Steal Like an Artist: 5 Worth Stealing Lessons on Creativity

I am one of those people who suck at creativity since childhood. When my teacher used to give projects/assignments during school time, all my classmates used to come up with something extraordinary but me. I wondered if they use similar colors, pen, paper, and then how do they make the project so beautiful. And then I surrendered and believed that creativity is not my cup of tea.

However, Austin Kleon doesn’t think so, hence, he came up with his book, STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST. We all believe that creativity means creating something new and unique that doesn’t already exist but Austin says that everything you see is just an updated version of what was already there. Though if you think you have seen an original work that just means you don’t know the reference behind it.

Here are 7 lessons that I learnt from Steal like an artist that will help you become more creative in your field.

5 Ways to Become More Creativity in Your Work:

1. Climb Your Own Family Tree: No matter what your field is, there must be one person who inspires you. The book suggests that study everything there is to know about that one person who inspires you, EVERYTHING. Then find three people that the thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch. In simple words, when you know everything about those inspirational personalities, start with your own work because now you are one of them.

The Tree

You can even hang the pictures of your favorite personality in your room as that will keep inspiring you. This tree will help you to understand how your favorite personalities used to think, which means you now have their thinking pattern to follow not just the outcome of thinking.

2. Educate Yourself: One of the most beautiful gifts every human has right now is Google. You don’t have to depend on anyone for your education. Besides, schooling is one thing but education is whole another. Pick one skill you want to be good at, google everything about it, EVERYTHING. Google your dreams, your problems. Don’t ask a question before you google it. You will either find the solution or a better question.

You have to be curious about what you do, you have to google everything there is to know about your field, you have to dig deeper and you will automatically find out something that no one knows. That’s how you go ahead.

3. Garbage In, Garbage Out: If you analyze your day to see what kind of content you consume, can you come with something worth it? If not then you should not wonder why you are not creative. The author says, our ideas are the outcome of the kind of content we consume on the internet, books, movies, music, etc. If you are not following the right people who can teach you something, you will come up with shit only.

“Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.”

Garbage in, Garbage out simply means you will have what you consume. Hence, if you want to be creative, follow creative people, read about the, watch their videos and you will automatically start producing creative ideas.

4. Step Away from Screen: Our other home, digital products are actually the biggest enemy of creativity. Since computers and phones have come up, we rarely use pen and paper to note down our ideas. Austin says that these digital devices don’t allow you to touch anything you create until it’s in print. One of the best ways to be creative is to just shift some amount of work from computer to normal paper and you will establish a connection with your work. Creativity cannot stop flowing when you use your hands and paper.

“Carry a notebook and a pen with you wherever you go. Get used to pulling it out and jotting down your thoughts and observations.”

Try to remember when was the last time when you really sat with a pen and paper to write your ideas, thoughts, work or how you feel. The technique might sound too simple to you but it makes you creative by breaking the boundaries. You can’t draw on a computer to draw a picture of your idea unless you are filthy rich to have an iPad.

5. Read, Learn and Watch: As this book says that all creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original. In this case, your job is to dive into what is already there by reading books on your interested topic, biographies on your inspirations, learn everything there is to absorb all that has already been said, and watch a bunch of videos on a topic of your choice.

You need to read, learn and watch about 100’s of people and their work so that you can create a mix of what’s already there. You need to fill the void in the work that is already available by adding your own uniqueness into it. And you will come up with such uniqueness when you know what’s already being said so that you can say it just in another more attention-grabbing manner.

If you read about one person, one idea, you will steal that but if you read and learn about 100 people/art, you will have an excellent piece of art that is the combination of all those 100 arts yet with your own touch.

Creativity is not about pressuring yourself to come up with an original piece because in reality, nothing is original. Everything you see is an improvised version of what is already available. Your job is just to consume as much creative work as you can so that you know where the leakage is that you can fix with your work.

I would love to know which of these 5 ideas grabbed your attention or what do you do to stay productive?