Creativity balances optimism and criticism

An article by Tali Sharot in Time Magazine describes research on the human bias toward optimism. The study shows that when people are asked about the future, they tend to assume that things will turn out better than they actually do.

That positive attitude is crucial to creativity.  As the author of the study points out, if we were pessimists, we'd still be living in caves. Doing anything for the first time, let alone anything truly new, requires confidence that you can achieve it.  

On the other hand, the optimism bias can lead us to take foolish risks, like running up our credit card balance or accepting a bad deal on a mortgage.  Without critical thinking, life would be a string of disorganized experiments, leading nowhere.

Creativity harnesses the optimism bias, but it also needs to put our expertise to work.  The trick is to do so without shutting your creativity down.  The five-step creative process achieves that balance across two phases: an open phase in which you delay your critical thinking, and a (partially) closed phase, in which you apply your expertise to critique your idea.

As we've said before, being creative uses the whole person.  Love your optimism and your expertise.  Both will lead you to success.

Truth and creativity

Creative flow is a beautifully focused openness that can't be interrupted without being destroyed.  When a creative flow has hold of us, all of our faculties (perception, intuition, analysis, energy, motivation, and so on) are in sync with one another.  In that state, we are tapping into a more unified, complete "self".  Productivity can skyrocket; the power to create is multiplied by the synergy.

Why on earth is that so rare?  Wouldn't it be better if we were always able to apply more of our talents and personal attributes to the various tasks and problems we face every day?

Of course it would.  However, most of the time, people are pretty fragmented, cut off from parts of themselves.  One reason for this is repression--the unconscious or conscious avoidance of our own thoughts, memories, or feelings. That's why today's blog post is about truth. 

It's a fact that consciousness is naturally fluid. Our brains are actually a composite of different and sometimes conflicting processes, and our conciousness and perceptions are spread across those processes.  So complete unity is never going to occur.

However, and it's a big however, you certainly have alot more of your self available at any given time when you are not repressed. For example, if you are trying to avoid feeling angry, you could cut off a whole realm of memory and perception because you're afraid that it might get your blood boiling.  And that is going to stop you from entering a state of flow.

There is a piece of truth inside each of us, made up of the sum of our perceptions, memories, feelings, and dreams.  Being in touch with that, even for a moment, is one of the pure pleasures of creative flow.  Remember that what's inside your mind is not your enemy--it's you!  Open yourself up to your truth, and use your creativity to face it. 

Unchosen paths of creativity

One of the hardest parts of working on creative projects is committing to one choice, and casting aside another.  In the middle of a process, you usually won't be able to prove that your choice was the right one.  It's just... your choice.

I take two approaches to dealing with that uncertainty.  The first is that I don't rush my exploration.  Deadlines or not, it's important to let the intuitive process take place.  Letting ideas slosh around in my brain, exploring and researching are all crucial to my ability to make choices.  Sleeping on an idea (and waking up with an insight) has saved me from mistakes more often than sticking to a perfect project plan.

Second, I have come to understand that no choice will ever be perfect.  All preparation aside, a choice is just a choice.  It's your choice because you chose it.  If you feel inspired, motivated, insightful, and then make a choice about your project, that's as good as it's going to get.  Someone else, or even you on a different day, might have made a different decision.  So be it!

Never be careless. Your project is too important for you to make choices lightly.  But choose you must, and that takes will and character.  Continue on down your path; if obstacles should arise and you need to go back and re-choose, do it with the same purposefulness and commitment.  Your attitude toward making choices will drive your achievements.

Passing on the gift of creativity

Corporations, schools, community groups all try to encourage creativity in different ways.  Mostly, they try to provide stimulation in the arts; that works for those with the right talent and inclination, but not for most people.  Actually, creativity applies to anything that can be encountered, perceived, learned, or done, whether that's art, science, politics, or human relationships. 

Instead, we need to understand that creativity is a set of skills and behaviors that tap into a specific part of the human brain.  Each skill needs to be inspired, encouraged, and sustained for it to become part of the normal behavior of a person. 

Parents can help by enjoying a child's imagination and supporting them in undertaking projects of their own devising; schools can do this too.  Corporations and community groups may need to actually bring in educators to teach the creative process, encouraging the sometimes disruptive process of creativity.

