Discover Your Own Creative Style

It's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus, the world's first creativity teacher (he lived around 500 BC). Today's insight is: “I searched into myself.”

Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good ideas within ourselves if we are willing to dig deeply enough.

I believe there's a creative strategy in Heraclitus' insight, and it is:

Discover your own creative style.

We can emulate Heraclitus by searching for own creative tendencies. Here are six of mine:

1. I get my ideas either when I'm under a lot of pressure — "the ultimate inspiration is the deadline" — or when I'm away from the problem altogether. I rarely get them when I'm doing routine tasks that require some attention.

2. If I'm mentally blocked in trying to solve a problem, it's usually because I'm in love with a particular idea — so much so that it prevents me from looking for alternatives. Only when I force myself to become detached from it and "kiss it goodbye" do I find new answers. Letting go of a previously cherished idea can be one of life's great pleasures.

3. I try to pay attention to small things: how much frowning takes place in beer commercials, what sorts of patterns dead leaves make around a storm drain, and so on. I do this partly because I've trained myself to do it, but also because I've been forced to. I'm left-handed, but the world is designed for right-handed people — something most "righties" don't even think about. I'm constantly being made conscious of how things are put together. For example, telephone booths are designed to make right-handed people feel comfortable and at ease, but lefties can feel clumsy using them.

4. My own ego can get in the way of discovering new things. However, if I allow myself to lower my resistance to those ideas that I typically dismiss as irrelevant or unattractive, I find that they can become doorways to solutions I've been overlooking.

5. I don't know what I don't know. I've got a big blind spot, and the only way to get access to what's lurking out there is to put myself in a humble, receptive frame of mind (not always easy to do) and ask others to point out what I'm not seeing.

6. Rejection of my work in the early phases of the creative process doesn't bother me. I'm not afraid of taking one of my less than stellar ideas and asking complete strangers what they think of it. I find their responses frank and refreshing.

How do you get your ideas? What's your creative style? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Comments

[Kenny]

Getting Ideas;

1.When I m lying on my bed during bedtime.
2.When I woke up and spend some times recalling my dreams and play with them,cool!
3.When I m sitting on a bowl doing big stuff.
4.When I m talking to people.Communications best stimulate my mind to come up with ideas.
5.When I m a joker. Haha! crazy ideas always come.

My style...I think enjoy. When I enjoy I could be very creative. If I'm not interested, well just see as it is.

When I am good I see the bad side, when I m bad I see the good side. Yin Yang is related very closely. I choose to see a subject deeply from different angles whether it's good one or bad one.

Always be care-free but responsible.

[anonymus]

getting ideas:
1. browsing... a city, a park, a museum, a motorway, the web....
2. waiting at airports
3. studying theory

creative style:
1. rough sketch on a saturday in a coffee house
2. finalizing weekdays under deadline pressure
3. always working with a theoretical frame
4. replay, replay, replay
5. replay, replay, replay

strength-weakness:
1. intuitive - distractible
2. flow - flowing away (weak finisher)
3. daring - insecure

[Liz Strauss]

I change things. I walk around. I dance and wander.

I listen to music. I listen to silence to hear the music inside it.

I look at beautiful photos. I look outside my window.

I talk to creative people, especially anyone under 7 years old.

I revisit (in my mind) all of the places of my childhood, my backyard, my bedroom, my basement, my kindergarten class to remember making thing up and imagining.

I think about words like wonder, joy, friends, and chocolate.

I imagine what the inside of my brain might look today -- a library, a bookshelf, a giant bunch drawers, a house with lots of rooms, a place to go exploring like we did when we were kids.

I know that I'm just playing.

I don't let any critics come along -- even the one that might live in my head.

I come to visit Roger, because I like him.

[Cam Beck]

My style can probably be summed up best as "problem solver."

