Success E-Letter Vol. 4/5 Early Winter '04
Unleash Your Creativity: Befriend Mistakes!
Nina Ham, CPCC, LCSW
As we approach year’s end, many of us are engaged in a process of personal and business reflection and review. Here’s a question you may not have thought to ask yourself: Where and how does your creativity deserve credit for the successes you enjoy in your business or career? How can you engage your creative muse even more, inspiring new products, projects, or directions? And what are the natural predators that lurk in your mind and seek to crush its voice?
Chances are good that some of the best moments of your career or business life are those times when a bright idea or an original solution to a problem has occurred to you. Defining creativity for the purposes of this discussion as giving voice or form to what is uniquely you, it’s easy to see that your creativity is an excellent resource in distinguishing yourself from the competition, of being an indispensable part of a workplace team, or of creating a brand that sells itself. What are the specific opportunities it can create? I decided to focus on my coaching clients’ check-ins to listen for examples of creativity at work finding solutions to business or career situations. Here’s a partial list:
- linking an overlooked skill to a service need and coming up with a new pool of potential clients
- recognizing a natural win-win alliance with a professional in another line of business
- being reminded via a dream of a childhood passion that points to a new career direction
- an ah-ha moment at the symphony that begins a new product design idea
- discovering a unique way to bundle corporate skills and experience to launch an independent consultancy.
This list is probably just a beginning. Your creativity can be actively courted by following two simple principles.
Extend an invitation! When you encounter a problem or decision point, instead of trying to logically think your way to the answer, invite your creative muse. Give him/her a name, and make a space at the table.
Say thank you! This isn’t simple politeness; it requires that you pay attention. Every time you notice instances of your creative powers showing up, you strengthen your creativity muscle and increase the likelihood you’ll call on it again.
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All goes well…until you hit a snag. You’re looking desperately for a creative solution, and all you come up with is mental static. The harder you try, the deader you feel. What’s happened? Creativity Crushers come in innumerable guises. Stress and clutter – in the mind or on the desktop – are among the many culprits. But the Creativity Crusher that heads the list is the voice of judgment, disqualifying every idea as a mistake-about-to-happen. Anticipating the humiliation of seeing your brilliant idea crash to earth can indeed kill the flow. And that fear is not completely unrealistic, since the source of our best ideas is out on the edge, beyond what’s secure… where “brilliant” and “mistake!” are often initially indistinguishable.
Knowing how to befriend mistakes – giving them their due but not fearing them – is a highly useful skill to have in your internal toolbag. This may require that we rewire our thinking, but even this isn’t hopeless. Encouraging news comes from recent brain research, informing us that intentionally repeating a behavior (including thoughts) a minimum of 6 times can actually change brain patterning. Here are some suggestions for beginning the rewiring project.
- Begin Bean Counting: Counteract mistake-counting with creative- success-counting. Whether it’s creativity on a project, in a conversation, or in your mind, notice it! Pay close attention to the ways your creativity finds outlets.
- Make an Assumption: Assume mistakes are going to happen and when one occurs, credit yourself with taking a creative risk.
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” A. Einstein
- Go on a Treasure Hunt: Look for the unexpected possibility or new direction hidden in the mistake. Be inspired by the treasures Ed and Chuck found:
“A mistake is an event, the full benefit of which has not yet been turned to your advantage.” Ed Land, inventor of instant photography and founder of Polaroid.
“It’s the stumblings that let us know what we’re really looking for”, says Chuck Jones, of Bugs Bunny fame.
- Show your mettle: Reframe your mistake as a test of your persistence.
“Sticking to it is the genius!” says Thos. Edison
- Surrender! As the cognitive psychologists say, use your mistake to “break set”. Surrender what’s familiar, the approach that led to the mistake (for instance rational or linear thinking), and start fresh.
“The unconscious is far better suited to creative insight than the conscious mind.” Michael Ray, The Creative Spirit
So here’s my promise. If you will set aside the month of January, 2005 as your personal Befriend Mistakes/Unleash Creativity month, and apply one of the above rewiring tricks to at least one mistake every day, you will find your creativity flourishing and your confidence in it growing. If it helps, write the six suggestions out on 3x5 cards and try one of them whenever you discover a mistake – a creative risk you take that doesn’t pan out – or whenever you detect a judgmental voice intent on stifling an idea for fear of making a mistake. Remember: no one else sees things the way you do. Your voice is your unique contribution. The human world, like the natural world, thrives on diversity.
Nina Ham, CPCC, LCSW | Success from the Inside Out
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Telephone 510-526-7377
all contents Nina Ham © 2002-2005