The question I asked myself a few years ago is, "What can you do to pass on what you've learned about creative thinking, problem solving, and living?"  Today, I'm passing that question along to you.  Can you be slower to judgment of another person's idea?  Can you smile more or use humor to get people you work with to relax and explore solutions?  Can you just be an example of enjoying creativity to those around you?

Share your creative skills, and make the world that much better for those around you!

Get out there and play!

In my book, I talk about how important play is to creativity.  For me, a big revelation about creativity came from noticing that children are better at it than most adults.  Play is a huge part of how they engage their creative minds in learning about and adapting to the world around them.

If we grownups want to be creative, we need to get off our fuddy-duddy, overly serious butts and have some fun. Does that mean we should waste precious time or energy just messing around?  Well, yeah, that is what it means.

The kind of play I'm talking about is active, smart, alert, and imaginative.  I'm not talking computer games, folks.  I'm talking goofy, imaginative, self-created fun.   It means asking yourself questions that make no obvious sense, maybe just to make yourself laugh, like "how fat is that sound?"  I once spent a productive hour with a four year-old making up disgusting food mixtures (pickle ice cream had us both in stitches). Hey, you had to be there.

If you're feeling burdened, stuck, overwhelmed, or just like a boring old you know what, take a break.  Get out there and play!

Coping with problems, creatively

Yesterday, just three weeks out of warranty, my computer crashed.  Although I have a backup system, some important documents and downloads hadn't yet been picked up.  Worse, my stream of thought and invention was interrupted!  What had been a beautiful, exciting flow of ideas was sacrificed to the slog of repair.

But don't cry for me, creative people. Hiccups, problems, even disasters are sure to occur on any path, but on a creative path they have meaning.  If we weave our disappointments into the fabric of our creative process, they can actually become creative fodder.  Reframe the problem as a creative challenge, use your intuition to explore a full range of solutions, evaluate them... you know the path.

I don't suggest that you should feel happy about it! Of course, any loss of your work or effort is painful.  But if your creative brain is turned on, you can still use it to find solutions (like going through my e-mail to find a few precious thoughts) or even work into the thread of a story I'm writing.

Life is a challenge, and we should be grateful when the challenges are fixable and meaningful.  It all helps us grow, creatively and as people.

The shifting sands of the creative path...

Bedouin tribes knew that the desert sands would move in the wind, changing the landscape; yet they somehow found their path and their destination.  Creative projects sometimes shift as you work on them, but you can still be true to your goal.

Creative flow is one of the most exciting experiences; when musical ideas just come out of your instrument, images shape themselves under your pencil, characters in your story tell you what they are going to do next. Achieving creative flow means a higher level of productivity and a deep, visceral enjoyment of your project.

Sometimes, though, the flow takes you to an unexpected place; the path shifts under your feet.  Do you try to force your way back to the planned path, or do you "go with the flow" and continue on from where you have ended up?

Knowing what is essential to your goal (for example, the purpose that motivates you) will help you to decide.  If the new path will carry you toward your ultimate purpose, you are much better off trusting your creative brain and continuing on.  Only go back if the new path is definitely a road to nowhwere.  At the very least, it may lead you to a new creative project, once you've finished your current one. 

Most of the time, flow is your friend.  Go with it!

Setting your creative goals

The foundation of a creative project is your sense of purpose.  For that reason, a positive, specific, and realistic goal is in many ways your most important creative asset.

• Your goal is positive if you can go from "X should be different" to "I intend to achieve Y." 

• It's specific if you know what success would look like; if you can envision your endpoint in some detail, and describe it to others.  

• Your goal is realistic if you or your partners are able to take the real-world steps necessary to achieve it.   

Getting to a positive, significant, realistic goal usually takes pre-work, where you explore and consider different types of goals before you settle on one.  In the actively creative process, the first three steps out of five (identification, incubation, insight) are about defining a creative goal.  

For more about how to develop a creative goal, please check out my book:  Actively Creative: A Guided Process.

The choice to be creative

Answering life's opportunities with creativity instead of habit is a choice.  Even people who are persistently creative in one area of their lives (for example, in a hobby or in their work) need to make the conscious choice to be creative in other aspects, such as relationships, career decisions, or community.

