Creativity did not mean so much to me until 2011 when it became a common vocabulary used by the people around me.
When I expressed it before 2011, it didn’t feel special or noteworthy. I got in contact with an extremely creative woman. She ran an interior decor company. I started to get peeved by how demanding her imaginations were. Executing each of her ideas was difficult and I felt they were grandiose. Over the years, I had become a straight-to-the-business type of person.
In no time I started to mirror her. I started to let my imaginations run wild after she prodded me a lot to imagine without boundaries. I began to see myself as creative person once again.
Before 2011, I had lost my grasp of the creativity I wielded. At a much younger age, I saw human faces in terrazzo patterns, and built a battery-powered toy car. I crafted humanoids with different materials from tin foils to crayons. I wrote loads of rap verses, drew many sketches of real and imaginary people and more.
The post-2011 era allowed me to thrive in a technology company where I was a rookie.
There was an abnormal peak in the insight I had into things that were higher than my pay grade and alien to my past experiences. I called it a mix of hyper-creativity and super-intuition.
It is 2016, and things were no longer the same. Poems dried up. I hit brick walls every time I tried to come up with new ideas.
What happened? How did that glowing buzz of creativity disappear? Is there any correlation between pre-2011 and post-2014?
I Didn’t Rest
When I got a new job, I had to change to a new routine. I was now required to wake up by 4am in the morning to prepare and leave by 5am. It was new and hectic. There was lesser time to rest physically and mentally, and for some reason I have not been able to adapt. Resting is key for creativity, to prevent cognitive overload.
I Kept Complaining
GaryVee is always sharing the message of not sticking to what you hate. Some people think that complaining is the same as doing something about their situation. They believe that they are registering their discomfort and preventing themselves from coasting. The truth is, so long as you are still doing what you hate, do not complain. rather, do something about it. Something real. Complaining clouds your mind and eyes from opportunities to get out of a rut. Complaining kills creativity.
I Isolated Myself
More work time meant less time for leisure. I ran pet projects that took my time during the weekends. After some time, isolation set in. I began to isolate myself from events, people; from everyone. Apart from a not having enough time, isolation was a response to my sense of loss of creativity. Connecting with people improves creativity, isolation kills it.
I Stayed Indoors
I read an article that shared the concept of going outdoors to get the business ideas and even confirm them. I observed that over a span of three years I have loathed going outdoors. I just developed a strange satisfaction from staying indoors. Many things happen outside the walls of your room, house and office. Go outdoors!
I Engaged in Negative Self-talk
The past has a funny way of trying to influence the present and the future. Our brains does not delete every memory of the things that happened yesterday. Thus, we are at the mercy of triggered or unexpected flashbacks from the past. Failing to deal with the mistakes of the past can morph into negative self-talk. The height is when you begin to doubt your creativity. Negative self-talk paralyses your mind from freeing up creativity to fly as high as it wants.
I Killed My Curiosity
I connected some dots to realise that my ideas were being rejected everywhere I pushed them. I thought it was because I didn’t present them well or that there wasn’t enough data or evidence to back my ideas. This led me to refine the next set of ideas. They were still rejected. I killed my curiosity and it was a bad idea. Curiosity is an ally of creativity.
Looking back, I now believe that I can revive what I have lost. I just need to prevent these blockers and feed my mind with things that will trigger creativity. I believe that in the new year I will experience a great deal of improvement.
Goodbye 2016, Welcome 2017.
Image Credit: http://creativity.show/
Originally published at chaibizi.com on December 31, 2016.
