So if you have little ones around, grab your headphones now.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

and life you love.

If you have something inside of you that you want to bring to life, whether you want to

write it, you want to bake it, you want to draw it, dance it, or paint it, you are in

for a real treat.

Today we’re talking about what it takes to live a truly creative life and my guest

is really the person to show us how.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love

and several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction.

Gilbert began her career writing for Harper’s Bazaar, Spin, The New York Times Magazine,

and GQ, and was a 3 time finalist for the National Magazine Award.

The follow up memoir, Committed, became an instant number one New York Times bestseller.

Her latest novel, The Signature of All Things, was named a best book of 2013 by The New York

Times, O Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The New Yorker.

Elizabeth’s latest book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, which tackles the elusive

mystery of creativity, is now available wherever books are sold.

Liz, thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

My pleasure, I love being here.

So Big Magic is your new book and, I have to tell you, it’s so genius.

When I got this… this little copy below here that I actually have all flagged up and

it’s kind of ratty…

Oh, I love seeing flags coming out of books.

Flags.

So, I have to tell you that I didn't want this book to be over so I slowed myself down

and I would savor it just like you would savor a good meal and I was so excited to have you

on today because it’s brilliant and I feel like it’s one of these books that I will

keep going back to again and again and again.

So I wanna start by asking you what was the big magic that inspired Big Magic?

What inspired you to write this?

Wow.

You know what it is?

It’s a response to years of being out in public talking to people who tell me about

the projects they want to be making and are not making, the things they want to be doing

and are not doing.

You know what I mean?

And often times when I’m in public I meet people who are making and doing really cool

things and they wanna tell me about it, but mostly it’s people who aren’t.

And when they come to me with their problems about creativity or their struggles with creativity

because they know I love to talk about creativity, I find that they always have some sort of

very rational, reasonable kind of material real… real world reason why they’re not

doing it that they can lay out as an explanation.

But when you start to scratch away at that, what’s underneath it is always and only

fear.

Yes.

Always and only fear.

I don't care what the excuses or the rationalization or the justification for why they’re not

doing the thing that’s calling to them, at the bottom of it they’re afraid.

They’re afraid they don't have the talent, they’re afraid they don't have the right,

they’re afraid it’s already been done better, they’re afraid they’ll be rejected

or insulted or criticized or, worse, ignored.

They’re afraid there’s no point, they’re afraid… you know, they just have these,

like, tumbling piles of fear.

And I see it so much and I hear the same questions again and again that I finally just thought,

“Well, let’s officially talk about this.”

Yes.

You know?

Like, let’s actually really break this down and try to figure out how people can live

more creative lives without being so scared.

One of the things you say about fear in the book is that fear is like a necessary companion.

Yeah.

And I loved that because I feel like in the world of personal development and sometimes

in spirituality in certain circles, you know, you wanna push through your fear, get over

your fear.

Punch it in the face!

Punch it in the face, dude!

Yeah.

Or kick it or whatever.

Yeah.

Or we, you know, just demonize it…

Right.

...in this way and I was wondering if you could speak to this idea of fear as a companion.

Yeah, I mean, the thing is, I have no desire to become a fearless person because the only

genuinely fearless human beings I’ve ever met were psychopaths or toddlers.

You know?

Like… and neither one of those things is interesting for me to model my life after

because there’s something missing from that person…

Yes.

...that’s very essential and you see it in the kind of, like, weird eyes.

You’re like, “Wow, you are a dangerous human being to yourself and others and I don't

wanna be anywhere near you.”

And so I’m not interested in fearlessness.

Somebody said to me the other day, “Tell us how you conquered fear,” and I was like,

“I… it’s adorable that you think I conquered…”

Did you read the book?

Yeah, that’s also…

I’m afraid right this minute.

I’m afraid, like, almost every minute of my life.

So I haven’t conquered it and I’m not interested in conquering it.

Actually, what my relationship with fear begins with is a tremendous amount of respect and

appreciation because fear is the reason I am still alive today.

It’s the reason you’re still alive today.

Every single one of us can point to a moment in our lives that we survived because we were

afraid.

Because they said... the thing, the voices said, “Get out of that ocean, the waves

are too big.”

You know, “This car is going too fast.”

“Don't get into the apartment with that guy.”

“This street is not safe to walk down.”

All of us are here because our fear is constantly protecting us, that’s its job and it does

its job beautifully.

It’s just that it’s all jacked up on Red Bull and it’s really trigger happy and it

doesn't know the difference between a genuinely dangerous situation and just a little bit

of a nervy situation.

You know?

So whenever I feel fear arise, which is constantly because I’m always trying to do creative

things and creativity will always provoke your fear because it asks you to enter into

a realm with an uncertain outcome, and fear hates that.

It thinks you’re gonna die.

So any time I start a new creative project the fear rises and the first thing I do is

say to it, “Thank you so much for how much you care about me and how much you don't want

anything bad to happen to me, and I really appreciate that.

Your services are probably not needed here because I’m just writing a poem.

Like, no one’s gonna die.

No one’s gonna die, it’s ok.”

