Friday’s inspirational quote
Posted on August 1, 2008, by dazzer67, under inspiration, quotes.
What’s the use of a good quotation if you can’t change it?
Doctor Who
Take something that inspires you and run with it, develop it, let it grow, then set it free.
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Top five creativity habits for you to implement
Posted on July 30, 2008, by dazzer67, under creativity basics, quick tips.
Habit forming can be a positive influence on your creativity. Once formed the habits will have a long-lasting effect on you. Just as ‘bad habits’ eat away at us and have negative effects, ‘good habits’ are the opposite. Take one habit at a time, keep at it for up to 28 days, and then you’ll find that the habit is formed. It will become part of you; a creative habit to fuel your ideas.
- Meditate - Take five minutes each day to clear your mind of everything, or as much as you can. Keep it simple, a basic breathing exercise… in through the nose out through the mouth. Perhaps with a simple image in your mind, the sea, a mountain, a cloud. This will help build up your sense of self. And when you know your ’self’, you’ll be closer to the creative genius that you are.
- Read - This does not mean books only, but that is as good a place as any to start. The habit is to set aside time and space each day to read. To see the input of other ideas as important as your own. In the busyness of trying to be creative it is easy to forget about feeding ourselves.
- Create waste - This is all about not being afraid to have a go. It is about giving yourself permission to create rubbish, to make a mess, to do something that may well be thrown away. If you have an idea, just a glimmer, pull out a piece of paper, or any other medium you use, and get on with it. It doesn’t need to be perfect, in fact it shouldn’t. This will get you into the habit of capturing ideas and letting them develop in a quick and easy way. Then you can either choose to create the final piece or, throw it away.
- Journal - This can be done in a variety of ways from simple notepads to online scrapbooks. The habit is similar to meditation, in that you are focusing on self. However, as opposed to clearing your mind by thinking of nothing, here you clear your mind by writing, drawing or sticking all the thoughts and ideas, fears and worries, hopes and dreams into your journal. It has the added benefit of being a constant source of inspiration as you reread what you have added.
- Doodle - Have you any idea how much ‘dead’ time you have… stuck in meetings, on hold whilst making a call or crashed out watching that very interesting documentary on inner city gangs? Utilise that time by doodling. Keep a small, cheap blank pad and pencil handy when your having these ‘down times’ and simply doodle away. The shapes you doodle may make connections, they may spark creativity and then… off you go. Of course you should always have a capture device nearby but I’m talking here about non-premeditated ideas, doodling is doodling not drawing.
There are a lot more creative habits that you could take on, if you have any ideas to add, do leave a comment. In the meantime, pick a habit and begin.
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Make the world a better place
Posted on July 25, 2008, by dazzer67, under quotes.
With a little creativity
I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.
John Cage
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How to achieve what you find difficult
Posted on July 24, 2008, by dazzer67, under creative exercises, preparation, quick tips.
This all boils down to a little critical self-analysis. No really I mean it, we aren’t always great at what we do :). Sometimes we will fall short in our creative endeavors because of tiny mistakes or because we are unable to do one part of what we are trying to create. A lot of the time the answer can be found through a learning process. Don’t know how to style that web page? Then find a tutorial on CSS and learn. But it can be a little less obvious than that.
This is where a little self-analysis can help out. We need to find the little blind-spots that we have, and we all have them. Questions like ‘What am I not good at?’, ‘What do I struggle with?’ and ‘Where do I often get things wrong?’ are ideal for this self-analysis. The point is not find out your faults and beat yourself up over them, but to identify them and then find some solutions.
Find out the problem or issue and then look for, and implement a solution. Let me give you some simple examples. Although you’d not notice it by reading the posts (ahem, I do apologise) here, I have a blind spot when it comes to spelling certain words and also grammar issues. I could blame it on the teaching systems in the UK during the 80s and never improve my creative writing. However, realising that I do fall short here I looked for a few simple solutions. One that I found really helpful was to keep a list of words that I always seem to spell wrong. I found the words quite easily by using the spell checker, but I kept spelling them wrong. Now I have the list I am finding I am getting them wrong less often.
In a broader sense you may feel that all your creative output ends up looking, sounding or reading the same. One solution here is to change your process. Again I notice a distinct difference to a song I have written strumming the guitar to one I’ve come up with at the piano.
So, don’t be afraid of a little critical self-analysis. Identify the problem and then act on the solution, your creative output will benefit.
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Why are you being creative?
Posted on July 22, 2008, by dazzer67, under creativity basics, preparation.
