| < RETURN TO PUBLICATIONS | Page 2 |
Creativity
Latent Germination
Often concepts and vision need a time to brew, to simmer. Living internally with the vision gives you the opportunity to experiment and play with the idea until it comes to specific clarity. This is when your creative thoughts are growing and developing. The details are honed. To the outside world, it may appear that nothing is happening; but this deep, internal process is a powerful stage in creating. Now is not the time for sharing your creative ideas with the outside world. It is, however, a time of nurturing, formulating and giving concrete structure to your ideas.
Intense Concentration
In John Brigg’s book about creativity, The Fire in the Crucible, he says, “By doing studies of rock climbers, musicians, chess players and dancers, Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people enter an almost addicting state when they can concentrate their attention on a limited stimulus field, forget personal problems, lose their sense of time and of themselves, feel competent in control and have a deep sense of harmony and union with their surroundings.” Deep concentration enhances and boosts the creative process.
Necessary Collaboration
Howard Gardner, author of The Creating Mind, believes that collaboration enhances the creative process. He states, “I knew that at least some creators had close confidents…but what emerged from the study was more dramatic: not only did the creators all have some kind of significant support system, but this support system appeared to have a number of defining components.” People working together often amplify and improve the creative efforts of the individual.
Go for Completion
Without completion, creativity has not taken place. You can do all of the necessary steps up to completion, but if you do not produce specific envisioned results, all the steps coming before were simply a waste of time and energy.
Creating is within everyone, though it doesn’t necessarily look the same. After reading these ideas for stimulating creativity in your life, don’t be concerned if your creative efforts don’t match up to the suggestions. The mystery of the creative process is its uniqueness. It is a highly individualized process. The methodology that brings about creativity successfully for one person may not necessarily work for another.
Don’t become discouraged, just “keep on keeping on.” The one absolute essential to the creative process is that you must continually give space in your life to creating, and in the “doing” you will naturally and consistently improve your ability to create. The more you create, the more you will become a creator.
Working World
April 13, 1995
<< PREV 1 | 2
| < RETURN TO PUBLICATIONS | BACK TO TOP |