You know, and I just talk to it but in this really friendly way and I don't go to war

against it, I acknowledge its importance, and then I invite it along.

I’m like, “You can come with me, but I’m doing this thing.”

Yeah.

You know?

I loved the metaphor that you shared.

Yeah.

It’s like fear is gonna be in the car…

Yeah.

...but it’s gonna be in the backseat…

Yeah.

...and it’s not gonna drive.

Or choose the snacks or hold the map or touch the radio.

Like, fear doesn't get to make any decisions in creative ventures because frankly, with

all due respect to Grandfather Fear, it simply doesn't understand what creativity even is

because that’s a newer part of our brain, so it doesn't even know what’s going on.

So you can’t let it have any control over your creative choices or else it will shut

them down one idea after another.

It’ll just be like, “Nope, don't do that.

Nope, too risky.

Nope.”

And it’ll just be one no after another and your life will be so much smaller than you

want your life to be.

One of the things I love that you shared, which I feel is a big subset of fear, is this

idea it’s all been done before.

I think it’s the thing that I hear the most both in my own brain…

Right.

...and when I talk to everyone out in the world…

Yeah.

...about their ideas or their businesses or their projects, there’s this recurring narrative

everything’s been done before.

And I was wondering if you can speak to originality vs. authenticity.

Ok, cool.

I’m glad you brought this up.

So whenever I talk to somebody who has an idea that they’re tremulously excited about,

generally speaking within the next 2 minutes they will say, “But, you know, it’s not

very original.

It’s already been done.”

And I always say, “But it has not yet been done by you.”

It has not yet been done by you.

And the answer is, yeah, guaranteed it’s already been done because humans are really

inventive and inquisitive and creative and we’ve had 40 thousand years of the arts

and pretty much everything has been done.

You know?

And that’s fine.

Like, even Shakespeare, half of his stories he totally stole from older stories because

there aren’t that many new stories to tell.

But he told them in a way that had never been told before and then 500 years later we’re

still borrowing them from him.

We’re all just borrowing from each other.

And even the most original piece of creativity that you ever saw in your life where you were

like, “That’s groundbreaking, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” guaranteed

I could bring in, like, 10 professors and academics who could look at it and say, “Well,

obviously this is somebody who had read this book or they had heard this symphony or they

had… they were playing off of this or they were rejecting that.

They’re responding.”

All we do as humans is respond to stuff that’s already come before us.

But you’re allowed to add to the pile.

You’re allowed to add to the pile and what I always say is whenever I look at art that’s

really original, I feel like I can admire it but it doesn't move me.

What moves me is the humanity in an authentic piece of creation where somebody was doing

something, whatever it was, because they had to, because they wanted to, because it brought

them to life, because it ignited their soul.

That’s what gives the shimmer of gold to something and makes me feel like my heart’s

been changed, my mind’s been changed, the world looks different than it did before.

So I don't care if it's been done.

I don't care if it’s been done 10 thousand times.

If you need to do it, do it.

You know, there’s 2 things I want to comment on.

One, have you checked out Everything is a Remix?

No.

Oh, I can’t…

ok, so I’m gonna email you on this.

You’re gonna love it.

It speaks to this idea and it traces back…

Oh, that is a great shorthand for everything I just said.

Yeah.

But it’s brilliant and I think you’re gonna love it.

But it… it really is true and I think there’s so much relief that we can feel in that.

Yeah.

I know in my own creative life…

Right.

...the pressure, you know, to keep creating and to keep pushing those edges and those

boundaries and growth and doing something innovative and new and you can start to make

yourself crazy.

There's so many ways to make yourself crazy.

Right.

And that’s number nine on the list.

But, yeah, exactly.

And… but the second thing that you tipped off for me was something else in the book

that I absolutely loved and it was a real lightbulb moment.

I want to thank you for writing it.

It was about really examining your motivations.

Right.

And, you know, if you want to help people… and this was interesting for me.

And it’s like, you know, you want to write a book to help me.

Please, don't.

Please don't help me.

Please don't help me.

But this idea of creating because it brings you joy.

Right, right.

Exactly.

I mean, I think when you’re a good person and you’re a giving person and you’re

a person of humanity, then of course when you set out to do something you think, “Well,

I probably shouldn’t do this unless it will serve.”

Right?

Because that’s… because we’re good people.

Yes.

And we’re raised to believe that.

I love this quote by this British newspaper editor who said, “You can always tell people

who live for others by the anguished expressions on the faces of the others.”

You know?

You’re just like, “Oh, God.

Here she comes with her really good intentions.

Like, I just feel like… like please don't.”

You know?

Yes.

And… and also it’s a heavy mandate for something that should be the lightest thing

in your life, which is how you express your own creativity.

I love helping people.

I think there are much more efficient ways for me to do it.

Like, I give money to good organizations and I vote and I volunteer and I do all of that

kind of stuff.

My art though is mine.

And even the art that I make that ends up helping people like, you know, Eat, Pray,

Love, for instance.

People will say, “Thank you so much for your book.

It really helped me, it changed me.”

I didn't sit down to write that book saying, “It’s high time I changed people’s lives.”