Five Essential Things I’ve Learned About Creativity
This article comes from the 50th issue of my newsletter metaphor. I launched the newsletter in October 2020, with the tagline “Tools for a productive creative life” and this introduction:
The masthead of this newsletter promises that each issue will cover “tools for a productive creative life,” including creative thinking skills and techniques, personal productivity strategies and tips, insights on the impact of new technologies, and reviews of new applications and devices. That’s my intention, but these topics are just peaks in a range of related topics. Writing about tools for a productive creative life means writing about what makes us human—about our development as a species, about the development of culture, and about hope.
We homo sapiens are tool makers. As Yuval Noah Harari writes in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, “The first evidence for tool production dates from about 2.5 million years ago, and the manufacture and use of tools are the criteria by which archaeologists recognise ancient humans.” Maker culture tells us I think, I make, I know.
The development of culture is deeply tied to our development of and relationship with tools. Tools and techniques (aka "know how") are byproducts of our creative problem-solving skills. They are manifestations of our desire to do better, to improve. Art is also an expression of our creative problem-solving skills. Art expresses our desire to give our lives meaning. Any ongoing discussion on how to live a productive creative life will inevitably touch on these essential spiritual and motivational issues from time to time.
I didn’t know where my initial intention would take me–and that’s been the fun of it.
This issue presents five essential things I’ve learned about creativity from writing the last 49 issues of metaphor—over 85,000 words.
1. Creativity is a mindset
Creativity is not a trait, it’s a skill–something you can cultivate and develop. The psychologist Robert Sternberg studied the lives of successful creative people and found that they all had one thing in common—they consciously chose to live a creative life.
Creative people consciously cultivate ways of thinking and acting that nurture their creativity. They work at developing their knowledge of their craft, their emotional intelligence, and their empathy for their intended audience. They cultivate “the creative’s mindset.”
The creative’s mindset is a collection of ideas about creativity that inform:
Your beliefs about the nature of creativity.
The story you tell yourself about your creative capacity
Your aesthetic.
How you develop, express, and share your creative ideas.
The creative’s mindset is focused on understanding and revealing the possibilities in life, and developing the discipline required to realize those possibilities in the work you create and share with others. It’s based on the understanding that creativity is a continuous process of questioning, exploring, problem solving, and personal growth. When you choose to make creativity a core pillar in your life, you change your relationship to failure and perfectionism. You know that you’ll always circle back. Nothing is ever really done. There’s always a second chance to express an idea because you believe that creativity isn’t a one-and-done thing–it’s a way of being.
The development of the creative’s mindset is essential to what the educator and author Jason Wirtz calls “the receptive stance,” a position of “extreme humility in the face of discovering new ideas.” In the receptive stance, you are the conduit for creative ideas, not the originator. You’re not trying to control the outcome of your work; you’re surrendering to the creative process and following it wherever it leads. You trust that the creative process is smarter than you are, that the connections between ideas aren’t made, they’re revealed—to your surprise and delight.
Choosing creativity doesn’t require choosing the life of an artist, or even choosing to make art. It simply means choosing to invest in and cultivate your creativity. The development of the creative’s mindset can enrich your creative contributions in any pursuit or career.
You may have noticed that I use the possessive apostrophe in the phrase “the creative’s mindset.” When you choose creativity and make it a habit, it becomes part of your identity—something you own, not something you try on from time to time.
For more on this topic, see the following previously published articles:
2. Creativity is a habit
Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell.
—Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
The notion of creativity as a habit stands in stark contrast to the symbols frequently used to represent creativity: the lightning bolt and the light bulb. The aha moment, the flash of insight that instantly makes everything clear, isn’t a random stroke of luck. It’s the end result of long hours of preparation and practice.
“Practice” has two meanings that are relevant in this context. The first is the verb form of practice: the repeated performance of an activity or skill in order to improve or develop proficiency. Artists practice their skills and technique to achieve to master their creative medium. When you achieve mastery of your medium, you minimize the mental energy required to figure out how to express your ideas and maximize your focus on what you want to express. We know this kind of mastery when we witness it: the arms of a pianist who has mastered the instrument float above the keyboard. It’s often hard to see their fingers moving, and yet, the music flows from the piano.
