Reading IDS 3336- Assignment #1

C R E A T I V I ТY

Flow and the Psychology of

Discovery and Invention

Míhaly Csikszentmihalyi

£? , a%

H A R P E R P E R E N N I A L

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a cell’s behavior, or a way to make better microchips for less money ' an exhilarating experience in its own right, even if no one e’;; knows about it, and no rewards follow. Almost аД of our responden spoke eloquently and spontaneously about the importance of thes' intrinsic rewards. If they did not feel this joy, external rewards woul not have been sufficient to motivate them to extend their efforts int;;

uncharted regions. - But whereas experts in a discipline usually Love what they do, this

emotion is generally not available to students or young practitioners Especially in the sciences, beginners see only the drudgery of the dis­ cipline. Teachers rarely spend time trying to reveal the beauty an , the fun of doing math or science; students learn that these subjects are ruled by grim determinism instead of the freedom and adventu-' that the experts experience. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to motil vate young people to master aspects of the culture that seem cold an* alienating. As a result, knowledge in these areas might become

eroded and creativity increasingly rare. i So one obvious way to enhance creativity is to bring as much ás

possible of the flow experience into the various domains. It is exhila rating to build culture—to be an artist, a scientist, a thinker, or á doer. AU too often, however, the joy of discovery fails to be commu-V nicated to young people, who turn instead to passive entertainment But consuming culture is never as rewarding as producing it. If' were only possible to transmit the excitement of the people we inter viewed to the next generation, there is no doubt that creativi

would blossom.

F O U R T E E N

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C r e a t i v i t y

Г he major purpose of this book was to describe how creativity works, how culture evolves as domains are transformed by the çuriosity and dedication of a few individuals. But another goal was to

learn, from the lives of such men and women, how everyone’s life eould be made more creative. How can our days, too, be filled with ¿wonder and excitement? To answer this question I move from objec­ tive description to prescription. I present my own reflections on •what we have learned so far and try to derive from it some practical ¿advice. Just as a physician may look at the physical habits of the most healthy individuals to find in them a prescription that will help

everyone else to be more healthy, so we may extract some useful ¿ideas from the lives of a few creative persons about how to enrich the jives of everyone else. į You probably already have formed some ideas about how to experi­ ence life more creatively. At the very least, you have learned about the

obstacles that creative individuals have to surmount and the strategies

»they use to increase the likelihood that they will accomplish original .¿work. In this chapter I will distill these insights and present them as ¿explicit suggestions for how to apply them to everyday life.

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These suggestions hold no promise for great creative achievement;' As is clear by now, to move from personal to cultural Creativity otr needs talent, training, and an enormous dose of good luck. Withou' access to a domain, and without the support of a field, a person has* no chance of recognition. Even though personal creativity may no*' lead to fame and fortune, it can do something that from the individf ual’s point of view is even more important: make day-to-day experi-: enees more vivid, more enjoyable, more rewarding. When we live> creatively, boredom is banished and every moment holds the promise of a fresh discovery. Whether or not these discoveries enrich the/ world beyond our personal lives, living creatively links us with they

process of evolution. Most of the suggestions derived from the study of creative lives can:

be implemented by anybody regardless of age, gender, or social con­ dition. Some of the steps, however, are more appropriate to parents ■ or other adults who want to provide, optimal conditions for develop-į ing the creativity of children. We cannot change conditions in our/ own childhood that would make us more curious and hence enhance; creativity; but we can change conditions for the next generation.1 Instead of pointing out each time which suggestions are for adults, .; and which for children, I trust the reader’s judgment to make the

appropriate distinctions. I am assuming that each person has, potentially, all the psychic ;

energy he or she needs to lead a creative life. However, there are/ four major sets of obstacles that prevent many from expressing this ? potential. Some of us are exhausted by too many demands, and so··; have trouble getting hold of and activating our psychic energy in the first place. Or we get easily distracted and have trouble learn­ ing how to protect and channel whatever energy we have. The: next problem is laziness, or lacking discipline for controlling the flow of energy. And finally, the last obstacle is not knowing what to do with the energy one has. How to avoid these obstacles and liberate the creative energy we all have is what I review in this

chapter.

