One of the things I love about technology is how it has made the creativity accessible to everyone. There was once a day people could not record albums on their computers or make movies on cards. It all required expensive alternatives. Today anyone with an idea, a phone, and a computer can create almost anything. Technology has removed some excuses and permissioned us to be more brave in our creation.

A few years ago a young producer in Australia had the idea of taking old Disney films and remixing them with tracks he had created. Quickly they became YouTube sensations. So much so that Disney brought him in and asked him to start creating teaser remixes for films that had not yet been released. POGO found a way to take art, remix it, and turn it into something of his own. He took a chance and started creating based on his idea, not because someone told him to and not after he received permission. He let his ideas and his art creating the opportunity.

Here is the first piece pogo created 4 years and 9 million YouTube views ago:

And the first one he was hired to do for Disney:

And my fave:

Pogo had a dream…and he chased it. He followed his passion. He created his art and from his art he found a new career that changed his life.

Why do we allow fear to rob us from creating our art? Why do we feel we need permission to create when really our art creates permission for others to feel? It’s time to be brave.

What idea are you holding on to that need to be exposed? What have you held of creating waiting for permission when it has already been given to you and is just waiting for you to act?

Your art just might save someone’s life, but not if you are too afraid to share it with the rest of us.

Photo Props

In 1976, psychologist Silvano Arieti wrote a book entitled “Creativity:The Magic Synthesis.” Arieti specialized in two fields: creativity and schizophrenia. The two fields are probably not as far apart as we would first believe. Arieti’s book summarized nine conditions that he felt were necessary for creativity:

• Isolation. Being alone allows us to find ourselves, as well as to be open to new kinds of inspiration.
• Inactivity. We have to find time to get out of our routines. We need time to focus on “inner resources”.
• Daydreaming. Creating the space to allow ourselves to explore our thoughts and dreams; to just freestyle and not have the pressure of constraints to limit or stagnate our creative process.
• Free thinking. Finding ways to allow our mind to wander in any direction. Doing this gives us permission to explore topics that are not in our normal routines or thought processes. Doing this helps us find connection points between things we may not have connected and concepts we wouldn’t naturally link up.
• State of readiness to catch similarities. Seeing things from our creative lens and not our analytical lens; looking at things differently.
• Gullibility. Suspending judgment allows us to explore ideas without treating them with prejudice.
• Remembering and replaying past traumatic conflicts. Conflict creates more and new creative concepts.
• Alertness. Having our antenna up allows us to the ability to find relevance in things we may not normally be recognizing.
• Discipline. Finding the ability to do the work necessary to realize and then, systematically plan the execution of our ideas.
• We all love the times we are “in the flow” – when creativity is flowing and we are just able to ride the rhythm. But often that rhythm is broken. Especially when we are busy, tired, or under stress. Being intentional with these nine tools can help us rejuvenate our creative process and find that rhythm we are looking for to create our best work.

When do you find yourself needing to create creativity?
Have you identified any other practices that work for you when you need to create creativity?

Creativity is a muscle. When we work it out, it gets stronger and when we fail to exercise it, we get weaker. The act of creating takes sweat and effort. A series of studies done on some of the most creative “geniuses” in history has identified a few trends common in extremely creative people that innovate and create ideas to influence change in their fields. Here are eight exercises that can make us creatively stronger:

• Think Visibly. – Don’t just rest on language. Allow space, pictures, diagrams, and technology to enhance how we see communicate and articulate. Find ways to tell stories via pictures instead of words. Images will change how people relate to our art and will change the way stories are told.
• Don’t just talk, produce – We won’t always create masterpieces. However, masterpieces will never exist if we don’t create. Creativity takes reps, and lots of them. We always see the highlight reels of creative teams, but we don’t see the number of attempts, the failed ideas, the edited content, the stuff that never sees the light of day. Great creative elements and ideas are the result of lots of failed, dorky, bad, and poorly executed attempts to create something good.
• Create Connections- Some of our most creative ideas come from combining things that don’t naturally live together. Creating connections between opposites is a fantastic exercise for enhancing our creativity. Work to connect unconnected items in an effort to get creatively better.
• Change the Lens – Don’t be afraid to tear a problem or situation apart. Sometimes deconstructing a situation and rebuilding it can help us identify solutions. Changing perspectives can help us find solutions not always visible at first look. This process takes work and often takes some patience, but when done correctly will uncover ideas and results that can make lasting impacts.
• Suspend Reality – We live in a real world, but creativity thrives in imagination and possibility. When we’re able to suspend reality and cut off the voices that try to rationalize our creativity, we’ll find new creative roads to travel. Without reality, we see new possibilities.
• Dream in Metaphors – Metaphors are ways to articulate story in more accessible ways. People may not remember data, but they remember stories. When we share our ideas in metaphors, we learn to be more creative and more complete in creating our thought processes.
• Get Back Up – Failure provides the opportunity to try again. When we try again, we have a chance to be more audacious, more creative, and more gritty with how we create. Leveraging fear and failure makes us better than we could dream possible. Failing also allows us to ask questions and remove data that doesn’t work from the equation.
• Press Pause – Create and work hard…then press pause. Step away. Give creativity room to breathe. Then come back. The chance to get away from our creative process, idea, or project will allow us to come back and see it in a new light. It will give us the chance to identify areas or elements we may have missed. Pressing pause is the least attractive option because it forces us to beat deadlines and create margin. But, when it does, it makes us so much better.

