Dear Creatives,

This is the story of a dragon. A dragon that lives inside you. It’s a dragon of fierce creativity, the source of big ideas and the power to bring them to life. The things you want most in the world—to make change, to inspire meaning, to “create happy,” for yourself and for others—all exist within this dragon.

And it’s time to let it out. 

We know how hard it can be, living a creative life. You put your heart on the line, every time. Your risk criticism, mockery, and failure. Creativity asks a lot of you. It’s wearisome. It can make you feel threatened and exposed. Sometimes, the voices of self-doubt and fear overpower everything else, and you keep your dragon locked away, afraid of looking foolish, or falling out of the sky, or burning down the village.  

But here’s the thing: those voices? They’re lying.

You are more than you realize. You are the fire of the world. Your inner dragon lies sleeping inside of you, waiting to be unleashed. Noble enough to create the good, brave enough to burn down the bad. Waiting to spread its wings and open its mouth, so that the fire—the light, the warmth, the power—that you have inside of you can finally, finally be free. 

We believe in your inner dragon. Here’s what we believe about unleashing it.

We believe in fear, and in rejecting fear.

Fear is the cave the inner dragon sleeps in. It’s what’s keeping your fierce creativity at bay. Fear is real. There’s no use pretending it isn’t. We all have it, and it holds us all back. It is only when we recognize and acknowledge our fears that we can truly face them, and it is only when we truly face them that we can conquer them. As creators, we are not willing or able to sit back, accept fear, and allow it to control our lives. What we have to offer is far too important to let fear keep us from sharing it.

We believe in believing.

Believe in yourself, in others, in your inner dragon, in the power of an idea. Belief has a special power in and of itself. When you believe, you’re creating. Beliefs create possibility and positive thought, allowing us to see what we really want as a reality, not a fantasy. 

We believe in deliberate action.

Purposeful, deliberate action sparks change and progress. The actions you choose breathe your fire into the world, and it can either create or destroy. Your dragon can fight for good or for evil, depending on whose side it’s on. Design your actions to bring good into the world. Open your mouth and speak out against untruths and injustice. Don’t wait for something to change. Choose to change it yourself.

We believe in the power of thoughts, and in the power we have over our thoughts.

We live according to what we think. Thoughts drive creativity—and it is the creative’s ultimate goal to live a happy, creative life. The good news is that you have the power to control your thoughts. You can choose what to think, always. When you choose to allow your inner dragon to shape your thoughts, those thoughts will drive the fierce creativity you are capable of.

We believe in confidence.

A dragon is a confident creature. Strong, bold, and sure, a dragon doesn’t second guess itself or try to “go smaller.” Fierce dragons go big. They make big statements and grand gestures. They make their presence known. So make your presence known. Be confident enough to stand up, speak out, and make yourself unignorable. 

We believe in magic.

Creativity is magic. When you create, you take one thing (sometimes just an idea) and turn it into something else. When your inner dragon is unleashed, it sparks the magic within you. It casts a spell on you. Suddenly, creative energy flows through you, itching to get out. That energy won’t leave you alone, won’t let you rest, until you channel it into creating. It gives us the power to create something better than our current state.

We believe in stubborn optimism.

Optimism is good. Stubborn optimism is better. This is optimism in the face of contrary evidence. It’s believing that there is always a positive potential outcome, no matter how bleak things look. Fear, discouragement, and self-deprecation are default settings. Stubborn optimism allows you to challenge those settings and allow yourself to see brighter possibilities, fueling action that helps sustain your creative fire.

We believe in curiosity.

Life is full of challenges (individual and communal), many of which we don’t feel like we can handle.  But your inner dragon doesn’t get discouraged. Instead, it gets curious. It realizes that someone needs to do something, and it uses curiosity to find solutions. It explores and experiments, asking questions and trying new things so that it can take on the challenges of the world. Be the “someone.” Get curious and rise to the occasion.

We believe in love.

When people think about dragons, they don’t often think about love. And yet, love requires ferocity. Love requires boldness and willingness to take chances. Love breathes light and warmth into the world. Your inner dragon can bring out the love that is inside of you. When your creativity is driven by fierce love, it’s unstoppable, and so are you. 

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You say you can’t, but you can. You say you aren’t, but you are.

Your inner dragon—your fierce, beautiful inner dragon—is ready to prove it, to yourself and to the world. It’s ready to roar, breathing fire into your creations, and into your life. The only thing stopping it is you.

Break free from fear. Design your thoughts. Take action. Stand tall. Breathe fire.

Dare to “create happy.”

Dare to unleash your inner dragon.