2 (for now...) Ways to Challenge Your Creative Mind Every Day
To Be Creative is a Constant Challenge
I spend a great deal not only trying to be creative as an artist and designer, but I also spend maybe too much time thinking about the nature of creativity itself. The motivation is simple – I know that right now I am and will always be a freelance professional who is dependent on my new ideas. Period. The second I am unable to keep creative thoughts coming and create freely, productively, and meaningfully, my career comes to a screeeeeeching halt.
Fighting for that Vividness
SO. I thought it would be healthy for my boggled mind to form these thoughts on paper and do what Dumbledore does and pull out my memories within the Steemit environment. Like it or not, YOU probably also deal with this to a certain degree just like I do since Steemit in itself is creative platform that constantly demands your innovative thought.
Complacency Kills Creativity
My biggest fear in life? To put it simply, I'm afraid of being complacent. I believe that complacency is the killer of creativity, the Freddy Kreuger of the Right Brain, the Greek hunter of Muse, the Ghostbuster to the geist of genius. Creative action comes from anxiety and friction, the impulsive need to act or else fade away.
Netflix and chill......Zzzzz...
Unfortunately, the way our general lives are set up, we are encouraged more and more to seek complacency or also considered “security.” School, job, marriage, family, finite vacation days, pension, paid mortgage, and so on and so on. The boundless freedom of youth, untethered to real responsibility, is slowly weighed by the consequences of adulthood. We as human animals innately desire safety and predictability. This KILLS creativity.
The tone of all this is probably overly alarmist, but as a creative professional, I will tell you from first hand experience that creative lulls or “writer's block” or other moments of slowing down are terrifying. So in the last several years of working as co-founder of design collective @hitheryon with @voronoi, traveling the world as a penny-pinching artist, and now working on Steem Park, these are the best tips that I can find to keep that creative ball rolling. They might seem straightforward and “duh” (it definitely does for me as I edit this post) but above all, I wanted to concretize these thoughts on the Steemit blockchain to hold myself accountable and have a place I can always come to when I need to bulldoze over my artistic boundaries.
1 – Keep Doing It. Now, Tomorrow, Always.
99% Perspiration, 1% Inspiration. Image source: NPR
There are always moments when the left brain doubts the right side-
I used to design, paint, write, etc. simply because I enjoyed it. It afforded me refuge from stressful exams and relationship problems. I did them only when I felt like it. When I liked it.
I realized more and more that if I left my creativity in the hands of my whimsical mood, I would be doing it a great disservice. That means every gloomy day or whenever I “didn't feel like it,” I would make up a timely excuse for myself to watch Netflix instead. Not acceptable!
Innovation is a muscle in your body; if you don't flex it, it will shrink and eventually diminish to a pitiful state. Exercise has always been the utmost analogy to creative thought, flex and stretch every day as if building your body. It will keep the new juices flowing.
2 – Every week, do something you've never done or go somewhere you've never gone.
It doesn't have to be skydiving or a road trip through Europe. Tiny moves like a new restaurant that isn't yet listed on YELP or getting off at a random subway stop in your city. The ambition is to disrupt your accustomed trajectory. New sensations, new experiences, new memories stimulate your brain to think in different ways.
Swim in a different pond every so often!
I want to emphasize that I don't believe it's enough to just take in new knowledge, that can also be a dangerously complacent environment. Pick up that newspaper and read it on top of the tallest building in your town. Our minds are most stimulated by tactile, objective experiences. Throw on those walking shoes and power your way to a nook in the world you've yet to enter.
Creativity Never Comes “Naturally”
Your creative mind is a towel. Soak up all you can from wherever you can and squeeze it for every drop that will come out. Rinse and repeat. It isn't easy and it isn't a luxury.
But it is a privilege. To be able to explore the world with free minds is a tremendous opportunity for us on and off the platform of Steemit. Let's use this time together on this communal website/blockchain to push each other to our most productive limits.
