Nothing I Do Is Original, Nothing You Do Is Original And That’s Great

Photo by Deb Dowd on Unsplash

I haven’t truly done anything original in my life ever.

Neither have you.

A statement like that would have normally made me get all defensive and try to quickly retort some examples to the contrary but now I am happy about that.

Thanks Austin Kleon.

That’s Right, his book “Steal Like an Artist” held within it this formative concept for me.

I like many others would sit at their laptops, their journals or even be daydreaming about what can set us apart. What’s that thing that will make me original so that I will stand out. How will I be defined as a person different from all those around me.

Wow. I can hear myself becoming quite existential, I think I should dial that down a bit.

But really though at the essence of my tangent is that of trying to be original in a world where it feels like all the big things, all the milestones, all the foundational principles have already got well trodden roadmaps to follow. I wasn’t clear on how to be an original.

Until the concept of stealing like an artist and finding the intersectionality of multiple unoriginal ideas to form a new “original” idea come to pass.