Creativity

Sometimes, the creative juices just don’t seem to flow. You sit down to write, draw, or compose, but it’s like icing a cake in Mohave dessert (I know it’s desert). Or like trying to explain politics to a 3-year-old. It takes a lot of effort to accomplish it. And when you force it, the outcome is often trash. There’s a great unknown in creativity. Countless books have been written on the subject, each with their own unique take. From practical steps to a more whimsical, head-in-the-clouds approach. Some of my personal favorites include War of Art, Big Magic, Creative Quest, and (I’m sure) Rick Rubin’s new book on creativity. He’s one of my inspirations.

But with so many variations, why is it we still struggle to fully understand and harness our creative potential? I believe there are a few reasons for this. First, everyone experiences creativity differently. - what works for one person may not work for an- other. Second, there’s still so much we don’t understand about the creative process. And finally, not everyone can write the same book and expect it to resonate with audiences.

I’ll be sharing how I experience and cultivate creativity in my own life. While my approach may not work for everyone, I hope it will provide some helpful tips and inspiration for those struggling to tap into their creative potential.

It’s all about flow

Flow state is a remarkable feeling that engulfs you entirely, allowing you to focus all your energy and attention on the task at hand. As psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (good luck pronouncing that in your head) popularized the concept, he described the flow state as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake.” When you achieve a flow state, you become entirely absorbed in your work, feeling energized, and losing track of time. For more on his work, go here.

Personally, I find the flow state to be an addictive feeling. Once you experience it, nothing else comes close. However, it’s difficult to achieve. I am lucky to enter it once or twice a week, and for the rest of the time, I constantly chasing the dragon. But when I enter the flow state, my productivity skyrockets, and everything clicks into place.

To increase the likelihood of entering the flow state, I try to align everything I can control. For example, I eliminate distractions by turning off notifications and finding a quiet workspace. I also ensure that I am well-rested and have plenty of energy by taking breaks when needed and staying hydrated. I try to set achievable goals for myself and break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. By doing these things, I increase the chances of achieving the flow state and experiencing the benefits that come with it.

Procrastinating isn’t always awful

In fact, it often leads to some of my best creative moments. When I allow my mind to explore things that aren’t at all related to what I’m working on, I often stumble upon ideas or connections that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. This might look like procrastination, but it’s actually beneficial for my creative process.

For example, learning about how humans think, watching a documentary on mushrooms or an octopus or cannibal drug lords in Liberia, hitting up old friends to check in, or reading about creativity are all things that give me space to explore different ideas. And sometimes that space turns into panic, but that’s okay.

Tim Urban has a great TedTalk about procrastination and the panic monster that helped me accept my process and learn to deal with it. If we can turn our procrastination into a productive experience, at least we’re still progressing, not regressing.

Am I suggesting that we should just “goof off”? No, not exactly. For me, pressure is what leads to my flow state. It’s just how I’m wired. This might come from the times I spent as a kid working with my parents from 8pm until 3 or 4 in the morning stripping and waxing a business’ floors so they had enough time to dry over the weekend. Pressure is where I’m comfortable. Or it might come from owning a screen printing company with my brother and staying up late to finish a big order so we could ship it out the next morning. I like the stress.

Is that healthy? I don’t know, but it works really well for me. I feel like that’s where I thrive. Every job I’ve had, I’ve talked to my bosses and told them to put me in the ‘Fire- man’ position. The high stress problem-solving positions everyone hates.

I honestly don’t think we can tell others how they should operate. BUT, we have to know ourselves.

Understanding Your Own Process

Everyone experiences creativity differently, and it’s important to know yourself in order to cultivate your own creativity. Here are some tips for understanding your own process:

• Know where you’re comfortable

• Know what is good stress and bad stress to you

• Know your weaknesses

• Know your strengths

• Know what mixture of food/drink makes you feel your best - this can also be an absence of food and drink.

• Know how much sleep you need/want.

• Know when you’re being a little bitch and when you’re passively working on a project.

For me, I often am thinking about a project while I’m learning or playing. I think “how does this (procrastinating) apply to X?” or “What perspective does this (procrastinating) give me on X?”

• Know what time of day you feel most creative

• Know what negative things you say about yourself.

• Know what positives you can replace those negatives with.

I’ve found creativity doesn’t coexist with negative self-talk. It’s like a turtle that hides at the onset of danger. Accept yourself, even the darker sides, in order to create a safe space for that creativity turtle to thrive. When we understand and accept our own unique process, we can give ourselves permission to be creative in ways that work best for us.

Creativity is about the practice

Julia Cameron talks about creativity like an inner child - a curious and easily skittish child. To cultivate creativity, treat it like an inner child that needs a safe place. This requires a lack of judgment on yourself and a genuine acceptance of who you are. It’s not that you don’t have faults or things to work on, but it’s an acceptance that your best is the best you can offer at this moment.

Cultivate a safe place for creativity. It’s not about producing output or achieving public success, financial rewards, or comparison to others in your field. Creativity is not about the result, but the process of practice. Doctors practice medicine, so why do we often feel like artists should have creativity on lock? It’s about building the creative muscle, and when you use it regularly, it becomes much easier to access.

It’s all about practice, not output

To arrange your mind, you need to regularly use the things you desire to use, just like arranging a desk or kitchen cabinet. We all come pre-programed from childhood for good or less good. (Pro-tip) Always change everything to fit your needs - never just use it as it comes. Manufacturers, schools, businesses are often simplified for the lowest common denominator, but you’re not the lowest common denominator. You are more powerful than you ever thought possible, and you just have to tweak your default settings to align with your intentions. This is an ever evolving process that needs to be revisited frequently.

Our hope here is to have a creativity-filled life. To achieve that, you got to get great at the discipline of creativity. Creative practice is like eating your veggies, while the creative flow is the cake. I love cake. But Isabel Allende said it best: “Show up, show up, show up, and after a while, the muse shows up, too.” Just do your part to allow the creative forces to have space in your process.

Cultivating creativity is an important process that requires a safe space, practice, and a separation between creativity and criticism. We’re about the practice of building the creative muscle. Ideation, creation, repeat.

Separate creativity and criticism. They cannot coexist. This is the hardest for me. The critic is an important tool, but we should turn it on only after the creative process is complete. Like days after. Criticism is not a judgment of what you have done, but a hope for what’s coming. What can you change next time. Allow things to live in the world that are imperfect. Just look at Bob Dylan’s Christmas album and tell me that’s not imperfect. You’ve done far greater work, Bob. The focus should be on the process rather than endlessly tweaking for perfection, which may hinder the project from seeing the light of day.

Don’t live in “fix it” mode

We are all powerful beings. More powerful than we often allow ourselves to think. Your existence has purpose and the fun part of life is figuring out what that purpose is. Creativity is a way of expressing that purpose. Maybe we’ll never know, but maybe life isn’t about the end goal but the process of becoming.

Everyone’s creative process is different, and experimentation with different techniques and tips is essential to find what works best for you. So go out there and create freely and powerfully. Audacity is the friend of creativity!

***Images are from film swaps I’ve done over the years with friends. They shoot through a roll, put it in the mail, I shoot through the roll, and we hope the odds are ever in our favor. We just showed up and made some cool stuff.