This is a tough one to accept and it has taken me a long time to get my head around this.

If you are a creative person there will be some people in your life who will never:

• Understand why you spend hours creating stuff that is unlikely to go anywhere.
• Share your creative enthusiasm for your creative projects.
• Understand why you are cartwheeling around the garden after receiving one tiny bit of positive feedback.
• Ask to read or listen to your work.
• Get your weird and wonderful creative ways.
• Be able to relate to the buzz you get inside when your creative work is being shared or liked.

These are the ones who say stuff like “I don’t understand why you do all that writing!” or “have you just spent your whole day writing?’

Just because they don’t get your creative life doesn’t mean they are bad or cruel. They just don’t understand.

No matter how many hours you spend trying to explain your creative tendencies or excitedly telling them about your latest project, they will still cast you that puzzled or horrified look.

It can sting a bit when you realise that not everyone is as goofy happy as you about your creative projects.

The important thing to remember there WILL always be people who struggle to understand your creative ways. If we were all the same life would be pretty dull.

Here are some things to consider when accepting that some people will never understand your creative life:

• As a creative person you will always be a mystery to some people. This is actually a good thing and you should always strive to remain a mystery. Keeps people guessing about what you will do next.
• Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. You can’t force others to like what you are doing or have created.
• Each one of us has different talents and skills to offer the world. As Walt Whitman said we are all here to ‘contribute a verse’.  Being creative (either through writing, blogging, podcasting etc) is your way of contributing a verse. These people are also contributing a verse in their own special way.
• If you are a true creative person (i.e. not doing it for the money or future fame) then you will know that your creative side is a huge part of who you are as a person. It’s not something you can change or switch off and anyway why would you?
• According to this article Neuroscience confirms that highly creative people think and act differently than the average person. Our brains are hardwired in a unique way! This means that some people are going to think we are from another planet.
• We are addicted to the thrill of creating stuff and its a hard addiction to break. To the outsider our creative addiction can look pretty scary.
• Being misunderstood comes with the territory of leading a creative life.
• There is a place in the world for all of us.

The sooner you accept that not everyone in your life is going to understand your creative life the better!

So, stop wasting time on trying to make them understand why you spent the entire day rewriting your fourth chapter with only a couple of breaks for coffee and biscuits.

Move on and focus your energies on creating!