That choice is the reason I insist on using the world "active" next to "creativity".  When (instead of acting on reflex) a person weighs options, prioritizes, decides, and commits to a choice, they are already being more creative.

I can speak for myself: the choice to actively seek creative solutions is life-changing.  I have been stunned by the difference a moment of creativity can make to my path.  Pausing, considering, exploring, perceiving, opening my mind to new ideas--all of these have saved my spirit, in addition to making a real-world difference. 

I urge you to choose hope and creativity!  In my opinion, there's no better way.

Creativity and the farms of Detroit

We all learn that change is the one constant of life, but long-term changes can still hit people hard.  In Detroit the changes were so massive that the city once called "the Paris of the West" became a dangerous ghost town littered with burned-out buildings.  The city seemed to be dying.

And yet... a few years down the road, if you went to Detroit, you'd see an amazing feat of creativity.  With the help of a few visionaries and many, many determined, hard-working individuals, Motor City is becoming the largest urban farm on the planet.  Abandoned houses have been knocked down and turned into garden plots.  Markets for local farmers are being set up everywhere. "Michigan asparagus" is gaining fame.

When I read about that this morning, I was reminded that reinventing is, at least emotionally, harder than inventing.  Envisioning a new future for something so familiar requires not just a leap of faith, but a complete undoing of your memories and beliefs about it.  The wrenching loss of the familiar can either destroy your hope, or inspire you to build it anew.  

The people of Detroit are showing all of us how to turn sad loss into a hopeful path forward.  May we all take that lesson with us as we go through our lives.

Sweating the small stuff... creatively

No-one's life is perfect; it is full of aggravation as well as beauty. The ability to live with a certain amount of stress and irritation is important to being a healthy person.

So here's a way to live with these little aggravations: use them as a playground for your creativity! There's probably lots of small stuff that you could solve without too much effort; you've just been overlooking it in favor of the big stuff. 

Grossed out by how bad the food is in the school or office cafeteria?  Driven crazy by someone's irritating laugh? Bored by your commute, or by one of your work tasks? What could you do to make that one thing better?  I don't mean to say you can make it go away completely (especially the irritating laugh). But what mental or physical tricks and tools do you have that can make these irritations less intrusive in your life?

First, name the problem.  Next, decide that you want your life to be just a little smoother, and commit to finding a solution.  Third, come up with ideas about how you could solve it (if you ask a friend or family member, they may be able to help).  Found a solution? Give it a try.  Did your it help? If not, well, tomorrow is another day.

Lastly, remember that humor and hope are close cousins.  If you can smile or laugh about even annoying things, you have a much better chance of moving forward.

The actively creative life

Many different qualities characterize a person's life: how kind or unkind they are, how hard they work, and things beyond their control, like where they're born and to whom. One crucial quality is often overlooked by others: how actively creative a person is.

Being actively creative is a life path, not a hobby.  It's the choice to try to change the things you don't like, to face the risk that you will fail but go on anyway, to make stuff your way instead of always just settling for what's offered to you.  Active creativity has to be a choice because your whole self is involved--will, personality, quirks, faults, talents, luck.

The stories of tragic geniuses who hurt themselves or those around them show us that it's quite possible for someone to be creative in a single area of their life, for example in using a talent they were born with, yet still be operating habitually in other areas. Operating habitually, or driven by impulse, is passive, not active, and often destructive.

The insight that inspired Actively Creative is this: where we are not active and creative, we are victims of luck and circumstance.  For me, active creativity is a great way to live with will and purpose. Being actively creative means reaching out to the world and engaging with it. Only out there, in the real world that surrounds us, can we actively be ourselves.

What's a creative insight?

Most descriptions of the creative process include an insight, which we typically think of as some kind of amazing new fact or observation.  There's no doubt that insights are important to creativity, but insights are not just facts, however amazing.

A recent article pointed out that business people frequently label as "insights" what are really only long lists of observations.  The problem is that just describing something is not the same as understanding it. Could Van Gogh have painted one of his famous orchards based on a 500 page research tome about apple production?  I think not.

Facts by themselves are not insightful; we're surrounded by noisy, distracting, observable facts at all times.  Instead, the insight is an experience which belongs to the perceptive person who picks one out of a million available observations, connects it to a challenge, and sees how important it could be to a creative process.

