Great artists and creative people understand the power of the “creative instinct” – that sick, gnawing feeling we have when we know something is very right or very wrong. The only way to develop our instincts is to continue to trust them, regardless of outcome and refusing to compromise when we know we are right.

This is a dangerous position.

We risk failure. We risk a loss of equity. We risk embarrassment.

But if we don’t follow our instinct and stand up for our what we know, what we feel, what will prove itself to be right, that’s a worse failure than compromising. Never taking a risk emasculates our art.

Author Jeffrey Hayzlett says: “A good litmus test for the value of your idea, no matter how big or small it may be: it cannot compromise your principles of who or what you are, even if it violates the procedures you have in place.”

That’s the key. Never compromise your principles while following your instincts.

Mission and art. Creativity and purpose. Principles and risk. All necessary for creative impact.

Your instincts matter. Don’t compromise great art, art that will have an impact, because of fear. You are creative and your organization needs your instincts if it’s going to grow and innovate. Allow your mission and principles to be your guide as you create art that will scare and be uncomfortable for others.

Have you learned to trust your creative instinct?
Do you know the principles of your organization well enough to not violate the principles when you refuse to compromise on your art and instincts?

Photo Props:

We are creative. No secret there. But, have we ever taken the time to process how our creativity actually works? In a recent article on the development of creative plans, the Harvard Business Review developed the “Essential Five-Step Processes For Creativity”:

1. Identification -
What is the problem?
How do we define the problem?
What is the data that surrounds this problem that will allow us to be our creative best?
Are there alternative methods, messages, or ideas around this problem?
In the identification stage, creative people thrive because we’re able to move more nimbly through the data, collect better data – due to the approaches and lens from which we view the issues. We offer uncommon and not normal view points of the problem and approach the issues far different than those who are more rationally wired.

2. Mapping -

The process of consciously and unconsciously connecting thoughts, related or otherwise. This is where our ideas are born. We pull on experience, history, imagery, and imagination to attempt to find commonality and connections between things that may not naturally connect. The more obscure these things are, the more creative we become.

3. Connecting -

The moment where the connections begin to galvanize. This is where the equation begins to make sense and the pieces of our creative plan start to come together.

4. Evaluation -

The attempt to grade and prioritize the ideas. Will these ideas work? Are they good enough to solve the problem? Do they have holes or potential error zones that will cause new problems?

5. Improvement -

This stage separates the professionals from the weekend warriors. The more creative, innovative, or inventive the artist, the more time they spend in this stage. Repeating, editing, refining, and sometimes scrapping and returning to stage 1 in order to ensure the best idea – the idea that uniquely solves our problem, when possible, like no one else has thought of before and without imitation.

Once we have mapped how we actually come up with ideas, it can help us become better at being our creative best.

Do you notice these steps in how you process creatively?

We hope this post is like coffee for your creativity.

We often hear how success changes people.

You know the story: someone we know is super cool, and then they find success or get a little power in their position and suddenly become a jerk.

It’s not true.

Success does not change us, it only magnifies what has always existed inside of us.

See, when we start out, we have zero equity. With zero equity comes zero influence. No one has to put up with us because they have nothing to lose by blowing us off and we usually have nothing to offer them that will improve their situation. Over time, our talent and creativity start to develop. We start to get a little better at what we do and people notice. As people notice, we start to have more opportunity. When we dominate our new opportunities we get more “successful”. Now, the same people who would pay us little attention desire to get all of our attention.

So how are we going to act?

We talk a ton about developing our creative gifts. We work hard to study and refine our skills. But how much time are we talking to make sure we are capable of handling any success that may come our way?

• Start by serving others every day. Find a way to serve others rather than being served by others.
• Remember what got you here. Then, repeat it every day. Don’t change the reason why you do what you’ve always done.
• Imagine what life is like in “their” shoes. Others’ opinions and perspective is based on the baggage they bring into our relationships, just like our perspective is based on our baggage.
• Accept the blame but give away the praise. It will keep us grounded and remind us how important it is to have other great people in our lives.
• Don’t read your press. It’s dangerous and when you start to believe it, it will kill you.
• Avoid the highs and lows. We’re never as good as our successful moments. But we’re also never as bad as our failures. Understand that life is going to bring us both. Our identity is not found in what we do but in who we are.
• Have someone who can stop you in your tracks. We all need one person who can be the voice of reason in our lives – the person who loves us enough to tell us the truth, even when we don’t want to hear it, that can stop us dead in our tracks.
• Never ask anyone to do something you would not do. Plain and simple.
• Be someone’s champion. Finding other talented and up-and-coming people helps us remember how we arrived. At some point, someone took a chance on us. Who are we willing to take a chance on?
• Remember who you are. You. Not your art. Not your song. Not your message. Not your gift or your talent. Who are you. The person your kids knows. That person your Mom calls on Saturdays…stay connected to that girl/guy.

And never forget…

Success does not change us, it only magnifies what has always existed inside of us.

How do you stay grounded?

School often tries to teach us formulas and rules to how we should approach problems and life, for that matter. Anyone who has ever been tasked or called to create understands that creativity is not built on formulas, but on inspiration, rhythm, and free thinking. A recent issue of Pyschology Today released a list of 12 things our schools failed to teach us about creativity // with a little commentary:

• 1. You are creative. // Everyone is creative. Not everyone is an artist, but everyone is creative.
• 2. Creative thinking is work. // Creativity does not just appear. It takes work, effort, and practice. Creativity is a muscle that has to be exercised. The more it’s exercised, the better it becomes.
• 3. You must go through the motions of being creative. // Sometimes the motions help us find our rhythm. Rhythm is so important to creativity. When we find our rhythm, we’re able to do better work.
• 4. Your brain is not a computer. // You have to feed it, let it rest, protect it. We can’t treat our brain like a machine because, in doing so, our expectations will not be met.
• 5. There is no right answer. // Search for new ways and new options to do what we’ve always done and the things we’ve never done before.
• 6. Never stop with your first good idea. // Ideas get better the more we work with and develop them.
• 7. Expect the experts to be negative. // People are going to hate. It’s our job to shake the haters. We should be creating art that people love or hate – not art that lives in the middle. When art lives in the middle, it’s ignored and that is way worse than it being hated.
• 8. Trust your instincts. // You were made to do this. The more you trust your instincts, the better they will get. Learn to hear them and then be brave enough to trust them.
• 9. There is no such thing as failure. // Failing is simply uncovering what didn’t work so we can try it a different way next time. If we live in fear of failure, we will never create great art.
• 10. You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are. // Our perspective, as creative people, provides a lens that is different from everyone else’s. Our best creativity will help us solve new problems, be innovative, and create better art when we apply that lens to everything we see.
• 11. Always approach a problem on its own terms. // Just like no two artists are the same, neither are any two problems.
• 12. Learn to think unconventionally. // A. Stay in a posture of learning. B. Work to find new ways of thinking, processing, and to find new lenses to filter information. The better we get at this task, the better we will be at creating things that have never before been created.

Most of us are out of school, but we should go back for a minute and study these missed lessons. Let’s find ways to re-learn and use these missing lessons to be our absolute best in how we approach our art.

Are there any other lessons you have learned about creativity that you wish you had learned in school but didn’t?