The Myths of Creativity: Anyone And Everyone Can Be Creative

Twitter Summary: Creativity may seem divinely inspired, it’s really all about the process.

Principle

I’m super excited to start sharing some of the great ideas David Burkus has in his book The Myths of Creativity over the next few weeks.  To lay the foundation for these posts I wanted to start with his underlying premise.

“Creativity is less the outcome of a divine blessing or visitation and more the result of designing the right ecosystem and filling it with properly trained people with diverse perspectives.  [Ultimately,] under the right conditions, anyone can be creative.  Everyone can generate great ideas.”

What Burkus is trying to explain is that creativity is not about an external divine influence, it’s about implementing a  processes that unleashes the creative inner talent everyone is born with.  

It’s liberating to have Burkus debunk creative myths we all have grown to believe.  But this is where we need to start before we dig into specific myths starting next week: anyone and everyone can be creative.

Anyone and Everyone Can Be Creative and Making Connections

I stalk a number of musicians on Instagram, I confess.  It’s so awesome to feel like I have a glimpse into their lives and get to see first hand what they do and like.

Jason Mraz posted the following photo to his Instagram feed and I snatched it up to use for this post.  You see, a lot of people see musicians like Mraz as creative misfits that simply throw things against the wall and are able to control to mythical muses of inspiration and put it all on a record.  However, this photo does a perfect job of demonstrating the complicated, specific, and intentional process he uses, like many musicians, to achieve some extremely creative music.

I mentioned that I wanted to use this photo and story about Mraz to a close friend and he got excited because even he explained, a lot of people see musicians as the kind of people who are able to throw things together haphazardly and creative genius just seem to come together.  Please, know that rarely, if ever, does a great song or album come about through haphazard efforts.

Even Miles Davis in his record Kind of Blue, a record that changed the face of improvisation and the recording process in general, used a process to achieve creative genius.  His process of improvisation on that record has been compared to a Japanese visual art, where the artist is forced to be spontaneous within specific confines and strokes.  The result is one of the most critically acclaimed blues records, or any record, of our time.  But again, Miles and this record are additional proof that using a creative process allows ones inner talent, however big or small it may be, to be unleashed in all of its greatness.

The photo from Mraz and the genius of Davis are dear to me because I have found myself in the exact same situation, sitting in a recording studio dreaming of unleashing something creative and amazing.  I have spent weeks straight in the recording studio, at many different stages of my life, and it has amazed me the variety of processes we used for my band Upstanding Youth to produce something creative.  Mraz and Davis are dear to me because they’re perfect examples that while creative masterpieces may seem divinely inspired, it’s really all about the process.

So What?

If you have ever said, “I can’t do that, I’m not the creative type.” Stop it!  You no longer have that excuse and I’m going to show you in a number of upcoming posts why.  You can be creative, you just need to leverage processes that allow your creativity to be unleashed.

What processes do you use to unleash your creativity?  Watch this video about author Elizabeth Gilbert and the unique way she approaches the process of creativity.

Next Weeks Post: The Mousetrap Myth and I’ll tell you about how important it is to convince the world you’re worth it.