I’m a creative person, as I believe every single human being is and has the potential to be. But I can also remember plenty of times when I couldn’t think my way out of a wet paper bag (case in point – having to rely on a tired paper bag analogy).
Like when a certain smug Professor wanted to try and pick holes in my final thesis speech. I knew he was wrong, but he put me on the spot, I had that sudden pang of desperation, and all I could come up with was some incoherent mumbling about the second law of thermodynamics.
As usual, it wasn’t until three days later that I came up with the perfect reply that would’ve totally shut him down.
Dammit.
So after several more incidents where my creative abilities would’ve been outdone by a brain-damaged rock, I got curious.
Why is it that sometimes you can have more ideas than you know what to do with, and other times your creative well feels bone-dry?
I did a lot of research – reading, reflection, talking to other people – and I put together a framework of all the things that can stop our creative juices flowing, sometimes for a minute, a month, or if not dealt with, forever.
I even came up with my own cool acronym, ROBB, as in ‘What’s ROBBing you of your creativity?’. Yes, it totally works! Cop that, wet paper bag!
So the next time you are stuck for ideas, or feel that blank look on your face not going away, just stop, relax, and think about what could be ROBBing you.
Reactivity
The way you react to situations can form emotional barriers to creativity.
The most common reaction to a new idea is fear; fear of failure, criticism, the unknown. Depending on how radical the idea is, this can range from knee-jerk horror to a dull sense of uneasiness.
It comes from most people’s natural resistance to change, and can make you attach excessive importance to the possibility of making a mistake, so your brain shuts down. At least then you’re safe where you are, right?
Example of Reactivity
Going hand-in-hand with fear is it’s anal-retentive cousin, perfectionism. I know all about this one. Writing these posts feel like mini-battles with perfectionism all the time.
The unrealistic expectations, notorious procrastination, being so afraid of not meeting some stupidly high standard that you struggle to complete your projects, and then eventually don’t even bother starting anything new.
What to do about Reactivity
It’s not the failure that’s stifling your creativity, it’s the anticipation of failure. First thing you need to do is realise that wherever it’s coming from, your fear is trying to protect you from something, and can be quite useful, whether it’s valid or not.
Take a step back and analyse the fear – what message is it trying to send you? How has it helped you in the past? What’s the worst that can happen? What’s the best that can happen? Why is now a good time to eliminate it? What won’t happen if you don’t move past it?
You’ve got to acknowledge how you’re feeling, then set yourself up to win anyway, no matter what happens.
And for the perfectionists out there, get the fuck over yourself! Nobody’s expecting you to come down from the mountain with 10 New Commandments. (If you’re a writer, you need to read this post by Charlie)
I couldn’t get over my fear of dancing until a friend said one night, “You must be pretty dam arrogant to think everybody is here just to watch you dance.”
Touché.
Obstacles
These are the physical obstacles that interfere with your natural creativity.
Obstacles can be both internal; personal habits, energy levels, biological rhythms, or external; organisational, technological, noise and distractions, or hostile relationships.
Example of an Obstacle
A common obstacle is one I call the ‘Superman Syndrome’. It reduces your productivity, increases busy-ness, and drains your mental energy.
You feel like you’re the only one capable of doing the work, so you take everything on yourself. You disregard other opinions, refuse help, and don’t delegate anything because nobody can do as good a job as you.
One downside to this (and there are many) is that you’re so busy chasing your tail, you never have the time or energy to actually be creative. Entrepreneurs know this feeling – always working in your business instead of on it.
What to do about Obstacles
Most creative obstacles can be pretty easily removed. Right now I’m typing this post on my laptop, at the library, because I’ve just been getting too distracted at home lately and not getting enough done. So I moved myself away from my distractions, and voila, the words are flowing again!
If you’re having trouble with your energy levels, read my post about finding your productive rhythms, and do the exercise. You’ll increase your self-awareness, and learn how to take advantage of your creative and energetic cycles, instead of trying to plough through everything at the same speed all day.
Larger external obstacles like company policies or a lack of technology can be a bit trickier (and more frustrating). Talk to the people with the authority to change things, and make a clear case for why it would be a win-win situation for them to remove the things that are hampering your creative efforts.
