Living with intention, having a purpose, and clearly defining your "why" in just about any area of life is one of the most powerful things you can do.

For the last few years, I have been thinking about why I create & share with the world. I've always felt innately called to do so for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until recently that I actually started to do it. And now that I am a few years into it I've really been seeking to understand my intention & purpose for investing energy into my creative practice & sharing it with others. Here is my answer:

1. Alchemize My Own Life: Ongoing healing, learning, growth & transformation does not happen in a vacuum. We are on this journey together. Producing creative work in the form of writing, pictures, videos & sound forces me to metabolize my own life. It empowers me to mine the darkness for the gold, personally codifies the lessons & stay deeply present in my own Life. True alchemization happens through “the seemingly magical process of combination, creation & transformation.” This means combining myself with other people, places & things in order to create anew & transform for the better.

2. What You Teach Is Teaching You: I find that the more I teach the faster I learn & the more I learn. This happens through dynamic exchange with other people. Just articulating your own learning in the hopes to teach others forces you to crystallize your own understanding. Then their feedback pushes you into an even deeper understanding.

3. Mastery Requires Lifelong Practice: Once the master achieves the level of the black belt he does not stop practicing. I’m after Life-Mastery and that is a lifelong practice. This means I must continue to create & share indefinitely. I’ve learned the joy of striving for an ever-receding horizon by focusing on embracing the journey. The process is the prize.

4. Creating Is Always More Empowering Than Consuming: I’ve discovered that the process of creating & sharing is incredibly energizing & empowering for me when it comes from an empowering place. It leaves a lasting sense of Joy. Conversely, mindless consumption & sharing often leaves me feeling bereft, promotes personal dissatisfaction & engenders internal unhappiness.

5. Inspire Others To Be Inspired: When I share my Energy & work to authentically empower & inspire others I seem to always receive even more energy. It’s like rejuvenation for my Spirit. When done right from the right place it literally lights me on fire!

6. Perpetual Leadership At Scale*: By creating work that I can share through the interwebs in the forms of writing, pictures, videos & sound I am able to lead at scale. I can reach more people than I ever could in person. I aim to have a majority of my content be evergreen so that no matter when people discover my work it can act as a catalyst if they are ready for positive transformation. This is my contribution to the idea that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

7. My Act Of Service In Action: My mission in life is “To Empower & Inspire people to proactively design & truly live a life worth living for!” In order to live this mission, I must take ACTION on it regularly. I must proactively design & live a life worth living for. Sharing myself & my learnings in a powerful & vulnerable way empowers me to not only ensure I am personally living my mission but to also act as a bridge for others to create & cultivate a life well-lived. We all must take our own action to Alchemize Life. You can’t do it for me & I can’t do it for you. But I can lead by example.

8. Connection & Impact:  In order to feel truly ALIVE we have to feel connected to others and like we are making a difference. Making the world a better place through one’s creation & contribution is necessary in order to truly live a life worth living for!

Why do you create and/or share?

*This article was originally inspired by James Clear's article: Leadership At Scale (Why I Write). I read it years ago & loved it so much that I wanted to steal it & make it my own. James was inspired by Justin Jackson's article: Words. This is an awesome chain reaction of creative alchemization.

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