You will think more clearly & work more efficiently when you are rested. Period.
Some people are “night people”; others are “morning people”. My father claims to be a “daytime person”. There are dozens of studies that claim the benefits of one orientation over the other. Like:
Regardless of how you personally are wired, you are going to do your best work when you are well rested. Whether that is at the end of the day or the beginning is of little importance. I’ve written before about enemies of creativity like distractions & fear. I would put exhaustion in that category as well. Being tired is sometimes viewed as being part of a creative lifestyle. I couldn’t disagree more. The way I see it, get your rest and you will be more creative.
This is a very interesting formula. Do you find it to be true? Organization is like the x-factor to creative work. Most people don't talk about it, but it makes a huge difference. It doesn't matter how creative you are if you can't remember where you wrote down your ideas. What ways can you increase the organization of your creative efforts?
Make friends with people who shout an enthusiastic ‘yes!’ to crazy ideas.
A broad base of rich life experiences is important for a creator. If your personality isn’t naturally bent toward trying new things, the way I see it you’ve got 2 options. 1.) Constantly push yourself to experience things outside your comfort zone, or 2.) Make friends with a few people who will do that for you.
You will never create something perfect, so stop trying.
You will never create something totally worthless, so start learning from your creations.
Creative success requires some interesting mental gymnastics. We have to be simultaneously comfortable with the prospect of (and often reality of) our own failures, and uncomfortable with the current state of our creative efforts. We have to come to terms with the fact that the things we create will never be perfect or else the fear of failure will paralyze our creative efforts. But satisfaction with the status-quo will make us stagnate. Without a hunger to improve we are destined to move from being creative innovators to tradition managers. On the one side is fear derived paralysis, on the other is lethargy and stagnation.
The creator’s path is not so much a balance between the two, as much as it is a war on two opposite fronts. Don’t think of yourself as blending equal parts contentment and ambition, because that is not accurate. Contentment is not the counterbalance for ambition. Those two characteristics are not mutually exclusive. I like to think of myself as a ball carrier (pardon the sports metaphor) sprinting through a small opening between the power linebackers of pride and complacency. Splitting the defense requires all of the ambition and all of the contentment that God had given me. I’m not balancing gingerly, I’m “pressing toward the mark.”
As creators, we must be insatiably ambitious. If we don’t create it, who will? This task is what God has created us to do. This is a holy ambition. We must also be unflappable in our contentment. God is sovereign. Our creative work in this world… and this entire world rests securely in the palm of his hand and pales in comparison to his master-plan. Our life is a vapor, and He has already provided for us everything we need for life and Godliness. We don’t have to create anything new.
(FYI: Those two ideas exist outside the realm of an unbeliever’s comprehension. It’s little wonder that so many creatives self-destructed because they couldn’t come to terms with themselves apart from God.)
We must be the unstoppable force and the immovable object. My creative mantra has become: Never satisfied, never defeated. I will never stop creating, and I will never stop learning from the things that I create. I will never be defeated. When it comes to creativity there is not failure, there is only progress.
The way I see it, a major way to become more creative is to develop a “never satisfied, never defeated” mindset.
The Avett Brothers are the "it" band of the season drawing a lot of attention from music critics. This particular video is unique for a couple reasons. The medium is interesting, true animation is nearly extinct. This video makes great use of what looks like acrylics. (feel free to correct me) The message isn't particularly unique. Hippsters everywhere critique urbanization and traditional "progress" as being counterproductive. What's interesting here is how compelling this video is. I can almost hear Ecclesiates 12 being read aloud as I see this video progress.
What do you think? Is it true to life, or does it present a scewed perspective?
I’ve never liked the term “creatives” as a plural noun meaning those who practice the art of creativity.
“Creatives” doesn’t imply action. It implies identity. It implies that a group of people have a characteristic that others do not. I don’t like that, because I am of the opinion that anyone/everyone is capable of creativity. In fact, I am of the opinion that creativity (turning ideas into objects) is an act of imitation.