The Acquisition op Creative Energy

With our present knowledge, even an expert neuroanatomist could not tell Einstein s brain from yours or mine. In terms of the capacity

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pi processing information, all brains are extremely alike. The limits ©n how many bits of information we can process at any given time -e also similar. Nor is the speed of information processing noticeably

Jlifferent from one brain to the next. In principle, because of the similarity in cerebral hardware, most people could share the same

Knowledge and perform mental operations at similar levels. Yet what Enormous differences there are in how people think and what they .think about!

In terms of using mental energy creatively, perhaps the most fun- (damental difference between people consists in how much uncom­ mitted attention they have left over to deal with novelty. In too many ; cases, attention is restricted by external necessity. We cannot expect a /man who works two jobs, or a working woman with children, to /have much mental energy left over to lèàhTâMoTKâiíC leť áloñemñb- ; vate in it. Einstein is supposed to have written his classic papers on '.die kitchen table of his small apartment in Berne, while rocking the 'pram of his baby. But the fact is that there are real limits to how -many things a person can attend to at the same time, and when sun­ yival needs require all of one’s attention, none is left over for being creative.

; But often the obstacles are internal. In a person concerned with protecting his or her self, practically all the attention is invested in ►monitoring threats to the ego. This defensiveness may have very /understandable causes: Children who have been abused or who have

experienced chronic hunger or discrimination are less likely to be .curious and interested in novelty for its own sake, because they need all the psychic energy they have simply to survive. Taken to the

¿extreme, a sense of being too vulnerable results in the form of neuro­ ns known as paranoia, where everything that happens is interpreted jas a threatening conspiracy against the self. A paranoid tendency is

■pne obstacle to the free deployment of mental energy. The person

who suffers from it usually cannot afford to become interested in the ¡world from an objective, impartial viewpoint, and therefore is unable to learn much that is new.

Another limitation on the free use of mental energy is an exces­ sive investment of attention in selfish goals. Of course, we all must ifirst and foremost take care of our own needs. But for some people îthe concept of “need” is inflated to the point that it becomes an (obsession that devours every waking moment. When everything a

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person sees, thinks, or does must serve self-interest, there is attention left over to learn about anything else.

It is difficult to approach the world creatively when one is hungt v or shivering from cold, because then all of one’s mental energy v:

focused on securing the necessities one lacks. And it is equally diffif cult when a person is rich and famous but devotes all of his or h- energies to getting more money and fame. To free up creative ener we need to let go and divert some attention from the pursuit of th: predictable goals that genes and memes have programmed in ош minds and use it instead to explore the world around us on its own

terms. ■■■'* ■■'4

Curiosity and. Interest So the first step toward a more creative life is the cultivation о curiosity and interest, that is, the allocation of attention to things for their own sake. On this score, children tend to have the advari¿ tage over adults; their curiosity is like a constant beam that high lights and invests with interest anything within range. The obje:; need not be useful, attractive, or precious; as long as it is mysteri ' ous it is worthy of attention. With age most of us lose the sense ò* wonder, the feeling of awe in confronting the majesty and variety, of the world. Yet without awe life becomes routine. Creative indi;' viduals are childlike in that their curiosity remains fresh even ninety years of age; they delight in the strange and the unknownî And because there is no end to the unknown, their delight also ’

endless. / At first, curiosity is diffiise and generic. The child’s attention *

attracted to any novelty—cloud or bug, grandfather’s cough or ' rusted nail. With time, interest usually becomes channeled into

specific domain. A ninety-year-old physicist may retain childho- curiosity in the realm of subatomic particles but is unlikely to haw

enough free attention left over to marvel at much eke. Therefo" creativity within a domain often goes hand in hand with conformi

in the rest of life. Einstein at the peak of his breakthroughs Li physics played traditional music on his violin. But narrowing atten, tion to a single domain does not mean limiting the novelty one ^

able to process; on the contrary, complex domains like poetry, his

tory, physics, or politics reveal constantly expanding perspectives t those who venture to explore them.

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if So how can interest and curiosity be cultivated, assuming that you feel the desire to do so? Some specific advice may help.

