The Creative Journey
This was originally written as a contribution to a forthcoming book by a young creative living in the Netherlands. He is hoping to use his writing as a journey to growing his passion for ideas. So great to play a small roll in supporting this young writer.
Being a creative hasn’t always been a natural part of my work. From schooling, I learned how to play the game of collecting points, following the rules, and getting praise for following the success recipe. It takes time to break free of these learned habits, but it is essential to grow beyond the schooling model to be a creative. It requires a fresh perspective, hard work, and the ability to be seen as someone that doesn’t always stay on the normal train. Growing as a creative means feeling the social pressures that comes from breaking tradition.
Divine inspiration is for a select few, so this means that most creatives are made from perspiration. The road to being a creative starts with creating a lot as often as possible. This means sitting down to put words on paper, even when they don’t come easy. Building your creative muscles starts with doing the work as often as possible. The result is a lot of initial garbage that may sit on the sidelines without a finish line for a long time, but it is in these scraps that the genesis of great ideas can emerge.
For me, this means writing often in a variety of forms. Blogging, journaling, writing short articles, and even contributing to books like this one. For creatives that use writing as their medium for message, this can also mean drawing, sketching, and modeling ideas as well. Though the ideas eventually need to be in written form, some of my best inspiration comes from those ideas first formed in different ways. Being a cross-media creative can help to break through moments where rhythm and creative blocks emerge.
Another essential element of my journey includes seeing connection between my work and the greater world. This search for connection leads me to questions like: how can solutions in medicine translate to classroom solutions? How can the wisdom of nature play a solution supporting teachers and students? How can counseling around grief and loss support the needs of families? When we see lateral-capacity building as essential to craft new ideas and solutions for your primary area of concerns, you begin expanding what you read and the information that you choose to absorb throughout the day. You are actively looking for ideas in places that you would never imagine.
Much of being a creative isn’t original creation, but it is curation as you are bringing together a set of ideas into a new representation that can inspire and launch others into action. There is rarely a completely original idea that hasn’t found its inspiration for kernels of other ideas. The best creators have the ability to link together ideas that can slow the audience into a new way of thinking as well as drive new action based on the motivation of the ideas.
What are you reading? This question can be the root of creative success. No great creative has a shortage of input. They are working everyday to gain new perspective, comb the thinking of others, and build their connections between the intellects that share in the passion for the topic that is of deep interest to the creative. If you are a reader of non-fiction, you need to add some fiction. If you are a fiction reader, look for a biography or some history to gain new perspective. Every creative has someone in their ear, guiding them to new places through their words and ideas.
How are you noticing? The art of noticing is central to developing as a creative. Noticing helps to see in new ways and gain fresh perspective. In a busy world, where we are in front of screens for more and more minutes each day, we need to raise our eyes and see the wonder and awe of the work around us. It provides creative energy. It provides a reset, and it helps us to see the microchanges that are always occurring. Noticing takes practice, and it requires us to focus on small things in loud places. Are you noticing people smiling? Are you seeing the little things that are out of place? Are you considering what was there and what could be there? In my journey as a creative, these moments help to reshape my mood, break the inertia of the day, and build a greater connection to place. It grounds my work as I’m reminded about my small place in the big world.
Some final thoughts for those of you looking to expand and extend your journey as a creator. Share with vigor. We are all better when we share our ideas. They don’t need to be complete and polished as even our scraps can be a catalyst for others. Creating isn’t a zero sum game. We are all trying to lift each other so that the world can be filled with beautiful things. Creating comes in chunks and waves. We have to be self-committed to creating every day while still knowing that the good stuff will have a cycle. We can produce a lot of stuff before the cycle of quality emerges. Push through. Finally, surround yourselves with an army of creatives. The energy around creatives is different, and we need that energy to thrive. We need the opportunity to support others through through tough moments. We need a community that gets our sense of normal.
After breaking from the rules and structures that make us a quiet part of the norm, there is a liberation. It is freeing to be a creative. It is a moment in life when purpose comes to the forefront. It opens the doors to a new energy, and it makes purpose and passion a deep part of each day. Join us. We need a world of creatives to solve our most perplexing problems across this planet and beyond.
