I forgot the crucial ingredient...

Oops. I missed the crucial ingredient. 

Last week, I posted about the importance of having a To Create list. I wrote a fresh To Create list for myself: 

New ideas to write up; program designs to sketch out; videos to shoot... I was excited.

But guess what? Life got busy, and I ended up creating precisely nothing from that list. 

Having a To Create list might be a great start. But it ain’t enough.

You need to foster the conditions to step into ‘create mode’. As American artist Robert Henri once said, "The object isn't to make art; it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." 

Here are 4 questions to get me thinking about how I can foster those conditions for myself:

“Where will I be?”

For me, a buzzing cafe with a good vibe is a great place to kick start creative thinking. Even better, a walk amongst nature if I can get there. 

“Who will inspire me?” 

What author, composer, painter, actor, podcaster, philosopher etc will inspire me to be expansive in my thinking? I’m building my “Creative Inspo” playlist and reading list to help me to step into the right headspace. 

“How do I shift energy?”

Moving from DO to CREATE requires a shift in mental gears and energy. If I’m facilitating a workshop, I’ll run quick activities to help others make that shift - getting them playing, inventing, laughing, building, moving, reflecting. On your own, though, this can be easy to overlook. A quick walk around the block, some loud music, a burst of play with the dog… whatever works for you.

“If not now, when?”

Creating the conditions to get creative is an act of intent. Strike now, or otherwise block the time out in the diary, protect it and plan for it.

Ultimately, while these 4 questions help to set myself up to create, there’s one important reminder to finish with: show up and work at it, enjoy the process, but don’t fixate on generating the ‘Perfect Output’. Because once that happens, everything feels harder.   

What about you? What do you need to do to set the scene for creative thinking?

Until next time,
Simon