Is there a recipe for leading a creative life?

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!, Write, create, innovate!

recipe_creativity

If we consider creativity as a purely mental process, its simplest definition would be coming up with new, applicable and valuable ideas. But does that make us creative persons? Or it requires more than that, like maintaining fertile conditions where these ideas can naturally flourish and are easily implemented? Now things are getting a bit complex and interesting.

How does it look like when we apply the aforementioned principle in our daily lives? What constitutes a creative life? Is there a recipe or formula we can follow in order to live more creatively?

If you ask an artist or scientist how their creativity looks like and what do they except, probably we will get different answers. An artist might wish for painting more attractive or expressive pieces and scientist would like to recognize new ways of finding solutions to a problem. As their approaches and work differ a lot, there is one common denominator: going beyond yourself, exploring your own boundaries and capabilities.

In our everyday lives that would mean giving our best in almost any activity we do, in any situation, but also being open to trying new things, experimenting – detached from desired outcome.

In other words, taking risks – being that in crucial moments or in simple decisions we make every day. Being able to take risks develops our ability to deal with uncertainty, ambiguous situations we find ourselves in and learn from them.

Of course, by taking risks I don’t mean being reckless in our decision making, but being open to different approaches, solutions and not being afraid of change – as change in one way or another governs life.

So how you can bring more creativity to your every day life?

Experiment. Try new things – being that food, hobby or just your hairstyle. Move your body – as you move, everything else is moving in you and you are stirring up those creative juices. You are learning about yourself and there is so much more for you to discover. In this post I suggest how being proactively creative you are training your creativity – which is your goal: to easier and faster come up with valuable ideas.

I’m very loud prominent of reading and writing poetry for fostering creativity, as through that process you are getting accustomed to new perspectives, previously unknown connections or unfamiliar realities.

So my recipe for today’s creativity? I’ll just grab a poem for lunch. 🙂

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense

Rumi

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14 thoughts on “Is there a recipe for leading a creative life?”

  1. I think for me at least the answer is yes. The question is do most people want to or care about doing so. Sadly, I think the answer is no. Creative requires some very specific mindsets, skills, a curious mind and a persistent spirit.

    If you read the life stories of the creative people in history you will generally find a determination to accomplish their goals, once they found them. Not many people have the stick to it spirit that was required by Edison to invent the light bulb – 1,000’s of attempts without giving up.

    The desire to create is really a great thing and is not generally valued by society until the later stages of a creator’s life when they have become “successful” and it is ok to approve. Society does not really value “Uniqueness”. They have the “This is the way we have always done it” mentality and have difficulty thinking outside the box.

    Taking an idea, or vision and making it a reality is something that is not generally taught. Take art for example. Betty Edwards, the author of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” states that if you can sign your name you can learn to draw and her book sets out to prove to you that it is possible.

    If you are interested in becoming more creative in writing poetry then you can “learn how” by reading the book “Poemcrazy” (available on Amazon).

    There are certain things that can be learned but one has to want to be a creative person to make that happen. There are recipes but people are each unique and the outcome will not be known or certain. Some will succeed and others will give up before reaching the goal.

    I think it is worth trying to be creative, to leave a mark.

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    1. Thank you for such lovely comment. I wholeheartedly agree with you.Many people would rather complain and search for excuses instead of creative solutions to their life problems – even though in our nature is engraved that we are creative persons. And thank you for the book recommendations, I”ll definitely check them out. 🙂

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  2. Pingback: Is there a recipe for leading a creative life? – All About Writing and more

  3. Another interesting and thought provoking post Maja. Over the years I have read many books on creativity where attempts have been made to box it into a process. I think therein lies the problem. Once we attempt to make creativity a linear process we start to work against the creative function of the brain. Recent neuroscience studies are starting to disprove the left side / right side functions of the brain, so often linked with creativity and process. New research is showing creative tasks can involve many areas of the brain from both the left and right side. In my opinion, the key to creativity is exposing the brain to new experiences and having the courage to try out new ways of doing things. There is a great book called “The Brain-The Story of You.” by David Eagleman, which talks about some of this and it is a great read, if you haven’t already done so.

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    1. I know what you mean. No matter how many studies we perform there is more to learn about human brain. But we all need more freedom, more spontaneity and intuition in our lives to really access our creativity, and no better way than through acquiring new experiences, I agree.

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  4. I love this, your post Maja’. You are kind in your heart and creative indeed, Thank you for sharing of it…

    ‘It is in the living of the moment’ each breath, it is within our Lanterns’ it is in allowing for ones soul to experience the moment, experience life, like as in a kiss’ as sweetness tasted, as softness like no other felt and passion shared upon the holding lasting press of softest lips. It’s always when we cook together in which the most delicious meals and foods are created. When the most beautiful wee babes are made, in conception. We must experience it’ ‘life’ with our souls and hearts and thus then we can really create, because our hearts are the lanterns of our souls.

    And when we access our souls our hearts, then we are truly chefs, artists, potters, painters, poetess, poets, writers, lovers. Steeping out into the predawn, and pressing boot down upon virgin snow, then with our senses feel and listen to the winters virgin hush, listen to glistening crystals of each expelled breath. If our soul do not live it, how then can we be creative.’

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  5. Thanks! I really loved the explanation by Betty Edwards in her book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” where she explains why most children who loved to color and draw give it up. She says, “at about 9 – 11 kids transition to a place where they want to have their drawings be realistic and when they have trouble doing that they just give up – mainly because most teachers do not know how to teach them to “See”. I think this is what I was driving at. You can’t use a recipe to get a cookie cutter “creative person” but there are tools and certain gifted teachers who can give you what you need to put you on the path to finding the creative person inside you.

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  8. I grew up believing that nurturing my writing meant I needed stability and routine in order to focus. This is pretty impossible, since I travel full-time. I’ve had to teach myself how to keep writing, even when my environment is constantly in flux. Thanks for sharing your perspective – it kind of renews my faith that what I’m doing is ok!

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