5 Creative Lessons From the Life of Ernest Hemingway
Whether you’re a writer, an artist, or another type of creative, there’s something to learn from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Here are 5 creative life lessons from Ernest Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway was one of the greatest writers of all time. He worked incredibly hard on his craft, but if you look at any of his lessons on how to become a better writer, he often points to how to live. For him, great writing and creativity started by living a life full of adventure and experiences.
His daily routine even revolved around spending most of the day getting out and experiencing life to the fullest. These creative lessons from the life of Ernest Hemingway are some of the best and most important points for building a foundation for a thriving creative life.
Life’s Challenges Are Opportunities to Grow
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
There are always challenges and hardships in life. What separates people who rise above or fall prey to these is how they react to them. Each challenge is an opportunity to grow. For the creative, they’re also opportunities to inspire creativity.
Ernest Hemingway used his experiences from the war, depression, and other adventures to inspire his great works. He believed in writing true sentences, and to do that, he found examples from life.
Tips
- Lean into challenges with curiosity – Use curiosity to explore and understand your challenges. Just like brainstorming, overcome challenges through understanding.
- Learn from others – Whatever challenge you are facing, know you’re not alone. There’s always someone else that has been through the same thing. Get support and learn from others.
Listen More Than You Talk
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
Creativity begins with observation. For someone that found inspiration from a life of adventure and experiences, it’s no wonder Hemingway saw the importance of listening.
Listening brings new ideas, better collaboration, more openness, and better understanding, and helps one stay present in the moment. By practicing and improving your listening, you’re improving your creative flow.
Tips
- Improve listening through curiosity – Ask more questions than you give answers. Listening is a great time to practice and fuel your creative curiosity.
- Open your mind – There’s always something new to learn. When you practice keeping an open mind, you open yourself to new creative opportunities and perspectives that be the key to your next big idea.
- Don’t just listen. Visualize – Use your imagination and visualization skills to support your listening. Create images in your mind of what you’re hearing to stay focused and improve your understanding.
Give Your Life Purpose With Action
“Never confuse movement with action.”
Finding and defining your creative purpose is one thing, but it doesn’t do you much good unless you take action.
A person’s purpose is born out of action. Hemingway knew there was a difference between movement and action. You can’t just go through the motions. You need to measure your performance and find ways to grow. You must understand yourself to speak your truth and give life meaning through your actions.
Hemingway wanted to write one true sentence. When you read his stories, they feel real and alive. He gave action to his purpose by living a life of adventure to help him write true tales of adventure.
To give your life purpose with action, you need to know your values and determine your priorities to guide your actions.
Action puts your values and mission into practice.
Break this down by knowing:
- Where you are.
- Where you want to be.
- What actions you need to take to get there.
Also known as SMART Goals, breaking down your mission and vision into actions, even the smallest ones to accomplish right now, help turn your actions into purpose.
Tips
- Know your why – Dive deep and get to know yourself and what you want to express. Once you know your why, make a mission to create action and a vision to create a destination.
- Take continuous action – Creativity takes work. There will be good and bad days. To stay productive and on purpose, break down goals to the smallest steps and keep moving forward.
- Remove distractions – Be mindful of procrastination. Find what stops slows you down or makes you second guess your purpose and remove the distraction.
Nothing is perfect the first time
“The first draft of anything is shit.”
Hemingway may be one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, but he had no delusions of perfection.
Perhaps best captured in his sentiment about the first draft of anything always being “shit.” He knew mistakes and failures were part of the creative process. He even rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times before he was satisfied. Do we remember how long it took him to get it right? No. And yet, it’s considered one of Hemingway’s best literary works and has been adapted for film and stage several times.
There’s power in welcoming failure and mistakes in the creative process.
By befriending failure in the creative process, he was able to focus on going deeper and growing his creativity. By accepting failure and rewriting the ending of A Farewell to Arms (1929) so many times, he was able to create even better pieces of literary work like For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952).
Tips
- Cultivate a beginner’s mind – Befriending failure to support your creative process isn’t easy, but you can train yourself to do this by practicing the zen mindset of the beginner’s mind.
- Set SMART goals – Know your why and keep yourself on track and moving forward even when mistakes and challenges arise.
- Focus on meaning over perfection – It’s easier to face failure and mistakes when you act with purpose.
- Recognize the good, no matter how small – There are always positives to focus on and be grateful for. As long as you’re expressing your creativity and allowing yourself to grow, you’re doing good.
Make Your Creative Life Noteworthy
“Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”
Hemingway always found inspiration from real life. To create his stories of adventure and intrigue, he didn’t wait for inspiration to hit. He sought it. He knew the value of a life well-lived to fuel the fires of creativity and make life noteworthy. He did this by traveling, trying new things, and making his own life a story to be told.
His creative time was important, but so was time for adventure. He would write in the morning and get outside in the afternoon.
Tips
- Make bucket lists – Dream big and often. What do you want to experience? What do you want to create? Use questions to dive into your creative purpose and direct action for a meaningful and creative life that inspires.
- Don’t be attached to expectations – Life is full of surprises, and not everything works out the way you expect or want it to. Don’t get attached. Learn to let go and go with the flow. This way, creativity will always grow.
- Seek new experiences and conquer fear – Creative living is a life full of unique experiences. When you step outside your comfort zone and face your fears, you support your creative mind and well-being.
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
