[OKC] 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative

[Shauna Struby]

Sometimes we become so focused on specific issues -- we forget or don't make
the time -- to foster and nurture the very things we need to help us become
more resilient and sustainable. In this post from Brain Pickings
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/12/john-cleese-on-creativity
-1991/> , Maria Popova "re-discovers" a 1991 John Cleese lecture on
creativity. Cleese's full 36-minute lecture is available on video in the
post as well.

 


 
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/12/john-cleese-on-creativity
-1991/> John Cleese on 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative


by  <http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/author/mpopova/> Maria Popova

 

'Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.'

 

Much has been said about
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/20/jonah-lehrer-imagine-how-
creativity-works/> how creativity works, its
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/18/woz-on-creativity-and-inn
ovation/> secrets, its
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/09/23/steven-johnson-where-good
-ideas-come-from/> origins, and
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/10/03/activity-books-for-grown-
ups/> what we can do to optimize ourselves for it. In this excerpt from his
fantastic 1991 lecture, John Cleese offers a recipe for creativity,
delivered with his signature blend of cultural insight and comedic genius.
Specifically, Cleese outlines "the 5 factors that you can arrange to make
your lives more creative."

 

Selected highlights:

 

1.	Space ("You can't become playful, and therefore creative, if you're
under your usual pressures.")
2.	Time ("It's not enough to create space; you have to create your
space for a specific period of time.")
3.	Time ("Giving your mind as long as possible to come up with
something original," and learning to tolerate the discomfort of pondering
time and indecision.)
4.	Confidence ("Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as
the  <http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/05/12/fear-of-failure/>
fear of making a mistake.")
5.	Humor ("The main
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/03/chris-bliss-texrainier-co
medy/> evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed
mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.")

We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem - but! - once we
come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement
it. Because once we've made a decision, we are efficient only if we go
through with it decisively, undistracted by doubts about its correctness.

 

To be at our most efficient, we need to be able to switch backwards and
forward between the two modes. But - here's the problem - we too often get
stuck in the closed mode. Under the pressures which are all too familiar to
us, we tend to maintain tunnel vision at times when we really need to step
back and contemplate the wider view.

 

This is particularly true, for example, of politicians. The main complaint
about them from their nonpolitical colleagues is that they've become so
addicted to the adrenaline that they get from reacting to events on an
hour-by-hour basis that they almost completely lose the desire or the
ability to ponder problems in the open mode.

 

This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind
resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or
later you will get a reward from your unconscious.

 

Full post here :::
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/12/john-cleese-on-creativity-
1991/

 

Shauna Lawyer Struby

imagine, innovate, collaborate, transition

Volunteer, Transition OKC

 <http://www.goinglocalokc.org/> www.goinglocalokc.org

 

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