Take our Ambition Test

Find a career counselor near me

It’s a common but mistaken belief that artists must live painful lives in order to create.

The act of creation can be a source of great pleasure and personal growth.

Stability is not the death of creativity, but rather its beginning.

The other night I started watching a documentary about Leonard Cohen, the poet/philosopher/musician who wrote the beloved song, “Hallelujah.” Given its haunting melody and poignant, stirring lyrics, many consider “Hallelujah” to be the inspirational anthem of our times. According to the documentary, it took Cohen seven years to write—seven years of constant revision, rethinking, rediscovering. But he emerged from this torturous process with a thing of great beauty.

You’d think he would have been overjoyed to have created something so special that has moved so many people. But no; the face that stared back at me from the television screen was deeply etched with sorrow. I only saw him smile a few times throughout the whole documentary, and even then, the smile seemed to be cracking through a mask of pain. I finally had to stop watching—not because I didn’t enjoy........

© Psychology Today