04/28/07
Filed under:
General
Posted by:
Michael Erkiletian @ 9:19 am
Dreaming with your eyes open. What does that mean? We have all done it at some point, and it is a moment of bliss for anybody who loves creativity. It prompts you to grab napkins at restaurants to jot down your ideas. And then you go out and buy a voice recorder because your ideas are flowing so fast you don’t have time to write them down. Man, those are the greatest moments, ever.
But lately I’m hearing a lot of feedback from my friends about the exact opposite: creative blocks. Those times when you bang your head against the desk, and still nothing manifests. The harder you try, the less you seem to produce, until anger builds up and you eventually begin to lose confidence in yourself. I have good news for your desk. There is a solution.
But before we talk about the solution, we must understand the cause. Think about what’s happening when we bang our heads against our desks and get angry. We become frustrated because we are trying to fix the symptom, not the cause. Fix the cause, and the symptoms go away.
The next question is, what’s the origin of our creativity? Think of it as a machine that needs fuel to run. When the machine is empty, it does us little good to kick it. We have to get more fuel, right?
Creativity is fueled by our own life experiences. Plain and simple, life experiences spark our creativity. And for the record, a life experience can be anything you love doing that involves you directly interacting with your set environment.
Get ready for a little math. Don’t worry — I hate math, too, but this is a simple ratio. How much time are you spending inside your office working on your creative projects? And how often are you outside of it, creating life experiences? I know it is impossible for most people to keep the ratio perfectly balanced, but you should know the more the ratio falls toward sitting in your office, the more likely you are heading toward a creative block.
I also advise you get out and try the things you are interested in doing, but haven’t. Variety will sharpen the edge of your creative blade. Travel to places you have always wanted to explore. Always keep the experience fresh, and I promise you, your machine will be running on an endless supply of super-fuel.