1. Trust, but verify. It's important to challenge both familiar and unfamiliar knowledge. Revisit the fact and justification for your assumptions. The scholarship and mental exercise necessary to accomplish this strengthens both the idea and its creator. One must be careful to not become obstinate for its own sake, though.
2. Seek out competing ideas. Try to understand the reasoning behind them to their base assumptions, even if the assumptions are incorrect. Try not to get frustrated when there is no obvious answer.
3. Observe. Take some time to stop talking.
4. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. Lacking compassion is the surest way to squash others' creativity and spirit -- a behavior that is sure to be returned tenfold. Being right is all well and good, but one cannot accomplish anything worthwhile from an interpersonal standpoint unless he is also respected.
5. Goof off constructively. The best solutions often come with the ability to mentally cross reference the principles behind two seemingly unrelated ideas. Look for opportunities to do this, but watch for going too far down the unbeaten path that you forget what you were trying to find in the first place.

[Timothy Johnson]

Creativity comes at the strangest times and places for me... sitting in traffic, listening to my daughters, watching my dog... it's all fair game.

Loved your comment about not falling in love with your own creativity. Going through that right now with feedback on my second book. It's a painful process but very necessary.

[Roger von Oech]

Timothy: The idea of "Not falilng in love with ideas" is especially important in writing. Not always easy to do, but important.

Cam: Nice pithy list. Your #1 echoes Ronald Reagan. Your #2: "Try not to get frustrated when there is not obvious answer." Boy, is that hard; how do you manage the frustration — or do you use its energy to motivate you?

Liz: You are fortunate to be blessed with an excellent memory! And doubly lucky to be able to playful "call up" these images.

Anon: I think we're all operating with that kind of inner tension!

Kenny: Always good to "see the opposite" as in your reverse "yin/yang" technique.

[Duncan]

I dance. I scribble. I wear black and pretend to be Johnny Cash. I do the opposite as to what THEY would expect and I copy from the people I respect. Some people ask 'What would Jesus do?' I ask 'What would Indiana Jones do?' and it gets me through the night.

Excellent resource, by the way. Thank you.

[Dovile]

That's a great post and the comments make it just excellent:)

Anon: That's not so often I meet people like me who use theory to get some inspiration. Some people say that theory restricts you. I think it gives you a frame and you can play within it or you can break it or you can use another frame. It's up to you.

Thanks for inspiration to all:)

[Alicia Fleischer]

I have always thought of myself as creative but, I lack so much self confidence. I evaluate fragrances and I need to always have an open mind for new creations and ideas. To take the ordinary into a new place where by adding (or subtracting in some cases) it moves into a whole new place and is new again.

[SHAMIM]

Hello every bodey,my name is,shamim,I am a boy and I'm 18 and I live in Iran...
I love michael jackson and all his moves,and i realy love music,and i think i can compose something but my family are completely against me,and they want me to do my father's job(architecture),but I faught,I caught some nerves probbloms,but I said,it worth it,and now i can just play some guitar notes but I still think I can compose something...
I composed one music and i want you to listen to it if you have time...
If your answer is yes pleas leave an email for me on: [email protected]
thank you so much and good bye for now

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[Growing Older]

To me all the artist have a different way to work that is that make them original and creative excellent post.

[Steel Libido]

There's a theory that says that every person haves creativity but only can develop it through experience.

[crimecraft cash]

I imagine what the inside of my brain might look today (a library, a bookshelf, a giant bunch drawers, a house with lots of rooms, a place to go exploring like we did when we were kids.)

[Chappell]

"I searched into myself"... a wonderful practice. It is what I practice as a psychotherapist, and also what I am trying to do in my own quest to tap into my creative mind.

[how to be confident]

Self confidence also plays a key role in our creativity. Like the piece mentioned above, many of us shoot down our own ideas in the early stages before they get a chance to develop.

It helps to be positive and build your confidence in your own ability and creativity.

[Thinning Hair Women]

How to achieve total prosperity and always get idea when we need it. Teach what you want to learn and need to learn

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[Bali Flight]

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