Creativity Bootcamp prologue

I am often asked about developing new ideas and just how to you actually start. For many people the barrier they have to overcome is simply a frustration, fueled by a  feeling of lack of confidence. Which is understandable but strange. Creativity is an art they haven't practiced probably since they were six. At six they were brilliant at it. When you were six you did things for yourself, not because you had a target to meet or a sales figure to hit or a KPI to acheive but because you just could. There was no agenda, no reason, no justification, no peer respect. No sense of failure.

Which that means that for most of us now, with the pressures and burdens we carry (Mostly in our heads) that in most cases we just simply don't know, or don't remember, where to begin; whether it is in looking at how we might improve an old process or developing a new service or product, or fashioning a new idea that differentiates the business from the commodity fog. There are tons of books out there, and I think I’ve read most of them, on how to brainstorm, how to get in the zone, how to be creative. I think most of them do miss the point, which to me is the relevancy of creativity to what we could, grandiosely, call the Human Condition but prefer  to call Spirit.  It’s what makes us who we are. And we have, for the most part, lost that element of our experience. I feel the loss comes directly through our addiction to the concept of not failing.

Creativity means doing it for yourself, just because you can. Beethoven wrote sublime music not to pay his taxes, …you can add you own favourite artist in here from the list of thousands….Most entrepreneurs don’t actually create businesses for the money.  They may hide behind that but if you talk to most of them, once they have it,  it’s about creating something out of nothing.

Creativity is more of a state of mind.  Create for yourself, with no agenda and the ‘for ‘comes later, if there is a for.

To me Creativity is about; 

the  Horizon, not point.

The Process, not answer.

The Ball, not scoreboard.

The Discovery, not answers.

The Pursuit, not attainment.

The Journey, not destination.

Grab  a coffee, go fro a walk. Let yourself run free with those ideas for a bit. 

Not so easy? I'll be back soon with the next bit to explain a bit more about what I mean.