I think I’m creative. I’m not creative. What is creativity? My creativity has disappeared. I’m not feeling creative.
The mystery of our own creativity can drive us nuts. How can we tap into it when we need it?
The very action of making creativity ‘mysterious’ or confusing removes it from us and immediately makes it appear less accessible. So how can we de-mystify creativity. Well creativity is fundamentally about energy and brain connections. We have our own unique set of brain connections based on our experience, our learning and our understanding. These unique neural connections form our very own creative lucky dip – that we can add to anytime through further experience, learning and understanding.
That brings us to the question of energy. Those creative neural pathways need firing up. So then it’s a question of how we source that energy and this doesn’t necessarily mean going for a five mile run every time we want to get our creative juices flowing. In fact there are 6 potential sources of creative energy. And your ideal source might be different from a colleague or collaborator. So it’s important to recognize where you draw your creative energy from. Otherwise creative blocks result and it can begin to feel frustrating or in the case of a collaborative situation – both frustrating and personal.
So here are your six potential sources or what you might like to think of as Two Creative Pies :
Physical – this might well mean going for a five mile run, or simply going for a walk or removing the chairs from a brainstorming session and getting everyone on their feet. I was recently working with a rock climber who always solved his creative problems hanging by a finger nail from the sheer face of a cliff. If you’re a kinesthetic creative – removing a creative block might be as simple as removing the furniture.
Intellectual – if you draw your creative energy from the intellect then any new information could fire up your imagination and problem solving drives. This might mean taking a moment to read a page of a book, have a conversation with someone and share ideas, read the paper, watch a Ted talk, do a Sudoku or a crossword. Or even intersperse your creative meetings with learning a new language. N’est-ce pas?
Emotional – perhaps your creative flow depends on how you feel. Do you feel more creative when you feel happy, excited, in love? Or maybe your ideas come to you when you’re angry and work yourself up into a heated debate? What emotion do you need to feel and how can you stimulate that? A funny film? Buying a lottery ticket? Eating indulgent food? Hugging a friend? Phoning home? Telling a joke? Recounting a story? Meditating? Playing a silly game? Your emotions are an incredibly powerful source of creative energy. Think of the beautiful poems written in the name of love or loss.
People – some people will make you feel more creative than others. Do you know who they are? And do you consciously seek them out when you need to feel creative? Also – are you aware of the people around you or in your life who make you feel less creative? Are you conscious of limiting your exposure to these people when you need to be creatively fired up? If you feel blocked on a project think about who you can meet or who you can call, text or tweet to immediately feel more creative.
Intention – this stimulus is all about the core values that drive and motivate you in life. In other words the ideas and beliefs that create your day to day as well as your creative intention. This might be question of reminding yourself what you stand for or why you are doing something. Is the problem you’re trying to solve deeply important to you? Is the creative project you want to drive forward something dear to your very being? Or are you part of a creative team and care about doing a good job for your colleagues? Will there be a reward at the end that will hold value for you? Or is it simply too important to risk failure? Tapping into your core intentional self can be a super speedy way to fire up your creativity at the deepest level.
Environment – you may well be someone who needs to be in a creative and stimulating environment in order to feel creative. This can often be the case for highly visual people like artists or designers. Our environment also gives us a sense of how much we and our creative ideas are valued. Being placed in a dark, windowless room and asked to come up with brilliant ideas can feel like severely mixed messages. Our ideas are valued but not our environmental well-being. Some people like colourful, busy, stimulating environments, others will find this distracting. All the research on creativity and environments have one common theme – that people are more creative in environments they have had some say over rather than enforced environments. This doesn’t necessarily mean we all need to be picking out carpet samples for our offices. It might be as simple as deciding where we can place your chair and your Starbucks ginger latte.
So if you feel your creative flame has gone out or find you are at loggerheads with colleagues on a project, take a couple of moments for a couple of pies and run yourself (and them) through the PIEPIE checklist.
Who said pies weren’t good for you?
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