Meet Bin Userkaf

We recently connected with Bin Userkaf and have shared our conversation below.

Bin, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I keep my creativity alive by staying connected to things that inspire me, by seeking new inspirations when the old ones have dried up, and by creating not only big projects I plan to share with the world, but things just for me, just for fun, just to stretch my creative muscles more often. I enjoy taking breaks from creating to just consume art sometimes + doing things like puzzles/video games that allow me to be creative in ways different than I am usually. I’m even inspired by connecting with my inner child, reminding myself where my creativity comes from and reiterating the importance of using it.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

In this current season, I’m doing a lot of things just for me and it’s been very rewarding. I’ve been revising the sequel to my debut novel ITCHIKAN, and in the midst, writing little side stories from different universes that keep the writing passion alive. In addition, I’m editing the Proof of Concept for the TV show of ITCHIKAN while regularly making personal edits just for fun. I even recently started going out and reporting on positive news in Detroit for Detroit EM News, the 501c3 that gave me my start in 2021 as a budding freelance videographer, which I doubt would feel as accessible to me if – for the past year – I hadn’t been going out and experiencing more of Detroit’s hidden gems that deserve to be highlighted.

For me, it’s so important I remember that God is the one that gave me these gifts, so the best thing I can do is keep the fire burning for them and live boldly in everyday life (which is my biggest inspiration.)

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three most instrumental qualities/skills to my journey have been: Self-Confidence, Perseverance and Adaptability. My biggest advice for each are:

Self-Confidence: Champion your own work! Be your own biggest fan, rewatch/write your work, review your work, rave about your work. Look at reoccurring themes across your projects, connect with your work and yourself and you will stand tall through all of the doubts and haters that come your way.

Perseverance: All good things really do take time, so instead of rushing things, fall in love with every step in the right direction and continue taking them even when you feel like you’re going nowhere. Hold fast to the faith, reconnect with your original vision, rewatch something you love and reignite the passion if it gets lost. Keep going; you’re in this for the long hall, not a short sprint.

Adaptability: Being willing to change things on the spot, rewrite that scene right before action, change the character’s name in the last manuscript draft, rewrite your entire book because things aren’t working, find a new location when one falls through – creativity is about more than how much art we can create, it’s also about finding new, outside-the-box ways to make it all happen, and it starts with working with change, not against it.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

In the past 12 months, I’ve gotten so much better at laughing things off, not internalizing everything, and being conscious of the fact that the worst doubts anxieties in my head are usually one: unrealistic and two: not the end of the world. So many things I was afraid of happened, and so many things I feared would happen never did. There’s no pattern or way to control the system – all I can control is my reaction and what I learn in both scenarios.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Shani Userkaf
Afiya Userkaf
Bin Userkaf

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