Had to share this blog post about creativity and the myths that surround it: Myths about Creativity | Tickled By Life, by Shalu Wasu.
Go have a read… then come back here if you like. 🙂
I particularly enjoyed reading his attitudes about the application of creativity to all aspects of life, not just so-called creative jobs:
“To be alive is to be creative and to be creative is to be alive”
I’m constantly grateful that my work insists on creativity as a pre-requisite, but do I apply it to other aspects of my life?
Hmm… my schedule is certainly very creatively arranged at times! Perhaps I could be more creative when performing music that I’ve played many times before, instead of going through some of the same habitual motions of bowing patterns and vibrato. How could I be more creative with my relationships with other people? Or with the structure of my day? With how I engage with the world?
And through being creative in these other parts of life, will I gain the same intrinsic enjoyment of these other actions as I get through the creation of music?
That would be pretty cool.
I also completely agree with Shalu that pressure and competition aren’t necessary for sparking and fostering competition, and, whilst some people may find situations like these useful, all of my best moments of creating come from “relaxed situations and environments…[and] collaboration.”
Although I’ve trained myself to work to, and actually enjoy the pressure of, deadlines – even self-imposed ones – by the nature of the work I’ve chosen, in order to meet those deadlines in at least a satisfactory manner, there’s a calmness and focus that I have to cultivate. Having trust in my colleagues and working in a warm, bright and peaceful environment on reliable and efficient equipment with food and drink to hand… these are a few of my favourite components that I need to create that calm and focus.
I don’t even find it helpful to be in competition with people in the same line of work as me. In a way, I’m quite lucky in that the geographical location where I’m based there are few film composers and there’s more than enough work to go around (if you go out there and get it!). On the contrary, the insight you get from other composers and sound designers, in the way they work, their priorities, their methods of composition, the way they structure their day… it’s better to learn from them, and you never know when they’ll be too busy to take on some work and may even put it your way.
Over to you: what areas of your life might benefit from a little ‘creative’ thinking?