Where Does Creativity Come From?

“Unleashing Your Creative Brilliance” According to Elizabeth Gilbert none of us are creative, we just have different relationships with “the Muse”. In this amazing Ted Talk, the author of a not so famous book you probably have never heard of (Eat, Pray, Love) tells her story about the genius that is creativity!

Have you ever heard of the “Muse”? In ancient Greece there were no such thing as a “geniuses” like we refer to today, just people that tapped into the right “Muse”. And when you no longer were creating things of genius calibre well it wasn’t really your fault, your Muse had moved on.

Show up and create. I show this Ted Talk to every class I teach because I think there’s this ridiculous expectation from a creative to be able to turn “it” on and off at will. Or the age old, “I’m just waiting for my inspiration!”. What Elizabeth says is that it’s not up to us to depend on inspiration, all we can do is show up and create.

It’s a relieving Ted Talk to watch because it gives you hope for having a career as a creative.

“How to Find a Wonderful Idea” This OK GO Ted Talk hits home how creativity works. Creativity is a lifestyle, it makes its way into everything you do. Not just creating music and music videos, the main presenter talks about how his high school bed room looked like a pop culture bomb had gone off as well he always played parallax games with his thumb and any object distorting the view some how. This early tinkering with perspectives is what propelled Ok GO to create some of the most imaginative music video literally ever created.

Creativity is weird. I love this Ted Talk because they’re very honest about creativity. It can come from the most obscure places. Like when talking to your wife and a piece of broccoli pops out of her neck. That’s creativity. You can’t control it, you can only interpret it when it happens. Also the more you try new creative ideas and approaches, the more creative ideas you come up with later. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Creativity begets creativity.

Why is “Creativity” such a dirty word?

According to Hugh MacLeod (the Godfather of Creativity) being a creative is extremely hard work but also extremely rewarding. In the first book I read of Hugh’s Ignore Everybody: 39 Ideas on Being Creative. It spoke to my marketing mind at a very vulnerable time for me. It was a bright light in a world of confusing darkness. Going into the “real world” as a utopian believing fresh out of school University grad, I needed something that was honest but didn’t sugar coat what the life of a creative is all about.

I have found “Hugh’s Manifesto” from Changethis.com we found Hugh’s manifesto. (or you can download it here: How To Be Creative by Hugh Macleod I still follow Hugh, he still creates his amazing cartoons, I get them via email now. Most days they are that little bit of honesty that you need. We’re all struggling to get through our day, Hugh makes it manageable for a creative.

If you want to learn more about Hugh and what he does check out the GapingVoid website here.

Where do good ideas come from?

A Good Idea Is Not Good Enough

How To Fail Like A Pro

A Podcast Series on How To Be Creative

The Freakonomics guys always have an interesting way of looking at things. They just did a series on ideas and creativity, it’s definitely worth a listen. From this series they explain topics like “The amatuer looks for inspiration, the professionals just gets up and goes to work every day.”, “why a good idea is useless”, and “failing lots is what the professionals do”.

They talk to folks who make a living being creative.

Where Do Good Ideas Come From?

A Good Idea Is Not Good Enough

How To Fail Like A Pro

Bonus Episodes:

How To Be Creative

Where Does Creativity Come From? (And how Schools Kill it Off)

You hear about different people’s creative process, like how Michael Lewis(author of The Big Short, Moneyball, The Undoing Project) locks himself in a room, creates one playlists to listen to over and over while writing and laughs hysterically from time to time. Though that last point is refuted by Lewis, you realize everyone has a “way” of being creative, that’s just his process.

What’s your process? How do YOU get creative? Is it a coffee shop? Is is a time of day? Is it after coffee? How could you structure your life to be more creative?