I was sitting outside on a beautiful sunny afternoon eating lunch when my lunch partner, who also owns his own business, asked "Do you Love your job?" My response was "Yes, I really Like what I do for a living" He responds, "But, do you LOVE what you do?" I was taken back. What the hell kind of a question was that? I was insulted. Didn't he know how hard one works to be able to work for yourself?
I've since been grateful for this experience because it allowed me to figure out why I didn't say "YES! I LOVE MY JOB". It's this: Because IT'S A JOB. I am well aware that it is a privilege to get to do what I Enjoy doing for a living; however, the bottom line is - IT'S A JOB. And since it is a Job, it requires Work! And...some days I Love my work and other days I Like my Job...and, other days, I don't Like it or Love it.
Taking Risks. I was once devastated when I watched a teacher tear her watercolor painting from the board and stuff it into the sink and turn on the water. I said, "It looked so nice and now you ruined it." She assured me that she didn't ruin it, but she did something she had never done before. If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.
Taking Action and Finding Inspiration. I used to wait for inspiration; however, it often works the other way around - first the action, then the inspiration.
My Job requires me to be creative. As an Artist/Designer, companies and businesses rely on me and my business partners to come up with ideas (creative ideas - good ideas) that will provide their clients/guests/consumers with positive experiences. Those ideas don't come about sitting behind the desk. The most creative ideas come about while driving, walking the dog, sitting at a recital, knitting or simply taking a shower.
WHY?
Why do creative ideas come about while we are on autopilot?
Because we are lousy at multitasking. Our brains are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously. Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a task. Additionally, he or she makes up to 50% more errors. John Medina explains what happens in our brain as we try to multitask. Here is my version/summary:
To paint a painting from a cold start, your blood quickly rushes to the anterior prefrontal cortex to alert your brain that you are about to shift your attention. Embedded in that alert is a two-part process that takes several tenths of a second: 1) the finding of neurons that will allow you to do the painting task. 2) encoding a command that will rouse the neurons so you begin to paint. When the task is interrupted, by something as small as an email alert, your sensory systems pick up that alert. And, because the rules for painting and the rules for responding to the email alert are different, your brain must disengage from the painting before it can process the email response.
Worse yet, if your email becomes emotionally engaging - the emotional program (limbic system) is triggered and it can take up to 90 seconds for one of those programs to surge through our body and be completely flushed out of our blood stream. And, you can remain in that state of emotion past the 90 seconds if you choose to let that circuit continue.
The result: It becomes challenging to fully engage in a creative concept or problem solving process since your left-brain wants to dominate the tasks. Once the right brain if allowed to take over and remain "at play" the process of creating becomes richer.
So when I go to work, my office needs to at times become a studio and be flexible to take on many different forms. In order to create creativity I need to be in the Flow. And to do that, I need to be in the Right frame of mind.
"When we are creative, we are absorbed, fascinated, and involved in an interaction with our medium, which can be people as well as canvas and paint, the page or screen on which we write, the plants and earth that we garden, or the materials in the laboratory or studio with which we work. In the creative encounter there is an absorbing, unpossessive love and a sense that we are engaged in soul work." ~ Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
While both hemispheres work intimately with one another when it comes to just about every motion we undertake, they also process information in uniquely different ways. It is the left brain that is superb at predicting what we will think, how we will act, or what we will feel in the future - based upon our experiences. In our right brains we understand metaphors, we dream, and we create new combinations of ideas.
Since creativity is mostly a right-brain function, it is important to keep the left-brain out of the picture - by resisting distractions. The left-brain is dominant and speedy and is very prone to rush in with words and symbols, and taking over jobs it is not good at. It is why we are better at drawing images when they are turned upside down. The left-brain becomes frustrated, bored and gives up and allows the right-brain a chance to take over.
The drawings below were done by the same student with the left image
drawn using the left-brain and the right image drawn using the right-brain:
Drawing on the Right side of the Brain is a teaching method designed to access creativity. Developed by Dr. Betty Edwards.
The mastery in a craft or skill is spurred by the experience of Flow - that motivation to get better and better at something. An artist (art-ist), one whose soul is expressed through the skills of ones craft, must want to be creative above all else. If the artist in front of the canvas begins to wonder how much he will sell it for, or what the critics will think of it, he wont' be able to pursue original avenues. "Creative achievements depend on single-minded immersion". New York Times, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi
"When we put off being or completing a creative idea, we escape judgment and failure. When we give a creative dream form, shape, color or design, it can travel without us to new lands. It then has its own life and is able to speak for itself." SARK (Her 24-hour Inspiration Line: 415-546-3742).
I've learned that I'm able to strengthen my creativity by:
Eliminating Distractions by creating an interruption-free zone. This allows me to get fully engaged in my right-brain thinking.
Taking Risks. I was once devastated when I watched a teacher tear her watercolor painting from the board and stuff it into the sink and turn on the water. I said, "It looked so nice and now you ruined it." She assured me that she didn't ruin it, but she did something she had never done before. If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.
Taking Action and Finding Inspiration. I used to wait for inspiration; however, it often works the other way around - first the action, then the inspiration.
My Job depends on being creative. And I must Work at getting into a creative mind - the right frame of mind.
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