.i/V

Ţry to be surprised by something every day. It could be something you .ree, hear, or read about. Stop to look at_the..unusual car parked at the curb, taste the new item on the cafeteria menu, actually listen lo your colleague at the office. How is this different from other .’milar cars, dishes, or conversations? What is its essence? Don’t

‘assume that you already know what these things are all about, or that even if you knew them, they wouldn’t matter anyway. Experi­ ence this one thing for what it is, not what you think it is. Be open ,to what the world is telling you. Life is nothing more than a stream hf experiences—the more widely and deeply you swim in it, the richer your life wifi be.

Try to surprise at least one person every day. Instead of being your pre­ dictable self, say something unexpected, express an opinion that you

ave not dared to reveal, ask a question you wouldn’t ordinarily ask. break the routine of your activities: Invite a person to go with

;ou to a show, a restaurant, or a museum that you never visited efore. Experiment with your appearance. Comfortable routines are ,reat when they save energy for doing what you really care about; ut if you are still searching, they restrict and limit the future.

'ľ:rite doum each day what surprised you and how you surprised others. fost creative people keep a diary, or notes, or lab records to. make

Leir experiences more concrete and enduring. If you don’t do so Iready, it might help to start with a very specific task: to record each vening the most surprising event that happened that day and your

' ost surprising action. This is a simple enough assignment and one "u will find is fun to do. After a few days, you can reread what you -ve written and reflect on those past experiences. One of the surest

|rays to enrich life is to make experiences less fleeting, so that the pst memorable, interesting, and important events are not lost for­

mer a few hours after they occurred. Writing them down so that you an relive them in recollection is one way to keep them from disap­ pearing. And after a few weeks, you may begin to see a pattern of -terest emerging in the notes, one that may indicate some domain -t would repay exploring in depth.

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When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it. Usually, wir something captures our attention·—-an idea, a song, a flower— impression is brief. We are too busy to explore the idea, song, ; flower further. Or we feel that it is none of our business. After all, are not thinkers, singers, or botanists, so these things lie outside о/ grasp. Of course, that’s nonsense. The world is our business, and ..' can’t know which part of it is best suited to our selves, to our poten tialities, unless we make a serious effort to learn about as man*

aspects of it as possible. If you take time to reflect on how best to implement these fo

suggestions, and then actually start putting them into effect, yo' should feel a stirring of possibilities under the accustomed surface о

daily experiences. It is the gathering of creative energy, the rebirth о

curiosity that has been atrophied since childhood.

Cultivating Flow in Everyday life The rebirth of curiosity doesn’t last long, however, unless we lear to enjoy being curious. Entropy, the force behind the famous Sec­ ond Law of Thermodynamics, applies not only to physical systems but to the functioning of the mind as well. When there is nothing- specific to do, our thoughts soon return to the most predictable state, which is randomness or confusion. We pay attention and coos centrate when we must—when dressing, driving the car, stayiir awake at work. But when there is no external force demanding that we concentrate, the mind begins to lose focus. It falls to the lowest energetic state, where the least amount of effort is required. Whe-' this happens, a sort of mental chaos takes over. Unpleasant though;/ flash into awareness, forgotten regrets resurface, and we beconri depressed. Then we turn on the TV set, read listlessly the advertis-; ing supplement of the newspaper, have pointless" conversations—- anything to keep our thoughts on an even keel and avoid becoming; frightened by what is happening in the mind. Taking refuge in pas4 sive entertainment keeps chaos temporarily at bay, but the attention it absorbs gets wasted. On the other hand, when we learn to enjoy, using our latent creative energy so that it generates its own internal, force to keep concentration focused, we not only avoid depression but also increase the complexity of our capacities to relate to the'

world. 1 How can we do this? How can we relearn to enjoy curiosity so

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a e ' G r e a t j - v i t y — - 3 4 9 - — — ; ■ ·

-t the pursuit of new experiences and new knowledge becomes "-sustaining?