We are like God when we create things.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
God is creative. He was the first to take an idea and turn it into a real thing. He practiced "methodical creativity". He created something and then took his time re-creating, changing, adding and editing. He worked for a whole week on the universe before he got it the way he wanted it. (may not seem like much, but if your omniscient and omnipotent a week is a whole lot of work) Even then his evaluation was that his creation was “good” --not great, not perfect, but God called his week’s worth of creative effort “good”. Then God created man and woman from the dust of the ground. He called them “very good”. In other places in scripture he refers to mankind as his "poema" or creative-masterpiece.
Knowing THE Creator is a great way to become more creative. Those of us who know the creator personally and intimately should be much more capable of creativity than those who deny that He exists.
By the way… I prefer to call us “creators” rather than “creatives”.
This video is both a cultural commentary and a beautiful piece of artwork. I only wish I was capable of creating such an elegant expression of faith and passion.
This one comes to you courtesy of Tommy Newberry and his audio series The 1% Club. Tommy teaches goal-setting better than anyone I’ve ever heard. His premise is simple: decided what kind of person you want to be & then decide what kind of things you need to do in order to become that person.
The way I see it, if I begin by establishing in detail what the final product of my creative efforts should look like, I can work an idea systematically from present state to future imagined state with methodical action steps.
This principle de-mystifies creative work. Rather than waiting for some mysterious lightning strike of creative inspiration, I put in the work. Creativity is work. It takes work to articulate in detail the image of what your idea is (or should be in the future) and it takes work to make that idea into a reality. But if you cannot articulate your desired end result, what you have is something worse than hard work. If you don’t begin with the end in mind, you don’t have creativity you have confusion.
Begin with the end in mind, and do so with as much detail as possible. The more detailed your end-result-image, the more focused your efforts can be. Don’t worry about boxing yourself in with a pre-established plan. Remember, it’s YOUR desired end result. Creativity and planning are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I believe they are interdependent. If the creative process, alters your idea (which it probably will) so be it! Deciding not to imagine an end result for fear that it will hamper your creative process is effectively deciding not to creative.
I recently had the opportunity to see Switchfoot live in concert. They were awesome. Very powerful show. It was obvious that their mission was bigger and their message more profound than any of the other "acts" around them. Going into the show, I didn't really have a favorite song. Coming out, I most certainly do: The Sound (The John M. Perkins Blues).
On YouTube, John Foreman describes the origins of this song & music video:
"John M. Perkins is an American civil rights leader. Born in Mississippi to a sharecropper, he grew up in the dire poverty and bitter racism of the time. At the age of 17 his older brother was murdered at the hands of a town marshall, so he fled the state vowing never to return. Yet in 1960 Dr. Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae Perkins, felt compelled to go back to help the poor in rural Mississippi. Since then, Dr. Perkins has written numerous books, lectured across the world and has devoted his life to community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world. Dr. Perkins turns 80 on June 16th....this video is a tribute to his compassionate commitment to love the oppressed and the oppressor. His life is living proof that love does conquer all, including violence and hatred. Love is the final fight." --Jon Foreman, Switchfoot
This is creativity at its best: intentional communication of worldview through beautiful artistry. Bravo.
A change of scenery can be a huge creativity boost. Fresh perspectives yield fresh ideas. I am a huge proponent of what I call “methodical creativity” or the age-old ratio of 1% inspiration to 99% perspiration, but sometimes… you just can’t get past that 1%.
This isn’t new advice. You can find variations of this tidbit in many different places.
Stefan Sagmeister (graphic designer and videographer) took to the practice of taking a sabbatical and swears by The Power of Time Off.
So get out of your office. Go somewhere exciting, do something different. Let your idea sit still for a while (be it minutes, hours or days ), and go do something else. Clear you mind and let your perspective be re-aligned. Back away from all the trees so that you can see the forest again.
