When I write what I post here on Out on a Limb, I almost always think, “I’m writing this for myself.”

But am I really?

I’m a big fan of Chris Brogan and in his recent post “Creatives Are a Needy Bunch,” he points out that creatives create because they need to share.  They also create because they want/need feedback. I’ll interpret that as wanting/needing approval.  Few people continue to create if approval doesn’t come from some corner of his or her world. It is the rare individual who is strong enough to thrive, if feeding only on his or her own self-approval. (The best parents and teachers understand this well).

So, it seems I have been deluding myself. If I truly didn’t care whether or not others read or commented on my writing, I’d pen my thoughts in a  journal with a lock. But because I write them here, and post them to facebook or twitter, I want to share them with others. I tacitly hope for their approval, whether or not I wish to admit it. I suppose I always think that I’m writing it for myself because even if no one were to read what I wrote, I would still write it. The creature of creativity needs to get out…to escape the mental dungeon in which it’s trapped.

Each time a creative person shares something with the world, we give away a little piece of ourselves within our creation. In giving it away, we hope that it will come back to us, burnished a little brighter by those who receive it, to shine our own reflection back so we may better see and understand ourselves and our work as others see us.

What will you do with that knowledge?

Thanks for the inspiration, Chris!