My Therapist Asked Me One Question That Boosted My Creativity Ten Fold

It’s not the quality of your answers that matter in life, it’s the quality of your questions.

Life has no answers, only best guesses, arbitrary moralisations, and experiences. Ask why enough and everything is a mystery.

Answers won’t save you, questions will.

Good questions give you direction. What do you want? What do you believe? What’s important to you? What values do you have? Who do you love? What are you building?

This article is about a question my therapist asked me and I want to ask you too because it completely shifted my approach to creativity.

Here’s the question

In 2014, I wanted to be a musician. I wasn’t great, but I’d played guitar in enough bands over the years to look good enough to the average Joe.

I told my therapist repeatedly that I wanted to be a songwriter.

Then, during a session, he asked me this:

Where’s your output?

“What?” I replied.

“If you want to be a songwriter, where’s your output? Your songs? Your material?”

I didn’t have any. Well, apart from a handful on a Soundcloud page and some band demos.

He was a writer. He’d written books, and screenplays and had an extensive back catalogue of work.

I had next to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

He was challenging me. Was I moaning and indulging in a dream as escapism? Or was I serious? If I was serious, where was my output?

Where’s your output?

We all have dreams, goals, and desires, but how many of us have an output that reflects it?

If you’re wanting to be a creative, but create very little, do you really want to be a creative, or is it escapism?

Who doesn’t like the idea of sitting on a beach near a little cottage painting the sunset with a canvas and easel while the waves lap quietly onto the shore?

Does that mean you really want to be a painter?

Who doesn’t like the idea of scribbling down profound poems in a small breast pocket notebook whilst walking through nature?

Does that mean you really want to be a poet?

Who doesn’t like the idea of being a musician, playing a wonderful piece you wrote to a room of swooning fans?

Does that mean you really want to be a musician?

Who doesn’t like the idea of having a best-selling book, being a profound actor, or being a comedian who can have a room in uncontrollable laughter?

Does that mean you really want to be any of these things?

Where’s your output?

“Writers write. Runners run. Establish your identity by doing your work.” ― Seth Godin

Everyone has a dream. They’re cheap. Dreams are escapism. Very few do the work. Very few produce the output.

If you’re toiling away in a job you hate wishing for a less ordinary life, it’s not impossible to get there. Many, many, people want what you want too. But do they produce the output? No.

They’re not serious. They just want to daydream.

Do you want to dream or do you want to do it? Your output is a measure of how serious you are.

Start working or stop dreaming; otherwise, you’ll get to the end of a very bitter road.

Align your output with your desires.

Do you have huge ambitions and dreams? Then you should have a huge amount of work to show for it.

To paraphrase and reiterate the Seth Godwin quote above; writers write. Comedians gig. Artists paint and draw. Musicians play and record. Startups hustle. Athletes train. As author Steven Pressfield said, “do the work”.

Output (or work) isn’t necessarily something you can touch, feel, or hear. It can be a process, a routine, a daily discipline.

It’s whatever you do to actively get you towards your goals and dreams. It’s whatever makes the boat go faster.

So ask yourself, when you’re procrastinating, when you’re sitting on the couch talking a good game, when you’re getting up in the morning and thinking about your day, ask “Where’s my output?”

Then go do the work.