You cannot *make* yourself be more creative. The truly creative process is one of letting ideas generate, not consciously trying to control and master all that your vast and, for most of us, largely untapped subconscious potential is so apt and ready to plumb.
The harder you try to be inspired and flowing of all things artful and ingenious, the more you sit beside yourself engaged in the self-dialogue that hovers somewhere around, and back and forth from "Ugh! Why can't I *think* of something?! Am I that dull?" and "I'll never do this! Geez! Every time I have to do something I can't!"
The harder you try to be inspired and flowing of all things artful and ingenious, the more you sit beside yourself engaged in the self-dialogue that hovers somewhere around, and back and forth from "Ugh! Why can't I *think* of something?! Am I that dull?" and "I'll never do this! Geez! Every time I have to do something I can't!"
Uh oh.
"I mean, this is impossible! What am I some kind of machine that can just push out a creative idea whenever the need arises? Am I expected to be able to generate a winning idea or produce volumes of thought on X, Y or Z when it so happens to pique the whim of somebody with the power to have expectations of me? How can you create something just because someone told you to?"
What was that?
"It's not like I've never been creative before! I have loads of ideas! Really! Sometimes. I do. I come up with thoughts and ideas and creative and juicy things all the time! Well, some of the time. Hey, I can be creative. I know I'm creative. I AM creative, damn it!"
Yep.
"I can't just do this stuff because someone or something demands it of me! I mean, is that supposed to inspire? This idea that if I sit down and "just do it" - that "boom", it'll come? Puh-leeze!"
You mean, stress doesn't help you concentrate? It doesn't help you create?
"So, why can't I just, you know, just *be* creative?! It's not impossible. I've done totally creative and inventive stuff in my life!"
Yeah, ya have. And I bet you weren't in some pressure-cooker when it happened!
"I mean - how is anyone supposed to get anything done around here with all the chaos and interruptions and this person wanting this and that person wanting the same thing, only different and they both want it YESTERDAY! How can I be creative under all this pressure?! Geez!"
Say that again.
"Am I supposed to just be creative because I'm being forced to?"
BINGO!
That is the key right there. You really cannot *make* yourself be creative. You have to trust your potential to do what it can do without your anxiety-poisoned urge to control the entire process. You really have to give it up to your better side and your better mindset and not in a psyching yourself out sorta way, either. You can't "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" a bold-faced
"I mean, this is impossible! What am I some kind of machine that can just push out a creative idea whenever the need arises? Am I expected to be able to generate a winning idea or produce volumes of thought on X, Y or Z when it so happens to pique the whim of somebody with the power to have expectations of me? How can you create something just because someone told you to?"
What was that?
"It's not like I've never been creative before! I have loads of ideas! Really! Sometimes. I do. I come up with thoughts and ideas and creative and juicy things all the time! Well, some of the time. Hey, I can be creative. I know I'm creative. I AM creative, damn it!"
Yep.
"I can't just do this stuff because someone or something demands it of me! I mean, is that supposed to inspire? This idea that if I sit down and "just do it" - that "boom", it'll come? Puh-leeze!"
You mean, stress doesn't help you concentrate? It doesn't help you create?
"So, why can't I just, you know, just *be* creative?! It's not impossible. I've done totally creative and inventive stuff in my life!"
Yeah, ya have. And I bet you weren't in some pressure-cooker when it happened!
"I mean - how is anyone supposed to get anything done around here with all the chaos and interruptions and this person wanting this and that person wanting the same thing, only different and they both want it YESTERDAY! How can I be creative under all this pressure?! Geez!"
Say that again.
"Am I supposed to just be creative because I'm being forced to?"
BINGO!
That is the key right there. You really cannot *make* yourself be creative. You have to trust your potential to do what it can do without your anxiety-poisoned urge to control the entire process. You really have to give it up to your better side and your better mindset and not in a psyching yourself out sorta way, either. You can't "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" a bold-faced
whopper past your own psyche! I mean, who do you think you are? Cybil?
No, of course you don't have to LIE to yourself, adn that really can't be done anyway. But you can neither force yourself any more than you can trick yourself. You have to *LET* yourself be creative.
I know that might sound all Zen and incense and "Woah! That's like, way deep, dude!". But try to stifle your gag reflex, as I did while typing the above, just long enough to think about how you feel and how you are when the sparks just keep going off and you are at your most fluid.
