Cultivating creativity amidst a hectic schedule can be quite a challenge. But it is a challenge we must embrace in order to keep from stagnating in a routine of busyness and/or crisis management. Without creativity, we can neither make sense of our present challenges nor gain insight into our future opportunities.
Each of us is innately creative, though we often lose sight of our creative impulses. Even a toddler with a box of wood blocks can express his creativity by arranging and stacking his blocks into some new thing of his own imagining. While children naturally explore their creative impulses, as adults we tend to get sidetracked with an assortment of responsibilities. And yet, the desire for—and the need for—creativity is no less than it is for a child. The creative process is one of the most satisfying experiences of life because it gives expression to an essential part of our human nature.
Creativity takes time, energy, and patience. While we can take steps to cultivate creativity—as we will discuss in this article—the creative process is mysterious enough that we can’t “plan” that next big moment of insight. We can, however, prepare for it expectantly and wait patiently as it unfolds. Let’s consider the following elements that help us cultivate creativity.
Creative Space
One of the most important steps is to find your creative space—someplace away from the kind of distractions that tend to clutter your mind. Where do you get your best ideas? My creative space is at the kitchen table—which happens to have a nice view of the mountains, and which happens to be a long way from the internet and the email box. What relaxes you? Find that environment. Conversely, avoid the kinds of stressors that tend to stifle the creative process. My creative time is usually over the moment I sit down in front of the computer.
You’ve probably heard that we often get our best ideas in the bathroom. One of my acquaintances used to have a roommate who kept a grease pencil in the shower to literally write his ideas on the shower wall. That’s what I call a creative way to use one’s creative space.
Creative Time
As well as a creative space, think in terms of a creative time. When do you get your best ideas? For me, it is usually early in the morning. By the end of the day, I am much less likely to be in the creative “zone” —and that’s the time I am more inclined to look for a way to unwind.
Creative Process
Think of your creative “process” as the way you cultivate ideas and the way to express and capture them. I find that reading and reflecting is a good way to cultivate ideas—using the thoughts of others as a way to organize and expand my own thoughts, and then capturing those thoughts on a writing pad. What stimulates your creativity? More than likely it involves a variety of senses. (I shouldn’t forget to mention the importance of coffee in my early morning creative process!)
Your creative process is most likely rather solitary, but at times it may include others. Perhaps you have a friend or family member who acts as a sounding board for your ideas. For this to work, the individual has to be someone that you trust implicitly. As we will see later, ideas are fragile things.
Creative Expression
We are all naturally creative and express that creativity in a variety of everyday ways—cooking a meal, organizing a closet, planting a garden, choosing what to wear each day. Beyond that, many of our leisure activities are creative—sewing, painting, playing an instrument, woodworking, home improvement. You might notice that most creative activities involve both mental and physical exertion—e.g., designing and building a new flowerbed. Often, your creative activity requires a great deal of physical dexterity (such as drawing, painting, or woodworking) in order to give an idea its full expression. With these ideas in mind, we can consciously cultivate our creative impulses by engaging in a variety of mental/physical activities. Take up a new hobby or try a new skill—the effort needed to develop this skill will help you in unexpected ways because creativity tends to be a “whole body” experience. For example, photography is the kind of skill that helps you notice details like structure, color and contrast. After a while, you begin to “see” the photograph that you can capture with the camera.
Cultivating Ideas
The common theme of creativity is the use of your imagination to cultivate ideas that you can bring into reality. This process can be aided by consciously exploring a variety of interests and activities, from which you can make unique connections. Allowing your thoughts to wander between seemingly disparate areas of interest is one way to begin making new connections. Creativity is often aided by paying attention to minor details that most people tend to overlook.
Synthesizing Ideas
“Synthesis” is a process of putting together ideas from an assortment of sources. We can do this by looking for commonalities and differences, and then making connections. If my graduate work in wood products resulted in any kind of breakthrough, it was made possible by noticing the similarities between wood products and man-made composite materials. As far as I could determine from exploring the literature, no one else had ever made that connection. That simple connection formed the basis for two years of research.
Nurturing Ideas
Ideas are fragile things. As you explore the creative process, be careful not to filter ideas before they’ve had a chance to develop. Make a point to use new ideas to challenge your assumptions about the way things are, rather than dismissing the idea as too difficult or impractical. Remember that many of your assumptions will turn out to be wrong when examined more carefully, especially in light of the question, “Why?”—which may turn out to be the moment of breakthrough you’ve been waiting for.
J.R. Dickens
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