7ake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to. Creative ¡chviduals don’t have to be dragged out of bed; they are eager to

the day. This is not because they are cheerful, enthusiastic types, ¡or. do they necessarily have something exciting to do. But they ‘!eve that there is something meaningful to accomplish each day, d they can’t wait to get started on it. Most of us don’t feel our actions are that meaningful. Yet everyone - discover at least one thing every day that is worth waking up for. could be meeting a certain person, shopping for a special item, tting a plant, cleaning the office desk, writing a letter, trying on a

sy/ dress. It is easier if each night before falling asleep, you review e next day and choose a particular task that, compared to the rest /the day, should be relatively interesting and exciting. Then next ~rning, open your eyes and visualize the chosen event—play it out efly in your mind, like an inner videotape, until you can hardly ;t to get dressed and get going. It does not matter if at first the als are trivial and not that interesting. The important thing is to

the easy first steps until you master the habit, and then" slowly rk up to more complex goals. Eventually most of the day should

nsist of tasks you look forward, to, until you feel that getting up in e morning is a privilege, not a chore.

you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable. Whether writing a poem .cleaning the house, running a scientific experiment or a race, the

i ality of experience tends to improve in proportion to the effort •ested in it. The runner may be exhausted and aching, yet she also

exhilarated if she is putting all her strength into the race. The more vities that we do with excellence and style, the more of life omes intrinsically rewarding.

The conditions that make flow possible suggest how to transform ryday activities so that they are more enjoyable. Having clear goals

" expectations for whatever we do, paying attention to the conse- nces of our actions, adjusting skills to the opportunities for action

die environment, concentrating on the task at hand without dis- tions—these are the simple rules that can make the difference veen an unpleasant and an enjoyable experience. If I decide to

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learn to play the piano or speak a foreign language but feel frustrate or bored doing so, the chances are that I will give up at the firi opportunity. But if I apply the flow conditions to the learning tas1' then it is likely that I will continue to expand my creative potenti*

because doing so is fun. S It is easier to start with the most mundane activities all of us ha**

to take care of. How can you get more enjoyment from brushin your teeth? Taking a shower? Dressing? Eating breakfast? Getting work? Take the simplest of these routines and experiment with engi­ neering its flow potential. How do you apply flow conditions t loading the dishwasher? If you take this question seriously and try answer by testing various alternatives, you will be surprised at ho much fun brushing teeth can be. It will never be as enjoyable as ski­ ing or playing in a string quartet, but it might beat watching mat television programs. f

After you have practiced improving the quality of experience in few everyday activities, you might feel ready to tackle somethin more difficult—such as a hobby or a new interest. Eventually yo will master the most important skill of all, the metaskill that cons: " in being able to turn any activity into an occasion of flow. If th autotelic metaskill is developed enough, you should be able to enjo any new challenge and be on the way to the self-sustaining ch·'

reaction of creativity.

To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity. A Herodotus remarked, we cannot step in the same river twice. No can you enjoy the same activity over and over, unless you discov new challenges, new opportunities in it. Otherwise it becomes bo$ ing. Brushing teeth cannot stay enjoyable for very long—it’s an activ , ity that just does not have enough potential for complexity. True one can preserve the challenge of even the simplest activity by сощ? bining it with something else—for instance, while brushing tee-1

you might plan the coming day or reflect on what happened yester­ day. But generally it is more satisfying to become involved in activi-' ties that are inexhaustible—music, poetry, carpentry, computers, gat;; dening, philosophy, or deep personal relationships.

Most domains are so complex that they cannot be exhausted in ' lifetime, not even the lifetime of the human race. It is always possibl- to learn a new song, or to write one. It is always possible to .find

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tter way to do anything. That is why creativity—the attempt to ~*and the boundaries of a domain—makes a lifetime of enjoyment ossible. - - -

abits of Strength

frer creative energy is awakened, it is necessary to protect it. We ;ust erect barriers against distractions, dig channels so that energy n flow more freely, find ways to escape outside temptations and ’ erruptions. If we do not, entropy is sure to break down the con-

’:ntration that the pursuit of an interest requires. Then thought pirns to its baseline state—the vague, unfocused, constantly dis- Icted condition of the normal mind. |It is often surprising to hear extremely successful, productive peo- le claim that they are basically lazy. Yet thenrlami is believable; It is ot that they have more energy and discipline than you or I; but they p develop habits of discipline that allow them to accomplish seem- -gly impossible tasks. These habits are often so trivial that the peo-

who practice them seem strange and obsessive. At first many peo- i1e were mildly shocked that the great Alfred Einstein always wore ’’*e same old sweater and baggy trousers. Why was he being so ;eird? Of course, Einstein wasn’t trying, to upset anybody. He was

tist cutting down on the daily effort involved in deciding what iothes to wear, so that his mind could focus on matters that to him :ere more important. It may seem that choosing slacks and shirts

