection of awareness and presence. It is knowing that walking along the ocean is where you find your deepest joy, if that is your joy’s where. It is knowing that time with your cat on the couch writing while she naps on your lap, if that is your joy’s when. It is eating a delicious meal, if that is your joy’s how. Because all joy is vital, if that is your joy’s why. (Each of us needs to know our personal joy details.)

Create Creative Joy

This is the moment where theory meets practice, where thought meets action, where we put up or shut up. To create means to build, construct, and manifest creative joy in our lives. It is not enough to simply theorize about creative joy — our faces pressed against the window of life. We must get out there and live joyfully. It means creating something everyday. It means reaching out to others as an inherently creative being. It means living out a creative and joyful mission. Researching and knowing your creative and joyful selves is central to defining and living creative joy.)

Protect Creative Joy

Once cultivated, honoring and holding creative joy close is vital. Pressure and stress in day-to-day life do not lend themselves to creative joy. Turning toward joy. Moving in the direction of what is joyful. Choosing joy. Defending joy in the face of fear and cynicism are part of the creative joy equation. I believe most joy is thwarted not because of big explosions of chaos and conflict, but rather because of the slow ooze of hunger, anger, loneliness, and fatigue.

Share Creative Joy

Intentionally sharing our creative and joyful selves is the heart of Musk’s call. Living as creative and joyful entrepreneurs means our mission and work are not separate. In working, we are multiplying creative joy and responding to our deepest call. In sharing creative joy, we are building a more loving world.