So how do you know when you've had an insight?  The personal, inner experience of "aha!".  "Aha!" means that you have experienced a revelation; if it's new to you, that's enough.  And of course, it could be wrong, so you'll have to evaluate it.  But when, amidst the thousands of observations you make every waking hour of your life, you experience an "aha", treasure it.  You may be on to something big!

Creativity and conflict

Since we humans are both individuals and members of social groups, conflicts are bound to arise.  What I want, what the other wants, what's expected of me; needs are not always easy to reconcile. Usually, conflicts are resolved amicably thanks to social norms about what's polite and ethical.  Sometimes, though, solutions are hard to find. Creativity may be what makes the difference.

The costs of conflict are huge, even on a small, local level. Simple disagreements about little things (like whether that boundary-line tree is in my yard or in yours) can degenerate to violence.  Within families, the cost of unresolved conflict can be damaged or destroyed lives.

If I had to name a single reason that active creativity is so important to me, it would be my conviction that a combination of good will and creativity could reduce interpersonal conflict.  Your creative brain can help you reformulate points of difference, imagine new solutions, and adapt to necessary compromises. Where there was anger, you can create hope.

Every conflict, no matter how small, is an opportunity to envision a more inclusive world for all people.  Actively creative people, if they choose, can make a huge difference just by using their vision and persistence to build bridges between human beings.  What a wonderful world that would be!

Creatively coping with change

Someone very dear to me is going through big life changes right now, and I'm getting an up-close chance to see how difficult it is to make life decisions in an unfamiliar set of circumstances. There's almost no way to be "expert" or secure in your choices when you're changing so many things at once.

What I'm learning from all of this is how important it is to continue to try new things throughout your life. If you've practiced challenging your patterns all along, you will be much more confident when big changes are "forced" on you.

But even if your creative brain is functioning well, you're probably still going to face a sense of unreality and insecurity. So when that happens, use your actively creative process to figure out how to reduce your stress. If you're just scared, what would soothe you? If you have concrete questions, how can you get them answered?

As long as you keep moving forward, you will pass through the stress and out the other side. Use your creative imagination to envision that day, and you'll have optimism to draw on during the diffucult patches.

Sticking with your creative project: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

If all of the creative ideas anyone ever had were actually pursued to completion, the world would be a truly amazing place. Maybe a little weird here and there, but amazing.

What goes wrong, much of the time, is that the creator gets discouraged or distracted. Either life kicks in and you have to devote all of your time to mundane tasks, or you hit an obstacle and give up.  So why do some people find a way to find the time, or find the strength to struggle until they overcome a barrier?  What's the difference between them and us ordinary mortals?  Super-human ego strength?  A trust fund?  

No.  Persistence, you see, is a skill.That's good news, because if it's a skill we can learn it. People who complete projects instead of losing steam have learned to persist.  And here's how you can, too, in 1-2-3-4 format:

1.  Consciously commit.  Write your goal down, say it out loud, share it with those around you.  Hold yourself accountable for sticking with your vision.  

2.  Commit to the goal, not the process.  The process will be bumpy, uneven, and unpredictable; remember that your goal is what matters, not how you get there.  

3. Use deadlines strategically.  If you need deadlines (and most of us do), set them for short-term, intermediate steps, not your final achievement.  Never use missing a deadline as a reason to quit.

4. Clear obstacles creatively.  If you face an obstacle, use the actively creative process to overcome it:

• Declare the intention to overcome it
• Use your intuition to mull over possible solutions
• Identify an insight about what is underlying the obstacle; it could be an attitude as much as a real-world problem
• Evaluate your insight: can it be used to develop a useful idea for overcoming the obstacle? If not, go back and review.
• Realization: form a plan to overcome your obstacle

For more on the actively creative process, please check out my book!  And persist, persist, persist.

Creativity, surprise, and all that jazz

A great way to stimulate creativity is to make surprising connections.  Historically this sometimes happens on its own, in places where different cultures meet and surprise one another.

At the turn of the century, in the port town of New Orleans, people from diverse African- and Carribean-American backgrounds mingled with one another, as well as with everyone from Irish sailors to Native Americans. In their shared leisure time (often in local bars and bordellos, where a free spirit energized invention), a mix of blues and sappy parlor songs gave birth to jazz.

