Creativity- The Integral Spark

Is there a secret to creativity?

Is there a method in this madness?

How do you manage the spunk generally?

So you are staking a lot in this project and you need to have drive/new ideas consistently to see this through. Basically, you are at a juncture where the uncertainty begins. The challenge then is how to stay in the loop in the face of the looming uncertainty and impending monthly bills. I wish there was a formula! You beg, You borrow, and you steal from wherever you can, and at best you hope it would gel. Some of it does, some don’t and that’s fine. Creativity arises from our ability to see things from many different angles.

Think of yourself as a brand. You need to be remembered. What will they remember you for? What defines you? If you have it in you, do something that defines you. Invent something, develop a unique skill, get noticed for something, it creates a talking point. Unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts or having some kind of important career. Creative activity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. The truth is that creative activity is one that involves the entire self – our emotions, our levels of energy, our characters, and our minds. Creativity is a continual surprise.

The important thing is you are in the zone(Don’t know for how long though). And it helps in morale to know that one is doing what one really wants to. You may have to trim the sails as per the wind but as long as you are a part of this adventure, you don’t mind the hiccups. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Let your creative and imaginative mind run freely; it will take you places you never dreamed of and provide breakthroughs that others once thought were impossible. Reinvent new combinations of what you already own. Improvise. Become more creative. Not because you have to, but because you want to. Evolution is the secret to the next step. Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers. We nurture our creativity when we release our inner child. Let it run and roam free. It will take you on a brighter journey.

Be it the writer’s block, the drive, the inspiration, all of them are like a high-handed but loving girlfriend. Once you are able to neutralize the high-handedness, love unravels. So one has to persist. If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life, and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.

There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and WhatsApp chat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas. Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it. Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the essence of existence. And the purposeful destruction of information is the essence of intelligent work. It’s an artist’s right to rebel against the world’s stupidity.

All of our days are numbered; we cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all because the worth of the idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world, a little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand and pray will not be extinguished by all the storm that howls about it. If you can hold on to that flame great things can be constructed around it that are massive and powerful and world-changing, all held up by the tiniest of ideas. The best ideas will eat at you for days, maybe even weeks, until something, some incident, some impulse, triggers you to finally express them.

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down. To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it. Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be but to find out who we already are and become it. Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art. 

There is no recipe, no formula. You have to show up, irrespective. Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done. When you become the image of your own imagination, it’s the most powerful thing you could ever do. Everyone has their own ways of expression. I believe we all have a lot to say, but finding ways to say it is more than half the battle.  When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms. When creativity blossoms, thinking emanates. When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit. When knowledge is lit, the economy flourishes. Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else–that’s how you’ll get ahead.
Show up.
Give your best.
Repeat.

Spend more time doing things that make you forget about the time.
~Ajay Rathee