This is all about defining purpose. It may seem an obvious question to ask and you may already have an answer on the tip of your tongue, c’mon Darren, that’s a bit straightforward! Well, yes and no. The simplest answer is because I can, it is something that I do. I live, therefore I create. I have no problems with this, and wholeheartedly agree with it. But left at this level, it can lead us into frustration as we struggle with motivation and lack of focus. All creatives should share in the mantra, ‘lead us not into frustration.’
Being creative is our identity, part of who we are. Why we are creative can be seen as our purpose. It should flow from our identity. My point is we can become fuzzy with the purpose of being creative. Like most things in life, if we can set goals, and I mean clear, timed and measured goals, our purpose is clearer.
So why are you being creative? We’ve established that you are creative, but what are the outcomes to your creativity? Are you being creative to make money, to pass on your creative output through a sale? Are you being creative to produce something that you can look at, or use, or enjoy? Are you being creative to relax and develop your own sense of oneness with reality? There can be many reasons and those listed are only thoughts and ideas. But if you can define your reason for being creative in this way, you will have a focused purpose. It will help you understand why you are doing something and provide motivation along the way. Of course, the way is another post. But without a destination; a purpose, you can’t begin the journey.
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Prepare your creative space
Posted on July 18, 2008, by dazzer67, under quotes.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan
Well, the universe has been sorted for us, but the space you need for your own creativity still needs to be found. Go make some pie!
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Disorderly creative conduct
Posted on July 16, 2008, by dazzer67, under creativity basics, preparation.
The following quote from A. A. Milne is an interesting one. On the one hand, the more uncluttered we are, the more space we give to our mind to be creative. However, does the following contradict this…
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
Personally I think there is a difference to disorderly and cluttered, and that is why the opening statement and the A.A.MIlne quote are essentially true.
Disorder, allows us to create connections, to dream dreams and to use our imagination. If we kept everything in order, and ‘as it should be’ there is no development, no evolution and no creativity. In some areas of our lives we need order, but when it comes to being creative it can stifles.
Keeping things uncluttered is about the mess, the distractions. While these may initially lead to some interesting connections and creative ideas, they more often than not distract us from our creative goals.
To sum up, I think the following illustration helps. If I am creating some music on the computer, I don’t want several other applications running and cluttering up my workspace, however, keeping an open, disordered mind during the process can allow me to develop new ideas and walk down new musical paths - ‘what if I did this instead?’
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5 ways to rediscover your muse
Posted on July 14, 2008, by dazzer67, under creativity basics, inspiration, quick tips.
I must admit that I have been struggling recently in the creative arena, and the posts here have been few and far between because of that… well okay I have also been extremely busy with the day job, but that is no excuse. Still it got me thinking about what you can do when the ‘muse’ has gone away, when the creative ideas just don’t seem to flow. (You’ll find this is a recurring theme here and I’ll return to it quite often).
So here are five quick ways to rediscover your muse if she’s gone away:
- Open your eyes - It is very easy to crawl into our own creative ghetto and just keep putting out. But that eventually leads to creative burnout. Find others who use a similar creative genre and look at what they are doing, immerse yourself in their creativity for a while.
- See the ‘real’ world - Nature is organic and as such can provide us with limitless inspiration. It isn’t bound by our human ideas and so reaches beyond what we can imagine. Tap into that creativity by taking a look at what is beyond the concrete. It also gives you any excuse to get out of the studio!
- Close your eyes - Sometimes you simply need to down tools for a while. Simply close your eyes and get away from the paper, paint, materials or music, and relax. It is surprising how often the muse will return when you stop looking.
- Make a list - The brain fills up quite quickly with a lot of junk to distracts us. One of the best tried and tested methods of helping the poor brain during these times is making lists. Even if you don’t do anything with them, just getting it out of your head helps a lot, and gives space for the muse to move back in.
- Fall in love - Find your soul mate, spark up the relationship and voila. Okay, that is easier said than done, but what you are looking for here are strong emotions. Emotional energy has a big impact on creativity, so if your creative levels are down, perhaps you need to hold an emotional audit.
I’d love to hear any other ideas you may have to woo the muse back into your life, so please add them to the comments.
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Maximum creativity and productivity
Posted on July 1, 2008, by dazzer67, under links.
I’d like to thank MissV for sharing this link. It is an interesting article on creativity and productivity. I won’t spoil it, just go and have a read, it’s very good.
Tip: Focus on Results, Not Time from Behance Magazine
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George Carlin Inspiration
Posted on June 23, 2008, by dazzer67, under inspiration, quotes.
In memory of George Carlin who died yesterday 22nd June 2008 I thought we’d have a quote that could be used to inspire us all. George said,
‘I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.’
I’d like to add that the same is true of any creative activity. Find the line and cross it, creativity is all about going beyond, doing what hasn’t been done before. So find the line and cross it deliberately today, in memory of George.
Award-winning comedian George Carlin dies - CNN.com