Of course, no-one back then knew that their curiosity about each others' "pop" music would lead to the invention of a cohesive, complex, and honored art form.  At the time, it wasn't high art but low entertainment.  Even the name jazz is very rough in its origins; those who first used it would be very surprised to see it on a sign at Lincoln Center! But the musical genius of a few was stimulated, and art was the result.

What this history has taught me is that surprise itself is an ingredient of creativity.  Seeking out the new, focusing on the perplexing, and mixing different types of things to see what they could do together are all ways of sustaining the emotion of surprise. Surprise leads to curiosity, and curiosity energizes creativity. 

Mothers of invention

Possibly the scariest responsibility anyone can have is that of raising a child. In addition to your conscious choices, things you can't control--the words that just slip out, your facial expressions, your energy level--also shape your child.

So over the years mothers (and fathers too, of course, but it's Mothers Day) have discovered the creative part of their brain and used it to ensure that whatever they do, however they respond, whatever happens in the outside world, their child is shaped primarily by love.

Creativity turns a harsh word into a warm, "I'm sorry" moment. Creativity takes a bad year at school and turns it into a way to see family conflicts through a child's eyes. In a mother's hands, creativity turns milestones into memories, fear into courage, sadness into hope.

You could have replaced the word "creativity" with love in all of those sentences.  Love is the motivation, creativity is the engine, and a strong, hopeful child is the vision.  For Mother's Day, let's all express our gratitude, and also gain inspiration from our unique, persistent, and creatively willfull mothers. 

Thanks, mom; we love you, too!

The astonishing creativity of the real world

Creativity is not (necessarily) about fantasy; in fact, the real world is the most astonishing creation anyone will ever encounter.  From gorgeous nebulas, the birthplace of new stars, to the mysterious micro worlds of quantum physics, our minds are simply incapable of taking it all in.

What we can do is use our creative minds to perceive, explore, and invent.  When we embrace our confusion and use it as fuel for learning, we are both humbled and exalted.  Reality is so much grander than anything we can imagine!

Even when we create fantasy worlds in fiction, film, or daydreams, we are using the miracle of our brains to do so. And everything we dream up has been sparked by something real.

The awesome depth and scope of reality is all around us; even a speck of dust is a world if you look through the right lens. Look for inspiration even among the minutiae of your life, and you will never run out of creative ideas.

Mirror, mirror: what you create defines you

(A somewhat serious topic for today's blog, inspired by events of the past days and months.)

Creativity is a capacity, but what you create is entirely up to you.  In fact, one reason I believe so strongly in active, intentional creativity is that being passive can lead to unintended consequences.  We are moral beings, so at least when we form intentions we have a chance of shaping our impact on the world.

And yet, it is always possible for someone to choose to create pain, suffering, aggression, or injustice.  They can easily do so in the name of goodness, believing in their own cause to such an extent that all morality is left behind.

The creative process uses all of your varied abilities to perceive, imagine, plan, and execute your vision of the world.  The only consistent element will be you--your vision, your ethics, your will.  When you create, you express who you are in the most profound way. 

My own values teach that the end can never justify the means, and that shapes every aspect of my creative process.  Whatever you believe, be sure you are conscious of how your values mesh with your vision. Only then can you create a world you wish to live in.

Creativity and the White Queen

'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." (The White Queen, Alice in Wonderland)

Using your imagination requires a little bit of madness, perfectly exemplified by Lewis Carroll's characters in Alice in Wonderland.  Not coincidentally, Carroll was a mathematician; sophisticated mathematics can create seemingly impossible scenarios, where 2 + 2 only equals 4 on alternate Tuesdays, for example. So he knew that believing impossible things was an indispensable creative skill.

The idea is to imagine what the world would be like if the impossible were actually possible.  In general it's best to treat this as a thought experiment--out of concern for my readers I wish to emphasize that you can't really sprout wings and fly.  On the other hand, you can use your creativity to find a workaround; inventing the airplane, for example, is a real-world way of sprouting wings and flying.

Here's a quick example of how you could use this as a creative exercise.  How could it be both cloudy and clear at the same time?  Come up with imaginary or realistic scenarios, it doesn't really matter.  The idea is to force your brain through the looking glass to a world where more things are possible.