Blocks
Blocks are based on false perceptions, they are the mental walls that narrow your perspective of a problem or situation.
They involve things like stereotyping, tunnel vision, familiarity, relying too heavily on particular senses, and assuming limits where there are none.
One huge block to creativity is judging an idea too early, when you or a team member says “We can’t do that!”. New ideas are fragile, and deserve time to acquire detail before they’re examined.
Example of a Block
Here’s a little exercise that you may have seen before. I first saw it on my very first day at University, and it stumped almost the entire room of 300 budding young engineers (including me).
With only four straight lines, connect all nine dots without lifting your pen off the paper (or finger off the screen):
(Answer at the end of the post)
What to do about Blocks
Block removal is all about getting more perspective on your situation. Talk to lots of people, ask for their opinion, ask them if you’re missing anything, ask what ‘rules’ could be holding you back, but most importantly, do NOT criticise or evaluate ANY ideas yet.
This is especially important if you’re working in a team, or having a brainstorming session. If curiosity killed the cat, criticism killed it’s mother, so the kitten was never born, and it never even had the chance to grow up and get curious.
Bugs
Bugs are negative thought processes that you have learned over time, they are the mental walls created by cultural, family, or educational standards that restrict your beliefs of what is possible or acceptable.
Potentially revolutionary ideas can be crushed because of social taboo, political correctness, organisational inertia, ‘expert’ skepticism, or just plain ignorance.
Intuition and gut feelings are often ridiculed because they are too conceptual and hard to prove. There is still a perception in business today that ideas are no good unless they can be backed up by a lot of hard numbers.
I hope you realise that’s total bullshit.
Example of a Bug
Imagine that the scriptwriters for the next James Bond movie got incredibly lazy (or drunk), and in the final climactic fight scene the dastardly villain traps Bond in a shrinking room of wall-spikes. His only chance to escape a rather unpleasant impaling is to solve the villains equally dastardly puzzle…
In the middle of the room is a small table with a $100 note on it, which is clamped down under the sharp edge of an excessively large knife. Without moving the knife, you have to remove the $100 note. How do you do it?
(Answer at the end of the post)
What to do about Bugs:
List out all the assigned social values you could be placing on your situation without realising it – money, politeness, tradition etc.
Are you avoiding a certain line of thought because it might upset somebody? Are you looking for that one overly-logical, ‘correct’ solution that doesn’t actually exist? Are you just giving up too soon? Why?
Once you’re done, go down the list and evaluate each item. Sure, some of them will be perfectly legitimate concerns, so keep them. But you’ll probably realise most of them are absolute crap.
Now that you’re actually conscious of what the bugs are, you can choose to ignore them because they’re unimportant, or, find a way around them.
Can you answer one question for me?
So that’s an introduction to Reactivity, Obstacles, Blocks and Bugs, but they’re only the four main categories. Within them there is a total of 27 specific things I’ve identified that could be stealing your natural creativity.
What I plan on doing is creating a free report, going right down deep into each of those 27 things, what they mean, and how you can get rid of them, in a very practical workbook format.
Is that something you would find useful, and if so, why? What is your biggest frustration when trying to be creative?
Please either answer in the comments below or send me an email direct through my contact page – they come right to me and I reply to every one.
Thanks, your input is very much appreciated 
Oh and here’s the answers for those two puzzles I gave you.
Block Answer – Connecting the 9 Dots
If you couldn’t get this one, then you were probably told way too many times as a child that you always have to colour inside the lines.
Most of you probably assumed you had to stay inside the square even when the square doesn’t have a border. I didn’t get it until somebody else showed me, like most of my engineering class, because engineers live by rules, processes, and formulas, and wouldn’t dare go outside the lines, Oh My!
False limits or boundaries are huge creativity blocks, so always remember to question what rules you actually need to follow, and which ones you’re just assuming you need to follow.
Bug Answer – Remove $100 note from under a knife
The solution is incredibly simple, but because of the socially assigned value of the $100, most people wouldn’t think to just tear it in half!
In any situation that’s important enough, you can ignore just about any arbitrary mental bug, but only when you’re conscious of it.
(And remember, I’m giving away free coaching sessions to anybody that signs up here by the 31st of August, so get in quick!)
photo credit – takomabibelot