'kes so little time that it is pretentious to worry about it. But súp­ ose it takes only two minutes each day to decide how to dress. That äds up to 730 minutes, or twelve hours a year. Now think of the ther repetitive things we have to do throughout the day—comb 'air, drive cars, eat, and so on. And then think not only of the time

takes to do each of these things but of the interruption in the train f thought they cause, both before and after. Having to choose a tie uld derail a whole hour’s worth of reflection! No wonder Einstein

referred to play it safe and wear the same old clothes. • At this point, some readers may smell a contradiction. On the one

d I am saying that to be creative you should be open to experi- *e, focus on even the most mundane tasks—like brushing teeth—

make them more efficient and artistic. On the other hand I am

ng that you should conserve creative energy by routinizing as

ch of everyday life as possible so that you can focus entirely on

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what really matters. Isn’t this contradictory advice? Not really—b' even if it were, you should by now expect a certain amount of p'

dox in creative behavior. The reason it is not a contradiction to be open and focused at dr

same time is that these contrary ways of using psychic energy share ' similarity that is more important than their differences. They requr you to decide whether at this point it is better to be open or to b ‘ focused. They are both expressions of your ability to control atten? don, and it is this, not whether you are open or focused, that mac ters. Before you have discovered an overriding interest in a particula' domain, it makes sense to be open to as much of the world as possi* ble. Affér you have developed an abiding interest, however, it may make more sense to save as much energy as you can to invest in that; one domain. In either case, what is important is not to relinquish control over creative energy so that it dissipates without.direction.

A few more words may be needed here concerning the concept о “control” as applied to attention. It should be realized that one waţ of controlling is to relinquish control. People who meditate expan their being by letting go of focused thought. This way they aim t achieve a spiritual union with foe energy behind the world o. appearances, the force that drives the universe. But this way of givirf up control is itself directed, controlled by the mind. It is very differ?·: ent from just sitting and gossiping, passively consuming entertain*

ment, or letting the mind wander without purpose. "What can you do to build up habits that will make it possible ter,

control attention so that it can be open and receptive, or focused and! directed, depending on what your overall goals require? Щ

Take charge of your schedule. Out circadian rhythms are to a large! extent controlled by outside factors': the rising sun, the commuted train schedule, a job’s deadline, lunchtime, a client’s needs. If it workŞ for you, it makes perfect sense to abandon yourself to these markers? so that you don’t have to decide what to do when. But it is also pos-Į sible that the schedule you are following is not foe best for your pur-| poses. The best time for using your creative energies could be early! in the morning or late at night. Can you carve out some time foil yourself when your energy is most efficient? Can you fit sleep tal your purpose, instead of the other way around? 4

The times when most people eat may not be the best for you. You|

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ght get hungry earlier than lunchtime and lose concentration cause you feel jittery; or to perform at the top of your potential it ;y be best to skip lunch and have a midafternoon snack instead, ere are probably best times to shop, to visit, to work, to relax for

'h one of us; the more we do things at the most suitable times, the -re creative energy we can free up. ^

‘Most of us have never had the chance to discover which parts of e day or night are most suited, to our rhythms. To regain this

towledge we have to pay attention to how well the schedule we

Low fits our inner states—when we feel best eating, sleeping, rking, and so forth. Once we have identified the ideal patterns,

;e can begin the task of changing things around so that we can do ;ngs when it is most suitable. Of course, most of us have inflexible mands on our day that cannot be changed. Even John Reed has to

ep to an office schedule, and Vera Rubin has to adapt her curiosity

times when telescopes are available for observation. The needs of ildren, spouses, and bosses must often take precedence. Yet time is ore flexible than most of us think. .The important thing to remember is that creative energy, like any

er form of psychic energy, only works over time. It takes a certain inimum amount of time to write a sonnet or to invent a new chine. People vary in the speed they work—Mozart wrote con- d much faster than Beethoven did—but even Mozart could not

cape the tyranny of time. Therefore, every hour saved from dgery and routine is an hour added to creativity.

