How I became my creativity’s worst enemy
And few tips to make amends
Hobbies are important, and if you didn’t believe in it yet, a few weeks of lockdown because of COVID would have nudged you in that direction.
You had extra time at hand, and because you craved for some time off from the mundane home and office chores you were restricted to, your mind was eager to be surprised. You found yourself searching for hobby classes- whether it was your curiosity to understand all the hype around baking, or desire to learn something new. It was an intersection of available time, convenience of online classes and low FOMO (well everyone was at home!).
Hobbies are like dating your creative interests. You spend some time indulging in what captured your curiosity and see if there is a match to move to a longer relationship. But most of the people are unaware of their creative abilities, to begin with. My best friend had been coaxing me to start writing for four years now. Her reason to believe in my creative ability, which I failed to see myself (and still do), was noticing how rejuvenated I felt indulging in free-flow writing.
My sense of reasoning, however, denied me to register this joy. I believed that unless I have something ‘groundbreaking’ to tell the world, it is not worth it. I was the worst enemy of my creativity. Maybe I wanted to just skip the dating part and find a permanent life partner in my creativity. Doesn’t work ever, right?
This was the first of my many failings to understanding creativity
- Benchmarking your outcome before you have even started:
I am an output-driven person (maybe a professional hazard, I’m in Sales), so I intuitively weigh my effort against the expected result. I didn’t realize I was doing this unconsciously, and while it helps me optimize my time and effort in work, it does not apply well in creative pursuits. Creativity is messy and free-flowing and doesn’t respond well to uncalled for pressure.
Think of creativity like a beautiful, magical bird. It will come to you on its own volition. If you try to pin it down, it will die. If you try to smother it by giving all your time and attention, it will die. Not being able to control it leaves you helpless and ever too keen to give up. But you can befriend it with better behaviour. Tend to the creative bird when it visits you. Listen to what it has to say, note it down, always. I say this because I have lost many good ideas this way. I thought I will remember those glorious words later; I usually don’t.
‘Big Magic’ by Elizabeth Gilbert opened my eyes to the fragility of the creative process. I urge you to give this book a try if you want to know how not to kill your creativity.
2. Putting the full weight of your expectation
Nothing kills creativity faster than the weight of expectations.
You start a hobby and discover the joy it brings you. You share your outcomes with your ever-so-supportive friend circle and they extoll how talented you are. You make the mistake of taking it all too literally, too soon.
Your creativity is only asking a bit of attention, for the time being, to see if you both can co-exist. It’s not asking you to be in a monogamous relationship as of now.
If you have ever tried to pivot to a new job role, you would know the drill. Take some structured learning courses, certifications or degree if possible, do some freelancing to get the first-hand experience, and then maybe, just maybe, you can convince someone in the market why you are eligible for the role.
Why should creativity be any different? Your creativity is only asking a bit of attention, for the time being, to see if you both can co-exist. It’s not asking you to be in a monogamous relationship as of now.
3. Thinking chaos = creativity
Chaos is inherent to creativity, without a doubt. Creativity is free-flowing, it is anti-thesis of a defined process.
However, putting some structure to your efforts and consciously encouraging inspiration can result in substantially better outcomes than leaving everything to chaos.
· Consistency: For me, 30-mins of writing in the morning after my run is sweet-spot. I may not have a definitive topic to write that particular day and I may not write all 7 days. But whenever I have big gaps between writing, I have found it harder to get back my mojo. Also, the days when I write, I find myself more ‘creatively sensitive’. More ideas come to my mind and I have the enthusiasm to research better. It is a virtuous loop feeding onto itself.
· Designing the inspiration: Two aspects have a profound impact on writing: curiosity and reading. While both can be inter-related (example: getting curious about a topic, leading you to read about it), what I referring is reading vastly, without an expectation of outcome. And being curious as a signature of your personality.
Are you beginning to see the underlying nature of that magical bird which we called ‘Creativity’? It needs you to submit dedicatedly to it, make a concerted effort to prove your intent, but not load it with expectation.
There is a beautiful verse in The Bhagavad Gita (one of the most important scriptures on spiritual philosophy for Hindus) and it says:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
This translates to ‘put your best effort, but do not expect the result’. Applies beautifully to creativity, isn’t it?
4. Not setting the ecosystem of creativity: Creativity is a ‘personality-skill’, and it also needs an ecosystem to sustain. Not understanding this is leading to millions of dollars of wasted money by organizations who need ‘out-of-box’ creative thinkers but don’t know how to get them.
Research ¹ has shown that about 97% of US executives agree that creativity is becoming very important in the workplace. Why? Because more creativity means more innovations which mean more revenue dollar. However, the same study says that 85% of executives are not able to find enough qualified (read: creative) applicants in the market.
Developing creativity is not the same as learning a hard skill, say Python, which essentially would entail these steps: understand the semantics of the language, learn the rules, practice and there you go- you are a certified Python developer.
Creativity is more relatable to say, developing a healthy body. It needs a certain amount of effort to go in before the results start to show, and working out alone won’t help unless you eat better, sleep right and have a positive mental outlook.
The ecosystem of creativity is simply more creativity, and this is true for improving creativity personally and in organizations. Studies suggest that adding elements which pique your five senses boost creativity- having colourful flowers and a small reed-diffuser² were inexpensive additions to my writing table which boost my mood substantially.
5. Denying yourself the path which may lead you to your truest creative calling and helpful side effects
People who eventually became writers did not start-off with writing as the only creative pursuit. Indulging in a creative pursuit, unrelated to your primary one, has proven to lift the creative block, and sometimes leading to newer ideas.
Elizabeth Gilbert mentions in ‘Big Magic’ that she needed an idea. Something. Anything. While she did not have an innate passion for gardening, she still decided to indulge in her curiosity. It was a tepid curiosity, perhaps, but it had perched on her shoulder, and so she paid attention. She followed her curiosity, without much expectation, to what would become a deep, wide and long exploration, eventually leading to a book and a garden.
Also, dabbling in creativity has been proven to boost your workplace performance in addition to improving your physical health (really!) and reducing stress.
My own experience: I have a full-time job. The most engaging conversations I had with my peers and in my interviews were about my shoe designing hobby, macramé plant holders, decoupaged wine bottles, books I was reading, or the paintings I have made. Positioning myself on zoom calls to have a few of them in the background has elicited much need compliments. Well, a girl needs some of those, how else to get them in lock-down?
References:
1: 2014 Global Innovation 1000 survey from strategic consultants Strategy&, the global strategy consulting team at PwC
2. Sowndhararajan K, Kim S. Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response. Sci Pharm. 2016;84(4):724–751. Published 2016 Nov 29. doi:10.3390/scipharm84040724
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