No, of course you don't have to LIE to yourself, adn that really can't be done anyway. But you can neither force yourself any more than you can trick yourself. You have to *LET* yourself be creative.
I know that might sound all Zen and incense and "Woah! That's like, way deep, dude!". But try to stifle your gag reflex, as I did while typing the above, just long enough to think about how you feel and how you are when the sparks just keep going off and you are at your most fluid.
Sometimes, don't your best ideas come to you when you are furthest from engaged in the very task or job requiring those ideas and that smooth thinking? The shower is a hotbed of such creativity for me no, er, pun intended. So is my drive time. Why, who hasn't come up with the next best mouse trap while, er, taking a break - *all* by yourself. Somehow the whole purging function clears up more than your, eh, digestive process.
And what about the wealth of ideas and analysis that takes place during your sweetheart's romantic comedy, or during the insufferably long and redundant "staff meeting".
Aren't those the times that you're just bursting with ideas and practically busting to get up and act on them? That is, of course, if you've managed to stay awake!
But this brings me to the next little gem. Do you realize exactly how active your brain really is during your sleep? This is the time when almost all sensory input is on hold, and your intellect and actual brain has time to process and analyze and digest and synthesize everything it's taken in, and make it YOURS. That is the key to any real creativity. It's the process of putting everything you take in into your own virtual blender, and pressing "frappe"! Your boss or teacher or whatever gives you eggs and butter and flour and sugar, you can bet they don't want to get back those same eggs and butter and flour and sugar. Nuh-uhh! You're job is to mix it, bake it, and put YOUR touch to it.
Well, studies have proven that during sleep, your conscious thoughts are arrested. You are in a natural state of giving up the control long enough to let LET the creative process happen.
And, by the way one of THE most important things you can do to enhance and promote and help your own creativity is to, in fact, get enough sleep. In our "burning the candle at both ends" mindset and foolish and misguided pride over self-denial, the creative process can only suffer.
You have to give yourself the time and space and calm needed to let the creative juices begin flowing again. You have to find the time to take for yourself. You have to figure out a way to give yourself what you need before you can ask of yourself that which you haven't invested. You gotta let yourself be human. You have to let the process happen naturally. You need to find a pace and level of energy that best suits your temperament and style.
This will take some time. It'll also take your looking at the process in a different way than you are probably used to or with which you are comfortable. It'll take some doing. It'll take some faith. And it'll even itself require some maneuvering to find a way to integrate greater originality into your daily life.
But then, you have had that potential all along. All you need is the space to let it rise. Again, don't try to MAKE it happen. LET it happen
And what about the wealth of ideas and analysis that takes place during your sweetheart's romantic comedy, or during the insufferably long and redundant "staff meeting".
Aren't those the times that you're just bursting with ideas and practically busting to get up and act on them? That is, of course, if you've managed to stay awake!
But this brings me to the next little gem. Do you realize exactly how active your brain really is during your sleep? This is the time when almost all sensory input is on hold, and your intellect and actual brain has time to process and analyze and digest and synthesize everything it's taken in, and make it YOURS. That is the key to any real creativity. It's the process of putting everything you take in into your own virtual blender, and pressing "frappe"! Your boss or teacher or whatever gives you eggs and butter and flour and sugar, you can bet they don't want to get back those same eggs and butter and flour and sugar. Nuh-uhh! You're job is to mix it, bake it, and put YOUR touch to it.
Well, studies have proven that during sleep, your conscious thoughts are arrested. You are in a natural state of giving up the control long enough to let LET the creative process happen.
And, by the way one of THE most important things you can do to enhance and promote and help your own creativity is to, in fact, get enough sleep. In our "burning the candle at both ends" mindset and foolish and misguided pride over self-denial, the creative process can only suffer.
You have to give yourself the time and space and calm needed to let the creative juices begin flowing again. You have to find the time to take for yourself. You have to figure out a way to give yourself what you need before you can ask of yourself that which you haven't invested. You gotta let yourself be human. You have to let the process happen naturally. You need to find a pace and level of energy that best suits your temperament and style.
This will take some time. It'll also take your looking at the process in a different way than you are probably used to or with which you are comfortable. It'll take some doing. It'll take some faith. And it'll even itself require some maneuvering to find a way to integrate greater originality into your daily life.
But then, you have had that potential all along. All you need is the space to let it rise. Again, don't try to MAKE it happen. LET it happen
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