rake time for reflection and relaxation. Many people, especially those ho are successful and responsible, take the image of the “rat race” -ously and feel uncomfortable, even anxious, if they are not busily

¿work. Even at home, they feel they must be always cleaning, rking in the yard, or fixing things. Keeping constantly busy is

inmendable and certainly much better than just lounging around

eling sorry for yourself. But constant busyness is not a good pre- option for creativity. It is important to schedule times in the day, e week, and the year just to take stock of your life and review what u have accomplished and what remains to be done. These are times when you should not expect any task to be done, у decision to be reached. You should just indulge in the luxury of flection for its own sake. "Whether you intend it or not, new ideas

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and conclusions will emerge in your consciousness anyway—and th less you try to direct the process the more creative they are likely be. It may be best to combine these periods of reflection with sorfi other task that requires a certain amount of attention, but not all ­ it. Preferably this should involve some physical or kinesthetic comp:

nent. Typical activities that facilitate subconscious creative process ' are walking, showering, swimming, driving, gardening, weaving, ац

carpentry. ,( Neither constant stress nor monotony is a very good context ft

creativity. You should alternate stress with periods of relaxation. В remember that the best relaxation is not doing nothing. It usual! involves doing something very different from your usual tasks. Soia of the most demanding activities like rock climbing, skiing, or sky­ diving are relaxing to people who have desk jobs because they pro vide opportunities for deep involvement with experiences that completely different from the usual.

Learning to control one’s sleep patterns can also be very impOf tant. Some very effective businesspeople and politicians pride theni shelves on sleeping very few hours each night, and they claim th* short sleep makes them feel more energetic and decisive. But creati*; individuals usually sleep longer and claim that if they cut down ö; sleeptime the originality of their ideas suffers. It is impossible come up with a single amount that is ideal for everyone. Like every* thing else, the important thing is to find the length of time that b* fits your own requirements. And don’t feel guilty if you sleep a fc. hours more than is considered normal. What you lose in wakiri time wifi probably be made up in terms of the quality of experieir while you are awake. ·

Shape your space. We saw in chapter 6 that surroundings can have influence on the creative process. Again, it is not what the enviro ment is like that matters, but the extent to which you are in mony with it.

At the macro level, the question may be whether you feel yö would be happiest if living at the seashore, surrounded by mountai or plains, or in the bustle of a big city. Do you like the change of se sons? Do you hate snow? Some people are physically affected by Ion sunless periods. There can be many reasons why you might fr‘ trapped in the place you live, without a choice to move. But it’s;

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at waste to spend your entire life in uncongenial surroundings, e of the first steps in implementing creativity at the personal level о review your options of life contexts and then start thinking

put strategies for making the best choice come true. At the midlevel, determine what sort of community you want to ' roots in. Every city and rural area have neighborhoods that are

'¿flfied in terms of price, centrality, type of activities available, and •forth. As with everything else, we are limited in the choice of *;cdy where to live—very few can afford to live near the Pebble

“ach golf course in California, the Lionshead ski run in Vail, Col­ ado, or on Park Avenue in Manhattan. But even as redundant using developments are slowly swallowing the landscape, there is

‘” much choice left of where one can live, more than most of us

re to exercise. And it is important to live in a place that does not ¡ė up a lot of potential energy either by lulling the senses into com- ;cency or by forcing us to fight against an intolerable environment. |At the micro level the choices are much more readily available to

Vyone. We all can decide what kind of environment to create in

^ home. As long as there is a roof overhead even the poorest -png us can organize space and collect things that are meaningful

’J conducive to the use of creative energies. ■The house of a Hindu Brahman or a traditional Japanese family is -ęly to be bare of almost all furniture and decoration. The idea is to

pvide a neutral environment that does not disturb the flow of con- pusness with distractions. At the other extreme, a Victorian home

"ts with dark, heavy furniture and knickknacks. In this case, the »jner’s sense of control is bolstered by lavish possessions. Which is

