Creativity is a Muscle and Most of Us Are Out of Shape
A hot take on why “creative people” aren’t just born that way.
We’ll just put it out there: “creative people” don’t just start life that way. With the exception of geniuses and child prodigies, people develop their creative skill overtime. The phrase “use it or lose it” comes to mind as an example.
Let’s be real here, we’ve all had those “if only” thoughts. If only I had more free time to learn a new skill. If only I put more time into drawing or reading when I was younger. If only I just had as much creativity as what’s-her-face. Don’t fret, you’re not the only one who feels like they could add bland and uninspired to their resume. Lots of people view themselves as less than creative. There’s actually a decent amount of psychology behind the phenomenon and Creative Something wrote a great article touching on that science.
The fastest way to lose motivation for a project is by feeling like you or your work isn’t enough. The fear of creating something that isn’t whatever enough can be crippling. Let’s look at some hypothetical examples. You don’t submit that report because it doesn’t feel smart enough. You never start that new project because you don’t feel brave enough. You never finish that painting because it doesn’t seem creative enough.
Well, enough is enough.
We feel passionately about this because we’ve experienced the same fear. The desire to put out creative content or video production work that shouted “I’m creative as hell” brought forth a fear of putting anything out. Of course, as a creative studio it’s our goal to create things that are, you know, creative. But it’s not that our self-expectations were unattainable, it’s just that fear of failure was prohibiting any forward progress.
Let’s explore another analogy.
Creativity
as a Muscle
It’s a Monday morning in early January. You’ve set a New Year’s resolution for yourself to get in shape and your goal is to bench 230lbs. Great. Go you. You step up to the bench press, ready to crush that resolution. Only you can’t. Because you haven’t lifted since you were in high school.
Having goals and aspirations isn’t the issue. The problem is not putting in the work to deliver the results you’re looking for. If you want your muscles to perform in a certain way, you gotta flex them. Get in reps and don’t be afraid to start small.
Creativity works the same way. Everyone’s got a body and creativity is as much a part of it as the shoulders, knees, and toes. It’s a muscle that needs to be flexed, stretched, and worked. And we’re not the only ones that think so. Business News Daily has an awesome article about learning to be creative.
Creativity
as a Process
Interestingly enough, “trusting the process” isn’t just a cliché phrase to throw out when things get messy. There isn’t a threshold that you cross that suddenly makes you a creative. As much as we might wish that there was a magic wardrobe that sent us to the land of innovative and imaginative ideas, there just isn’t. Creative isn’t something you become. A great statement. It’s also another great article from Creative Something. Creative is a journey with no solid destination.
Waiting is hard. We get it. In a world of instant gratification, we just expect things to happen in the here and now. But good things take time. And not just time, but hard work and tenacity. Week one of a twelve-week plan isn’t going to get your very far.
Creativity
in Practice
This is the fun part. We get to share some practical steps to put all these concepts into practice. At littledrill, we like to say “Get Weird. Have Fun”. Pushing the boundaries of what’s normal to conjure up some really creative product photography is what we live for.
“Getting weird” implies the stretching of comfort zones and the realm of the ordinary. You can start to think all the “what ifs” that you can think of and just do them.
The “having fun” piece reminds us all to stay rooted. The world, or rather certain cultures, may have us believe that in order to be successful we have to work the nine to five and make the highest salary we can. We call bull. There’s much more to life than what we can do for the corporate machine. How much joy have we missed simply by trying to save face and maintain normalcy?
We found a great article from Canva that shares nine tips on how to flex and shape that creativity muscle. We picked out a few of our favorites to share with you.
Try New things Find new opportunities or experiences that you can learn from.
Take A Walk Surveys show we get most of our inspiration on walks.
Go Green Surround yourself with green. Studies in neuroscience says it may help with the generation of creative thought.
Keep a Cluttered Desk Seems almost counterintuitive, but studies show that a cluttered workspace can improve your creativity by breaking routine and pattern.
So there it is, the truth about creativity. We encourage you to go now and stretch that muscle. Start somewhere small and don’t be afraid to fail. The fear of not being good enough shouldn’t keep you from trying. Most importantly though, remember to Get Weird and Have Fun.
Written by Jen Karn + littledrill