Creating a habit

Did you know that, linguistically speaking, you create when you "construct" things, as well as originate something new? In other words, if you have a creative hobby--like landscaping your back yard, building bird houses, knitting, playing an instrument, baking exotic cookies--that's defined as creating, even if you are just learning and following ideas originated by other people.

From your brain's point of view, what really matters is that what you are doing is new to you. If you are learning a new skill or technique, your creative brain is operating.   

That's why creative hobbies are important.  When you use your creative brain on a regular basis, you form a habit of creativity that is very good for you and the world around you.  Sooner or later, you may need to use your creative skills on something riskier or more stressful. Your habit will give you the confidence that you know how to use your creative brain to learn new things, solve problems, or just make lemonade out of lemons.

Another possibility is that while you're using your creative brain to learn a pattern or skill, you may come up with an original idea or solution.  Why not?  Your creative brain is really good at all things new.  The key is developing the creative habit.

Using creativity to cope with change

Whether change arises from a choice we've made, or is forced upon us, it is stressful (if you don't believe me, check out this Wikipedia article). Then again, stress can be managed.  When you take on a rigorous exercise program, for example, that's stressful.  Yet, if you eat well, stretch well, and rest up, the stress you put on your body will actually be beneficial. The way you handle the stress makes a big difference.

The mental version of eating well and resting up is using creativity to manage change. Even if an unwelcome change is forced on you, if you know that there is a defined path to follow, and even better, a path that is pre-programmed in the human brain, you will not be overwhelmed by change-related stress.  You may even learn to see change as a fresh chance to get more out of the talents you were born with.

When faced with an unwelcome change, take a deep breath, accept just a little consolation, and then prepare to ride the wind:

1. Frame the change as a creative challenge: e.g., go from, "X just ended" to "what next?"

2. Mull things over for as much time as you have.  Don't make any sudden decisions, because if you act too soon you will still be locked in past patterns of thought. Widen your perspective. Let your imagination roam free. Capture any insights or ideas that arise without judging them, and discuss your ideas with people you trust.

3. Define an "insightful challenge". Sketch out what challenges you, your insights about the challenge, and what motivates you to move forward. Try to narrow it down to a simple sentence: Based on insight X, I choose to do Y, motivated by Z.

4. Mull over your challenge, applying your expertise and that of others you trust.  What resources will you need? How can you overcome obstacles?

5. Make a plan--don't just dive in, get organized. That way, you can see your progress and identify potential problems. If problems arise, get creative and solve them!  Don't give up.

For help in managing change, please see my book, Actively Creative: A Guided Process.  It's short, practical, and rooted in real-world experience.  I wish you all the best!

Tom Sawyer and Creativity

When I was a kid, one of my favorite stories came from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. Tom, a born politician, was given the boring task of whitewashing a fence. Clever Tom decided to act as if it was the most fun task in the world. Laughing, whistling happily, he intrigued the other boys into wishing they could be the ones painting the fence.  Within a short time, they were--while he watched.

Though they don't have to pretend that what they're doing is fun, creators need a little bit of Tom Sawyer's salesmanship. Getting support from those around you, whether experts in your field, your colleagues, or your family, is a crucial skill. Positive feedback, helpful critiques, and emotional encouragement are all important elements of successful creative projects.

It is, of course, possible to create entirely on your own.  It's just harder, scarier, and (without feedback) often less successful.  Here are a couple of ways you can be more like Tom:

• Smile while you work.  I know, I keep saying that.  But it is honest-to-goodness true that if you share your happiness and excitement and let people know when things are going well, both you and your social circle will be more energized by your project.

• As you plan your project, think about what others care about or enjoy.  Make some space in your plans for everyone from your boss to your pet; what could they get out of it?  It doesn't have to be much more than a sense that they are important to you.  But it is important that they have a stake.

• Learn to distinguish between positive and negative criticism, and help those around you to learn the distinction as well.  Frame any request for feedback to increase your chances of getting the right kind!  For example: "Based on your experience, what's one thing you would change to help this be more successful?" is a much better question than, "Do you like my idea?"

Go out and share!  We humans thrive on attention and support. Embrace your social environment and you could be much more successful with your project.