A Book Review “The Creative Act: A Way of Being’ By Ric Rubin

Ric Rubin’s book entitled “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” is relative to developing our careers or lives as it is a creative process as well.  Ric Rubin is a well-known music producer and he has an extensive portfolio of artists and albums that he has worked on. In doing so, throughout the book, he never mentions any particular project or artist. So, what this book is not is a recipe on how to produce good music, make a better film, or make good art. It is more of how he has approached life on his own and with people that he has worked with to be able to reach their full potential.

As one of my guests, Gino Arco put it nothing happens by accident. It is how we approach life and are aware of what is happening to us and who is entering our lives and what effect are they having on us that can and will determine the life we can and will have. Nothing happens by chance everything has a purpose and is developed by intention. In that, this book is full of information and or advice on how to go about life so we can create the life and career that we desire. In this blog, I would like to take examples from the book and affiliate them with some of my guests on my podcast and demonstrate the relevance of the concepts introduced in this book. The concepts that I will be talking about will be experimenting, awareness, fear, curiosity, growth mindset, and fun and play. They are all interconnected but I do isolate them in this blog for easier reading.

Experimenting

One of the strongest messages in the book is to let ideas grow. As Ric points out in the book, he has worked with many artists that come into a recording studio with a preconceived idea of what the recording is supposed to manifest into. While having a vision is important it can also distract us from other possibilities that actually may be better. It is worth noting that Ric does promote experimenting in the studio, however, he is formal about it as well as he keeps a log of what works and where it works, what the artist liked, and of course what did not work as well.  

In career development, this process is relevant as well. I have mentioned in my previous blog https://www.thecareerguy.ca/blog/skills skill building. I suggest focusing more on individual skills as opposed to looking at the big picture and getting overwhelmed. I can say from my experience of working at a university for over 30 years I witnessed too many students fall into the trap of categorizing.  As an example, someone graduating with an engineering degree wants to be an engineer and is looking for work as an engineer. This does work and is relevant, however, not for all. Maybe for some, it would be beneficial to break down the degree and examine what they excelled at and or liked and see if they can use those attributes in other areas. The idea here is to open ourselves up to other possibilities. There is another blog that I wrote that provides an array of examples from guests on my show that followed this path https://www.thecareerguy.ca/blog/finding-a-persons-passion.

Awareness

Of course, this takes awareness which is another attribute that is strongly supported throughout the book. As Ric emphasizes the world is going to do what the world is going to do; we go into situations and it will have an effect on us. It is understanding how these circumstances influence us. This can be simple as I like or not as simple as I like (Ying Yang) however the author suggests looking deeper which may initiate the experimenting or trying different things.

The best example of this is my interview with Gino Arcaro https://www.thecareerguy.ca/episodes/a-career-in-law-enforcement-and-much-more-part-3. Here is a person that has gone from doing manual labor to working as a police officer, being promoted to a detective, leaving this to teach law enforcement, and then becoming director of the program. After 15 years he left to start up a gym business and all along this route he has published textbooks on policing, weight training, football (as he has coached football), and motivational books. He attributes his amazing life to what he calls “Spiritually Synchronicity”.

It is because he is aware of situations and people that enter his life that initiate an impulse for him to do something or at least try. In his interview, from his experiences in teaching and coaching, he stresses all of us have much more potential than we give ourselves credit for. We hang on to old ideas while new and better ones are coming our way, we just ignore them or are afraid to act on them is what is limiting us.

Fear

This leads to the next point I would like to bring up, which is fear. Working with Ric Rubin I am sure is uncomfortable at times as he pushes people to do better.  And that would be the key to do better.  How many things do we do every day that create a simulation in our heads that cripple us from moving forward on something? We can do positive affirmations and that does work. Another tip from the book would be a growth mindset. How can I do better? Whatever we are doing ask ourselves if is there a better way.  Approaching life and situations with a sense of curiosity can initiate this. 

Growth Mind Set

My interview with Shanil Ebrahim https://www.thecareerguy.ca/episodes/making-lives-better-creating-a-legacy-in-life-and-health-sciences-part-2 explains this well as it is one of his suggestions. Always look at how we can improve ourselves, how we can become a better version of ourselves and the rest will follow be it our craft, art, or whatever it is that we want to pursue. Try hard not to do things as a means to an end or with a purpose. We are never done there will always be a next step. Something new to learn or do with a project. We are never done.

The above concept can be hard for a lot of us to accept. Just do something and see how it turns out. The point here is when we create something we only see our little part of it and we try to justify its existence or more so why we did it and why someone else should like it or not. Ric points out that no matter what we create it is taken in by others through their filter based on their experiences. In essence, not all of us see things the same way. However, our work can launch someone else to do something else. All of us and our work contribute to the bigger picture.

Fun and Play

Keeping this idea then is to remember to play and have fun as with this notion we will never know what we may discover about ourselves, our careers, and more importantly our lives. My interview with Peter Axtell is a wonderful example of this https://www.thecareerguy.ca/episodes/life-lessons-discovering-ones-passion-and-purpose-part-1.

Here is someone who sets out on a journey leaving the United States for political reasons during the late 60s. Ends up In England and develops as a musician. His story evolves as he comes back to the U.S. in the 70s where through trial and tribulation, he rediscovers himself. This is truly an amazing story and is an example of how magical life can be if we let it happen.

Conclusion

Peter, Shanil, and Gino are three people that have done extraordinary things with their lives. I could give so many more examples but this blog would be very long. In conclusion, the concepts from this book are relevant for some of the ideas may be hard to grasp. However, for those that are slightly intrigued I would recommend this book. In addition, this is one of those books a person may want to read a few times and or read a chapter and day or week and let the concepts sink in. Ric claims that it took him 8 years to write this book and I believe it as it is thought-provoking. This leads me to the last tip from the book which is the quality of quantity. It does take time to develop something meaningful and we cannot rush the process. I hope this blog helps and thanks for reading it.