I know this post is pretty rigorous, even aggressive in tone. But I've found that this “Hell Yeah let's do this” and “Do or Die” attitude is needed to power through the obstacles put in the way of open thinkers in this world. See you at the finish line.
follow me @hansikhouse! | design collective @hitheryon
I feel so related to this post. Back when lumosity started i was at least 1 hour on the webpage trying to keep my mind sharp.
Great post, you have great content, just started following you.
Thank you so much!
Great post! While I think portions of this are a bit alarmist (as you admit). I'm a believer of friction being entirely relative. It's a discover-able creative catalyst (I agree) that can be found almost anywhere. Even (yes even) a "mortgage" payment.
This all reminds me of a conversation I had with Bob and Denise about creativity. Denise spoke at length about the societal expectation of bearing children. Her creativity was constantly marginalized for being a woman in a man's world, in the 70s and still today. She sort of flipped the script... in that, she embraced the friction of her pregnancy (I think she jokingly used the word "complexity and contradiction") and used that newfound energy to discover, innovate, pursue. She said that men will never be able to have that experience and that's an advantage for women. Like the ultimate source of friction. My point being, creativity is a muscle (yes) but it's also everywhere and at every stage in life. You just have to keep your eyes open and at the ready.
Fun post @hansikhouse and I like what you've said @voronio - "My point being, creativity is a muscle (yes) but it's also everywhere and at every stage in life. You just have to keep your eyes open and at the ready."
So true!
Absolutely, and I didn't mean to make it seem these are the only ways to maintain creativity. It's all around us but I think we (at least speaking for myself) sometimes fall into this trap that unless I feel creative today, I can't do creative work, much like if I don't feel strong, I should skip training for that marathon I'm planning.
That's a fascinating way to look at pregnancy and it's true that it's an ultimate human triumph that men will never experience... =P
Nice post and good read. Good ideas for new users trying to make some money with steemit. Steem on Bro, you now have a new follower!
Thanks! Building up an account isn't half bad as well when you're a creative on Steemit. ;D
creativity at its best! Wonderful post @hansikhouse <3 Instant UV and RS
Thanks!! Really appreciated
you're most welcome, my pleasure ;-))
I agree with you absolutely.
Thank you for reading!
You are welcome.
You wrote it really nice.
Been experimenting to be more proactive in writing the past weeks, i like writing but always ended up leaving it to times when ´I feel inspired' and for then coming to the realization that I haven´t written anything in 6 months.
I've been there many many times in the last several years from painting to starting a business. Motivation is a tricky thing. Maybe this is fodder for a future post- I've found that what really sustains me is having legitimate goals with expected consequences, essentially stretching initial inspiration into longterm purpose. If we create things just to scratch a fleeting inspirational itch, we're going to have a tough time the next day and the following...
very well put
Good read, its always so easy to put it off for later, or to get distracted by things that "seem" more productive. Steemit has inspired me to create more and posts like these are always helpful for an amateur like myself. Thanks!
Same here! After being on the platform for several months, I'm finally starting to figure out why I'm on this platform and how I can make the platform support/motivate my career goals.
This is a great post. This line:
Was true. Is true. Will be true.
In my own life, I have found that "moving through crap" works wonder. There are problems - they will exist - yet the ability to pass through them is what changes us.
That's exactly the same for me, thought I admit it's so much easier said than done. Really being able to creatively get through the worst/defeating of days/situations is what really defines innovation in my humble opinions.
Why this belief?
True. People underestimate the possibility of "free thinking" - that, to me, is really creativity.
I would love to think that I'm prone to really working at it every day without fail but it just isn't (mostly "wasn't") and that was the main motivation behind this post, to keep myself as well as help others keep Steeming forward.
The underestimation is real, we all just need the right spark time to time.
Yep! I acknowledge that. :)
Waiting has helped no one, as you know. I love being here now. Wish everyone here is motivated and pumped up to chase their dreams, you know!
I agree with your second point.
Whenever I go somewhere I never gone, it kinda boosts my confidence and makes me feel more creative.
And I think we should really think of these methods in the same way athletes utilize training at high altitudes or getting massages to relax muscles. It's all part of the process to make us stronger!
Great post and interesting thoughts, man! Resteemed and followed.
Thank you!!