Happy Sunday! After doing a mini Tour de Texas to start the weekend, I am now in Austin celebrating my best man’s bachelor party. We had a wonderful time at our couple’s shower in Houston with friends and family. If the shower was any indication, I will need to be ready to take a lot of pictures over the next few months.
With little time to sit down and write, I voice recorded most of this post on my drives throughout Texas. The inspiration came during Tina Lance and Charlie Finch’s Live on Friday, when Charlie mentioned wanting to get his creativity back like in his 20’s and 30’s.
This made me think. Growing up, if there was one skill I absolutely did not have, it was definitely creativity. I struggled to play hot cross buns on the recorder. My art projects were not easy on the eye. And I certainly wasn’t singing anywhere that an audience would gather at.
So why would this clearly non-creative guy want to find his creativity within?
Why Did I Want To Embrace My Creativity?
I’ve mentioned this before, but I grew up, thinking I wasn’t a great writer. And the truth of the matter is, I wasn’t. However, I found that in life, we have a lot of potential hiding under the surface.
I’ve always appreciated clever lyrics, witty jokes, or eloquent speeches. Then of course it became important to have Instagram captions that were cringe iconic.
I also always wanted to be a captivating speaker, and writer. Turns out if you want to get better at speaking, talk in front of people.
And if you wanna be a better writer, guess what?
You have to write. A lot.
I won’t go into the full backstory, but a lot of my confidence came through journaling and peers who recognize skills in my writing. Eventually, I decided to finally move on with my dream to write a book, and the first step was starting this Substack.
How Do You Actually Bring Out Your Creativity?
In my opinion, the number one ingredient for creativity is passion. My very first post on Substack was called Texas Tuesday and I wrote passionately about Texas Longhorns football. On that same weekend, I began the first of very many Sunday Spirit posts (today is 89)!
Football and personal development are two areas that I’ve always been interested in. I had no idea what my Substack would turn into, but I knew it would be rewarding to talk about things that I love.
I think for anyone, if you have a subject that you are deeply passionate about, one that you would spend your time scrolling, researching, or watching anyways, you should try to build something for it. What you create doesn’t have to be for anyone other than you, but there’s a genuinely rewarding feeling when you make something that you are proud of.
People used to ask me: “Why do you want to write?”
The answer was simple. I yap about these things anyways and I write long texts about them (sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end of my delayed paragraph responses), so why not turn it into a blog? It was my way of convincing my brain that this wasn’t “too much” extra work, I was already going to do this.
Well, that wasn’t necessarily true, but the overall principle prevailed.
Sorry @brain, now you are a writer!
Where My Creativity Showed Up
Initially, it was the clever subtitles to my posts. It made me happy to think of a funny joke or phrase to tag the overall post.
When I realized how to add images (yes, I took a while to figure this out), I really enjoyed adding funny or cool images to commemorate each post. I still love doing this, and I think visually it helps people get a glimpse of what I want their minds to go to with my writing.
Last year, my creativity took on a new form which was connecting the thoughts of others into my own interpretations. In my Year of Sunday Spirit series, I interviewed 52 guests in 52 weeks, and I had to analyze two answers each week from each guest. This not only gave me 52 new perspectives on life, but it began to polish my creativity in a way that was truly unique. I could take a thought or a feeling from someone and help bring it to life through both their writing and mine.
My creativity has taken another major step in 2026. Now I challenge myself to create all my posts from scratch based on a theme from my life each week. I began the Limitless Blueprint series, which is a monthly “super post” where I go very in depth over a core area of life.
I started creating audio content through my Lives, which challenges me by putting me on the spot with the other excellent creators on here. This has given me the opportunity to connect with people here on a more personal level and helped me grow beyond my writing.
And now I have two exciting things I aspire to start by the beginning of July.
One is already in the works. For those that followed along (or participated) in the Year of Sunday Spirit series last year, I am doing a special feature of four unique and talented writers on Substack in a similar signature format. My Sunday Spirit and Limitless Blueprint post next weekend will be combined for this special post. I have some excellent people featured and it will be well worth your time invested.
Second, I have made the first move, but haven’t “jumped” yet. I started my YouTube channel in April, but have yet to post my first video. So in the next month, I will begin creating YouTube videos (and TikToks), as I branch my content out into other mediums.
I’ve found with anything in life, especially creativity, just trying new things is the best way to develop. Each of the new items I’ve started this year has helped me grow substantially, and I think these next two steps will be another great chapter in my journey as a creator.
I look forward to continuing sharing the journey from no creativity to the most semi-creative man in the world.
Final Words
This was my story of finding the creativity within. We all possess creativity within us. There’s an outlet somewhere in the world meant just for you.
Outside of hearing from people in my life that they enjoyed my writing, I think my favorite feeling is creating something each week that commemorates my thoughts and experiences. I will be able to look back and understand emotions, thoughts, and experiences in the way that they impact my life. I don’t take this opportunity for reflection for granted.
I’m so grateful for each and every one of you who reads and supports my content. It means the world to me and I sincerely hope if you haven’t found the true creative within you that you find it soon.
Have a wonderful Sunday and Happy Memorial Day!
Thank you for writing this, I am the exact opposite: very creative but almost dyslexic with numbers (I confess I need a calculator to sum up easy operations, oops)
Your article reminded me of Carol S. Dweck's book, "Mindset, The Psychology of Success".
She explains that if we grow up with a "fixed" mindset, we tend to expect ourselves to be good at something the first time we try it, and we get frustrated if we fail immediately.
Whereas, with a "growth" mindset, you can basically learn anything. You just need to give it time, and consistent efforts. Technically speaking that means I could still learn maths properly, but I think at this point I'm too deep into the social sciences to do that... :))
Chase, thank you for sharing your story man! I love the fact you are taking creativity head on by mixing up your writing and even venturing into the YouTube space. I can't wait to see your future work! I also come from an engineering background that was heavy math and framework focused. Creativity never come natural to me, but then again, maybe its just a matter of exercising that muscle a bit more :)
Hope you all had an amazing couples shower and be sure to get some good Texas bbq while in Austin! I'm a big fan of Terry Blacks off Barton Springs road.