The attainment of an advanced level of domain knowledge, technique, and skill in your field enables your brain to use its “auto-pilot” mode for the basic cognitive functions required to produce the work you're focused on. This enables you to use your mental energy to focus on the higher cognitive functions associated with creativity itself: situational awareness, intuition, and improvisation. When you engage these higher levels of cognition, you tap into what neuroscientists refer to as the brain’s “plasticity”—its ability to recognize new connections, form new patterns, and literally change its shape.
The second relevant meaning of “practice” is the noun form: a customary, habitual, or expected way of doing something. Practice builds habits. Over time, habits develop into a routine, a practice. Productive practices become rituals: a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order that accrues meaning over time. Unlike habits, which are things we do without thinking, rituals have symbolic meaning. They engage our emotions and focus our attention. Rituals are a formal preparation for action.
An essential element of any habit, routine, or ritual is repetition. In The Creative Habit, Tharp writes:
It’s vital to establish some rituals—automatic but decisive patterns of behavior—at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up or going the wrong way.
She adds:
The ritual erases the question of whether or not I like it. It’s also a friendly reminder that I’m doing the right thing. (I’ve done it before. It was good. I’ll do it again.)
When you make creativity a ritual, you assert your agency as a creative, protect what matters to you, and give your daily practice meaning.
For more on this topic, see the following previously published articles:
3. Creativity is contextual
Who are your creative icons? Chances are most of the artists, scientists, inventors, and others who come to mind are widely celebrated “geniuses.” We rightfully celebrate those whose conceptual breakthroughs and creative works have permanently changed the world we live in. But creative achievements of world-changing magnitude are rare. Still, this is the highwater mark many of us use to measure our own creativity.
If the gauge you’re using to assess your creativity includes just one level marked “genius,” you’re setting yourself up for failure. We need a more nuanced understanding of creativity—an approach to thinking and talking about creativity that isn’t binary: either you’re a creative genius or you’re not. We also need a way of contextualizing our creative work so we can more clearly understand motivations and intentions that drive our creativity at each stage of our development, and how we can be more empathetic judges of our own work.
“The Four C Model of Creativity,” developed by the psychologists James C. Kaufman and Ronald A. Beghetto, provides a framework for understanding creativity in its earliest stages, where it supports the development of personal curiosity, exploration, and learning, to creativity in its most impactful forms in our professional lives. The model lays out creativity along a continuum that begins with interpretive creativity:
Interpretive creativity (aka “mini-c” creativity) is essential to developing your curiosity, learning, and discovering what may eventually become creative passions, especially for children. The mini-c concept also validates the decision many of us make to remain dedicated amateurs in some areas of our creative lives. One of the primary satisfactions in personal creative pursuits is that you’re creating for an audience of one. You are the only judge of the worth of your work. Mini-c creativity is the playground for your creative intuitions and for many, the gateway to a creative life.
Everyday Creativity (aka “little-c” creativity) evolves as you follow your creative passion and focus your time and attention on a specific domain. Creativity at this level involves learning about the history, customs, and quality standards of your chosen domain. If you’re building toward a career in your chosen field, you’ll also need to learn what it takes, both personally and professionally, to develop your domain expertise and command of the required skills. In addition, you need to learn how to solicit feedback on your work and respond to it with appropriate consideration.
Professional Creativity (aka “Pro-c” creativity) requires a sustained passion for your field along with continuous investment in your professional development. It’s achieved after years of research, experimentation, and creative expression in your specific domain or field. Pro-c creators are experts who regularly meet and often exceed the standards of their professions. Participation in the Pro-c level also exposes you and your work to the highest levels of scrutiny from other experts in your field, and often from the public.
Eminent Creativity (aka “Big-C” creativity) is the type of creativity most commonly associated with “genius.” These are the breakthrough contributions that have stood the test of time. Eminent creativity is reserved for the elite few—the legends in their respective fields who are also widely known by the general public. It is typically a posthumous distinction.
Too many creatives are under the spell of the narrative of genius, believing that achieving legendary status (in their lifetimes, no less) is the only worthwhile validation of their creativity. It’s difficult to think otherwise in our celebrity-focused culture.
