Have you wondered where creativity comes from? Have you also wondered why some people are more creative than others? You haven't? I have and I don't have many answers. For the most part, creativity continues to be a mystery to me. One thing I do know, however, and that is that creativity is hard work! Today I am sitting in a cafe, composing this Monday Memo. This Memo won't descend from heaven, even if God inspires it (which I hope He is). I have to write it and send it out. That's not glamorous or spiritual; it's just effort.
Many people tell me that they are more productive because they don't have enough time to write, paint, study, or think, for that matter. You know my response to that excuse: You have all the time there is in the world--24 hours every day. It's what you do with that time that will set you apart as a creative or non-creative person.
If you have read many of my Memos, you know that I am a big fan of Julia Cameron; In her book The Sound of Paper: Starting from Scratch, Cameron had this to say about the issues of time and creativity:
Most of us think, "If only I had more time, then I would create." We have a fantasy that there is such a think as good creative time, an idyll of endless, seamless time unfolding invitingly for us to frolic in creativity. No such bolts of limitless time exist for most of us. Our days are chopped into segments, and if we are to be creative, we must learn to use the limited time that we have.
When ego is siphoned off creativity, when creativity becomes one more thing we do, like laundry, then it takes far less time to do it. Much of our desire for creative time has to do with our trying to coax ourselves into being in the right mood to create. We want to "feel like it," and when we don't don't quickly, we think the solution is more time. Actually, the solution is less attention to the vagaries of mood. In short, creativity needs to become daily, doable and nonnegotiable; something as quotidian [everyday, commonplace, ordinary] as breathing. When we make a special occasion out of our art, we rob ourselves of the time we actually have.
Often I don't start creating because I don't believe I have enough time to complete what I start. When that is the case, I need to trust that God will help me use the time I have. At other times, I don't start something because I am afraid I won't have enough time to do it well. When that happens, I need more courage, not more time. I need to begin and trust that what I don't consider "good enough" may be more than good enough to impact someone else. I can't let my perfectionism inhibit my ability to produce what I can, when I can, no matter how meager it may seem.
I have begun most days for the last five years writing my daily installment for my weekly Bible studies. I have completed 16 books in the New Testament by focusing on four verses a day every day, usually investing 15-20 minutes. I sit down to write and somehow the creative process kicks in, and the result is a large body of work of which I am quite pleased. Even today I just had to sit down and begin to write; the result is this edition 279 of The Monday Memo thirty minutes later.
You have the time and you also have the creative ability. Now all you have to do is spend a little time every day bringing forth what has probably been in you for some time. You are a creative person; don't waste your creativity on excuses of why you can't produce. Move past your fears and invest some time and hard work. In the long run, you and the world will be the better for those efforts. Have a great week!
Feel free to post your comments to this Memo on the site where it is located. You can also go to the same site to read the other Monday Memos from 2006 (Memos prior to 240 can be found on my website). And don't forget my personal PurposeQuest website, which has loads of material that will help you find your purpose and be productive. You can also sign up for my weekly Bible studies where we have started a study of Mark's gospel this year. Finally, please remember PurposeQuest and the Stankos in your missions giving.
Would you say that creativity is a lot like exercise, the more you do the better you become at it? I found that when I started writing about a year ago (mainly because some visiting American from Pittsburg had inspired me to) I suddenly found myself attuned to ideas. Things would leap out at me periodically that I could write about. Sure it still takes efort to sit down and do it, but in the main I find I flow better than before.
Posted by: Dennis Boddy | January 22, 2007 at 11:29 AM