Do you employ any of these exercises in your life? Are there any other exercises you might add to the list?

Photo Props:

We’ve all made errors. As much as we hate to admit it, errors often lurk in our past attempting to keep us from creating our absolute best art. Novelist James Joyce once said:

A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.

In order to overcome excessive obsession with our errors, we have to learn how to transition our mistakes into opportunities. In his book, The Musicians Way, Gerald Klicstien shares three assets of making errors:

1. Errors Are Not Failures – Failure is a lasting loss. Errors are not permanent unless we give them permission to be so. As much as errors try to be more than errors, we have to keep them in perspective.

2. Errors Are Not Shameful – Errors only become shameful if we allow them to live with us and do not move past them. Shame says that we’ve placed our value in our art and not in who we’ve been created to be. When we believe our errors change our value or cause us to be inferior, we’ve forfeited our true identity for a counterfeit. Errors tells us what we need to learn, not who we are or who we should be. We need to use our errors to make us better.

3. Errors Are Information – Once we move past the emotion and negativity of an error, we can then clearly see that errors provide data. Errors, in their natural form, have no emotion – but as artists, we often project emotion on our errors. When this happens, we devalue the data that is waiting to be discovered.

As artists, we tend to agonize over our mistakes rather than using them to make ourselves better. We need to make sure that we’re leveraging our errors, not giving them strongholds over our lives, emotions, or ability to produce. We are more than our errors or successes.

How do you leverage your errors to make yourself better?

Photo Props:

Equity in an organization is so important. Creative teams can create all day long but if the rest of the organization does not trust them it does not matter. Further, when equity erodes, it creates a barrier between creators and the products they are creating. Without a distribution source creative ideas and products become creations for vanity.

So how do we protect our equity? What traps can we avoid that will damage our equity inside of our organizations? Here are a few:

• Believe the hype – Never read our own press. Good or bad. Remember the work, the process, and the team. When we start to accept the praise we set the expectation that we must also accept the failure. Find the balance. Celebrate the wins and learn from the losses, but don’t over believe the good or the bad. That roller coaster will kill you.
• Stop creating and start repeating – New creations keep us fresh. Not just us, those whom which we work also get fresh with new ideas and creations. When we fall into the trap of repeating and reusing elements we risk future creativity and innovation. This one little short cut can retard the creative culture of our organizations or churches.
• Stop learning – We can’t stop learning. Do research. Find out what other people are doing and what is working. Don’t copy them…but study your industry. Know where art is going and how technology can be leveraged for your benefit. Read and read a lot! Keep learning to stay sharp and creative.
• Become difficult – If we become a pain in the butt, people don’t want to work with us. Sure, for a while your talent will force them to put up with you but eventually the pain of trying to work with us will pass your talent and leave us lonely. Always treat people how you would want to be treated. The quote “People judge themselves on intention and others on action” is hauntingly true in the lives of artists. Extend grace to the level we would want to receive grace.
• Refuse to be flexible – Flexibility and creativity go hand in hand. When we stop being flexible we strangle creativity and process. Fight for ways to be flexible it creates space for creativity.
• Blow Deadlines – This one is tricky. Most projects have a due date and hitting that date is the “deadline”. However, when we fail to plan we hurt our best creative ideas. Managing time is about the entire scope of the project, not just the last 48 hours. Find ways to work further out on projects so they get space to breathe. When this happens we will have a better chance at creating our best work, not just our fastest.
• Over promise under deliver – It will hurt us every time. If we make a promise…keep it. And never make promises that we don’t have control over.
• Stop asking questions – If we don’t ask questions we ignore possibilities. Questions make every project better.
• Look for the NO CANT. – This is the first hint of negative thinking. We should be looking for the “yes and” not the “no can’t”
• Fall victim to the trap they are always right. – Other people have experiences and good input. Listen to them. We don’t have to always be right…we just have to always be willing to adapt.

Create great stuff and create it with a great attitude. We are blessed with the gift to create for a living. What an honor. If you start to see these traps popping up take time to make corrections you could be headed down the wrong route.

What are some ways you have found that cost you equity?