The Four C Model validates other, more achievable and equally worthy manifestations of creativity. It gives you a framework you can use to craft a more nuanced story about your creative life—one that integrates all of your competing interests, ambitions, and obligations. It doesn’t demand that you’re all in or else you’re out… You can be a serious artist and a mom trying to find the right balance between your career ambitions and the needs of your family. You can focus on the little-c creative accomplishments that your current life allows and maintain your Pro-C ambitions—and know that you are seriously engaged in developing your creative life. You can judge your current work with empathy and kindness, holding yourself to standards that are appropriate to the level of creativity your current circumstances allow, and you can focus on the acquisition of the skills you’ll need to fully realize your ambitions when you have the time those ambitions require. This is what creative freedom is like when you break free from the archetypal myth of creative genius and understand that creativity is contextual.
For more on this topic, see the following previously published articles:
View and download my one-page summary of The Four C Model of Creativity (PDF)
4. Creativity requires working outside the brain
The fourth thing I’ve learned about creativity is that creativity requires working outside your brain. Requires… As Annie Murphy Paul reminds us, our biological brains are being pushed to their limits–and beyond:
What we’re coming up against are universal limits, constraints on the biological brain that are shared by every human on the planet. Despite the hype, our mental endowment is not boundlessly powerful or endlessly plastic. The brain has firm limits—on its ability to remember, its capacity to pay attention, its facility with abstract and nonintuitive concepts—and the culture we have created for ourselves now regularly exceeds these limits.
—Annie Murphy Paul, “How to Think Outside Your Brain.” The New York Times, June 11, 2021.
Fortunately, our collective intelligence is smarter than we are as individuals. For thousands of years, humankind has been developing tools for offloading information, extending our sensory perceptions, and amplifying our mental powers. But working outside your brain is about more than tools… It’s about moving beyond the belief that the primary locus of thought is in your head. Your mind is not just your brain. Your mind encompasses the gestures you use to express your ideas and the sensations that alert you to familiar events and experiences. Your mind also includes the techniques you use to extend and organize your thinking in the physical spaces around you. And, it includes the ways you use social interaction to refine your thinking, extend your individual memory, and add to the knowledge you bring to creative problem solving.
We tend to think that creativity is about drawing something that’s in our head out into the world. The truth is, your creative ideas already exist outside of our brain. They are expressed through your body, through your feelings, and in the ways you shape, interact, and experience the world around you.
For more on working outside the brain, see the following previously published six-part series:
5. The way forward is always through the work
Every creative, no matter how successful they are, gets stuck now and then. The difference between those who remain stuck and those who move forward is simple: those who move forward don’t let uncertainty and the fear of failure keep them from returning to their work.
Creativity is problem solving. It’s piecing together a puzzle. To solve a puzzle, you need puzzle pieces: notes, sketches, melodies—the singular elements that are the building blocks of your creative medium. Once you have enough puzzle pieces, you can begin exploring how the pieces fit together. This approach to creative problem solving is often called “The Experimenter’s Mindset.” It’s a playful approach to risk-taking that’s driven by curiosity, constant experimentation, an acceptance of uncertainty and possible failure, and a dedication to continuous incremental learning.
Another key aspect of The Experimenter’s Mindset is an understanding of the power of small bets. Big bets, big risks, inevitably conjure high levels of fear, driven in part by prolonged periods of heightened levels of uncertainty. But monumental risks aren’t the only type of risk—and they aren’t necessarily the most productive path to success either. When you examine the careers of highly successful artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs, they all have one thing in common: successful risk-takers spread their risk around. They make lots of small bets that they can learn from and build on. Not all experiments are successful, but even those that aren’t provide essential information. As Henry Ford is credited with saying, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
In his book, Make to Know, the theater director and educator Lorne Buchman explores the concept of “make to know,” the process of moving from uncertainty to invention through the act of making. Buchman writes:
The make-to-know concept has nothing to do with winging it, or making things up as we go along. On the contrary, … there is a deep relationship between discipline, skill, and focus on the one hand and the kind of discovery that emerges through the creative process on the other. The central point is this: the experience and skill we bring to our projects forms the scaffolding on which we stand as we reach for something in a world that is, at that moment, uncertain. Until we are in the actual process of creating it, we can’t fully know what it will be.
— Lorne Buchman, Make to Know
Or, as Bill Watterson, the creator of the popular Calvin and Hobbes comic has observed, “The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.”
The way forward is always through the work.
For more on this topic, see the following two-part series on visualizing the creative problem-solving process and the Make to Know model of creativity, previously published in metaphor:
And one additional related article: