The Groove Issue 69 - How To Overcome Limiting Beliefs Around Creativity
HOW TO OVERCOME LIMITING BELIEFS IN CREATIVITY
Everything begins with an idea. Kill creativity and innovation and we stop forward progress and reduce survival.
Creativity is the engine of progress in all fields: the computer or phone where you are reading this from started with an idea. So did The Mona Lisa and The da Vinci Code.
However, for decades, there have been unfairly perpetuated myths that creativity is just for a handful of people and that you can’t emulate what the most genius creatives have done with their ideas throughout time.
Creativity is not about arts and crafts and cutouts or technical wizardry. Creativity is about fostering specific habits, making associations, and standing behind the ideas that come out of them.
Creativity is a “do,” a series of actions; it is a muscle that either gets stronger or atrophies depending on how much you use it. How we debunk the limiting beliefs around creativity is by proving with history and science what the system has tried to distort for so long.
Today, I am giving you a tight excerpt of my upcoming book “How Creativity Rules The World: The Art and Business of Turning Your Ideas Into Gold” (HarperCollins).
I have condensed three out of the seven most common myths that keep people stuck (the book covers all seven myths in an 11-page chapter).
At the end of each of the chapters, there is an Alchemy Lab section so you can take actionable steps from what you’ve learned in that chapter and adapt them to your life. I have added one here too.
Myth Number 1: Creativity Is a Once-in-a-Blue-Moon Spark
Pablo Picasso photographed in his studio of Notre-Dame-De-Vie by Robert Otero in 1970.
A fable tightly knitted with the “sudden and miraculous spark of creativity” is that artists have no discipline and no structure, that they follow no rules and just “go wild” until an idea comes to them.
We can look at Picasso’s life and learn from him. It is no coincidence that he still holds the first place, certified by Guinness World Records, as history’s most prolific visual artist: 13,500 paintings and designs; 100,000 prints and engravings; 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramics.
What was his secret? He worked every day, obsessively, and pursued the solitary aim of his art to the exclusion of practically everything else.
His friend and photographer Brassaï recalled that on a visit to the countryside property, when the night fell, to continue working, Picasso lit a large oil lamp. There was no electricity in the shed, and it reminded him of his childhood when he drew by the light of a candle inserted into the neck of a bottle. Such was Picasso’s obsession with his work.
At this studio, Brassaï asked him, “Where do you get so many ideas?” Picasso answered, “Ideas are simply starting points . . . As soon as I start to work, others well up in my pen. To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.”
Picasso, one of the greatest geniuses of history, painted one and sometimes two canvases a day and told his friend, in his own words, that creativity is a “do”.
Myth Number 2: Creativity is Only for Artists
A statue of Pierre Pérignon holding a bottle of his perfected wine. A monk who didn’t need to be an artist or a musician to show that creativity applied to business belongs to everyone.
Even if you don’t have any artistic talent, creativity is still yours for the taking.
Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most creative minds in history, invented the phonograph, the rechargeable battery, the motion picture camera, and the electric bulb. This was not because of artistic ability but due to a sheer desire to use his creativity to challenge the status quo for the betterment of humanity.
Whether using their intuition, or intentionally being aware of how creativity works, inventors and entrepreneurs are no different from artists. They know that to get to that creative breakthrough all those “muscles” must be exercised daily.
Creativity develops in those who put the work in, even in the unlikeliest suitors.
Proof is in the story of a French Benedictine monk called Pierre Pérignon, who, in 1668, was sent to the Abbey of Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers, near Rheims, where he was appointed administrator and cellar master.
When Dom (Father) Pérignon arrived, they gave him the task of quickly boosting Hautvillers’ revenues to continue funding the restoration. He could he do that, he decided, by improving the quality of the wines they produced and increasing the price per bottle.
The Abbey of Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers, which Dom Pérignon restored starting in 1668 and which is considered the birthplace of champagne.
Dom Pérignon set out to make “the best wine in the world.”
Day after day, Pérignon visited the cellars, monitored the barrels, observed every activity in the vineyards, took liberal notes, and kept an eye on the details that others thought insignificant.
Everything interested to him. He questioned every method and turned every bottle upside down until he found what worked, eliminated what didn’t, and experimented with new things.
A Benedictine monk might seem like an odd candidate for creativity and innovation, particularly as an inventor of what became a luxury product associated with the royals and their lavishness, excesses, and debaucheries.
But this man, who followed a regimen of prayer, study, and manual labor was given a problem to solve: to make more money to fund the abbey restoration.
He improved the quality of the wines with his inventive new techniques, including picking only the best grapes and using corks instead of wooden sticks, an innovation never before seen in the entire region.
Myth Number 3: Creativity Can’t Be Taught and Can’t Be Learned
Michael Merzenich, professor emeritus and a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, made the enormous discovery of neuroplasticity after years of studying patients and conducting rigorous studies.
That means the brain not only grows, but also changes, well after adulthood. His extensive data indicates that the more we willingly engage in something continuously and challenge ourselves, the more the brain rewires itself.
The magic word is willingly; you have to want to become creative. Using your experiences and your intelligence to come up with creative ideas of value has to be meaningful to you. Learning to be creative, by diligently applying all the exercises that you will learn in this book, can rewire your brain to become more creative.
A study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology by Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at University College London, and her team examined the habits of ninety-six people over a twelve-week period.
Each person chose to perform one new habit for twelve weeks and reported each day on whether they did it and how automatic it felt. At the end of the twelve weeks, the researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it. On average it took sixty-six days for new habits to become natural and for the brain to rewire itself.
Claim this reality for yourself and don’t let anybody diminish you because you aren’t finding the cure to cancer (or maybe you are, and that is fantastic!). We can learn to be more creative. We can learn to innovate. We can challenge the status quo.
Alchemy Lab
· Do the opposite of any of the myths about creativity in this chapter that most hangs you up for at least sixty-six days.
· Design a daily routine that works for you. Write down how you will spend your time every day. Create structures around you, regardless of the job you do. What’s the best time to answer emails? When is the time to make phone calls? When should you work out? Allocate time to think in silence and to read every day. If you want to switch careers, dedicate time to research that new field. If you are the CEO of a company, make sure to spend time talking and listening to your clients, employees, and vendors every day.
· Try to learn something new and carve out at least thirty minutes daily to practice it: another language, a new game, a hobby. You’d be amazed at the amount of expertise you can accumulate over the course of a few months, and even more amazed at how your commitment and consistency helps you experience creative breakthroughs.
Thank you again for the incredible response to my book!
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Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.
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THE CURATED GROOVE
A selection of interesting articles in business, art and creativity along with some other things worth mentioning:
How to inspire creativity in your children.
Do you want to start a business that is cutting-edge? Invest in your employee's creativity.
Things to consider that encourage creativity.
Where Creativity Is, Success May Follow
Sixteen Innovators to Watch in 2022.
You Don't Need a Mentor—Find a Nemesis Instead.