Big Truths from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic That Can Help Big Dreamers

I have a confession to make. I’ve read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic at least a half dozen times in the past couple of years. I read it over again. I can’t stop. In fact, as I write this, I’m listening to it on Audible and I have an open print copy on my desk that I flip through when I’m waiting on an email or procrastinating something. Maybe I’m a little obsessed. But only because this book truly is big magic itself for anyone who has big dreams – and I’m a big dreamer, so I would know. If you haven’t picked up a copy for yourself just yet (or if you bought one, read two pages and got scared), get ready to be inspired.

Here’s what I learned from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic ⤵

➳ I am a creative (so are you).

Around age 10, most of us started believing that only certain people are creative and can rightly call themselves “the creatives”, but it just isn’t true. When we were in kindergarten, we were all creative; we all painted, we all drew and wrote stories and grew things and made stuff — not just the artsy people. Nothing has changed except our perception. Not one thing.

➳ Creating is a worthy cause.

It doesn’t matter if no one ever raves over your cakes, buys your books, or subscribes to your blog. It doesn’t matter if you never sell your art or you never get a big break so you can afford to quit your job to sing or paint or write full-time. Your work is worth creating even if you’re the only one getting joy from it forever and ever. It’s still worth it.

➳ If you don’t mind the sh*t sandwich, that’s your thing.

The bad part about writing is revising, rewriting, trying to please publishers. The bad part about being on Broadway is the grueling practice schedule. But when we love it, who cares about the bad part? There’s something like that for all of us. We love it enough to shrug off the sh*t sandwich parts. Find that thing and do it.

➳ Artists don’t have to be tortured.

You can be happy and a recording artist, a writer who isn’t morose, an entrepreneur who isn’t broke, a painter who loves life, a poet who isn’t grim. You can be anything you want to be — the happier the better.

➳ It takes a while for everyone.

Just because you didn’t get accolades, fame, and fortune the first time you put something out there doesn’t mean you’re not good. It means you’re exactly like everyone else who’s ever put anything out there. It takes time. Sometimes it takes decades. Keep going. You only lose if you stop creating.

➳ Don’t be afraid to play.

Don’t take yourself so seriously. Life is supposed to be fun, and so is your work.

➳ Forget about passion and get curious.

If something makes you scratch your head, follow it. Research it. Try it. If you get passionate about that or something else, great, but if you have to choose between trying something and standing still waiting until you find your passion, choose to try something — anything — rather than wait.

➳ We’re all bad at the beginning.

The only way to get better is to keep going. You need a body of work to get better. You can only get that if you keep going. Stop being afraid of failing. You can’t fail if you get back up again.

➳ You already have permission.

Stop waiting. We’re entitled to create. We’re all allowed. The only thing stopping us is ourselves and the way we let fear drive us around. Stop letting fear into the driver’s seat. Put her in the backseat and let her know she gets no say — she’s just along for the ride.

➳ What’s wrong sometimes is that we should be creating.

Words, inventions, songs, scripts, symphonies — they fester inside of us when they’re not released. They can make the human they’ve visited grow bitter, angry, greedy, critical. If you feel yourself headed down that road sometimes, chances are, you’re a creative not creating. So make something.