They say that creativity is actually the brain just having fun, and I would have to say that's pretty true. Creativity is when the brain decides to stop going from point A to point B and instead make several rounds around the process, skipping over steps and adding different steps. This makes the process original. Creative people are the people who have mastered the rules and know not to mix black and brown. They're also the people who tend to break the rules once they've mastered them. Very few people are naturally creative, and most creative people in the world have to work hard to exercise the creative parts of themselves. Most people go about creativity all the wrong ways and have many misconceptions about their art.
Your art doesn't have to be original
There's a very small chance that you're art would ever be original. Human beings have always been inspired by something that they saw either through various life experiences of love, adventure, sorrow, and beauty or the ideas they find in articles and books. People since the beginning of time have painted their stories because they've experienced something profound. Often time those stories get repeated because, in a sense, there are some things we all experience. So go ahead and take a story that is meaningful to you and share it in your art. Strive for soul rather than orginality.
Your art doesn’t have to perfect
To some degree every artist is somewhat of a perfectionists. They want their art to look like they spent hours over every detail, but at the end of the day there will be one line out of place, one image that looks slightly bigger than the rest or one phrase that could have been said better. But it’s the humanity and soul that’s going to make your art matter, and people are going to appreciate your art because you put time into it and because your individuality is in it.
Your art doesn’t have to pay the bills
There’s a huge misconception that if you’re a super good artist that you can pay the bills and live comfortably off of it. This has never been so far from the truth. Most artists or creative people do it on the side for their own personal enjoyment and work a day time job to make money. Your art and creativity doesn't require giving up your job and pursuing it full force. The people who make a living of it aren’t any better, they just pursued it full force and got lucky enough that they could do it full time. There are, on the other hand, people who leave their jobs and pursue their creative talents and it doesn’t pay off and then end up believing their art doesn’t matter.
The bottom line is everyone’s art matters because they put their hearts and souls into their projects and it could matter less whether or not people appreciate it.