è best way to go? Obviously none of these environments is better :an absolute sense. What counts is which solution allows you to use ention most effectively. It is easy to find out which microenviron- ęnt best fits your self: Try different kinds and pay attention to your “lings and reactions. ■Another way space can help creativity is by following the maxim 4 place for everything, and everything in its place.” Developing a

'tine for storing such things as car keys and eyeglasses repays itself ~re than a hundredfold in time saved. If you know your home and

’’се so well that you can find anything even if blindfolded, your "įn of thought need not be continuously interrupted to look for iriething. This doesn’t mean that your desk or living room should

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always be neat. In fact, the work space of creative individuals is o j

messy and it tends to put off more ordered souls. The importar thing is that they know where everything is, so they can work wřL' out too much distraction. Many can find papers and organize the;' work better when their desk is covered with clutter than when thin1' are properly filed away. But if a clean desk makes you feel and wor better, then by all means keep it clean.

The kind of objects you fill your space with also either help ó hinder the allocation of creative energies. Cherished objects remiri us of our goals, make us feel more conñdent, and focus our atten don. Trophies, diplomas, favorite books, and family pictures on th office desk are all reminders of who you are, what you have accom­ plished, and therefore what you are likely to achieve. Pictures an maps of places you would like to visit and books about things yo might like to learn more about áre signposts of what you might do * ;

the future. And then there are the objects that we carry and that help create "

personalized, portable psychic space. In most traditional societr1

people always took along a few special objecte that were supposed ť ' increase the power of the owner. This “medicine bundle,” or tališ' man, might include the claws of a bear killed in the hunt, soni clamshells found on the beach, or some herbs that revived the weare from a difficult illness. Having these objects hanging from one’s nee' provided a feeling of strength and identity: We also tend to keep ‘ ' our purses and wallets items that represent our self and its values. Pic tures of our children, friends’ addresses, a book or movie tide seri’ bled on a napkin—these all remind us of who we are and what w like. Choosing carefully what to carry with us makes it easier to b comfortable with ourselves and therefore to use psychic energy eSec

rively when the opportunity arises. Another space that is important to personalize is our car. Cars hav

become important extensions of the self; for many people, the car ' more like a casde than the home is. It’s in the car that they feel mos free, most secure, most powerful. It is where they can think with tir greatest concentration, solve problems most efficiendy, and come u with the most creative ideas. That is why it is so difficult to get peo; pie to use public transportadon instead of their cars. Of course, it1

possible that in the near future cars will be as obsolete as eating be and for the same reason—shortage of fuel. In the meantime, how

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 5 7

■ г, it makes sense to learn to use one’s vehicle in the way that is

ost conducive to the environment as well as to the expression of native potential.

ïind out what you like and what you hate about life. It is astonishing ow litde most people know about their feelings. There are people ’ho can’t even tell if they are ever happy, and if they are, when or here. Their lives pass by as a featureless stream of experience, a ing of events barely perceived in a fog of indifference. As opposed this state of chronic apathy, creative individuals are in very dose

~uch with their emotions. They always know the reason for what 1 ey are doing, and they are very sensitive to pain, to boredom, to ?~y, to interest, and to other emotions—They- are -very-quick to pack- p and leave if they are bored and to get involved if they are inter­ red. And because they have practiced this skill for a long time, they eed to invest no psychic energy in self-monitoring; they are aware f their inner states without having to become self-conscious.

How can you learn the dynamics of your emotions? The first —g is to keep a careful record of what you did each day and how

--u felt about it. This is what the Experience Sampling Method ccomplishes—pagers are programmed to signal you at random times

during the day, and then you fill out a short questionnaire. It is possi­ le, after a week, to have a good idea of how you spend your time ~d how you feel about various activities. But you don’t need an

4 borate experiment to find out how you feel. Be creative and -vent your own method of self-analysis. The basis of ancient Greek

hilosophy was the injunction to know thyself. The first step toward 'elf-knowledge involves having a clear idea of what you spend your fe doing and how you feel while doing it. f·

'tart doing more of what you love, less of what you hate. After a few veeks of self-monitoring, sit down with your diary or your notes -d begin to analyze them. Again, it takes some .. creativity, but it ’ ould not be very difficult to draw out the main patterns, of daily fe. It’s not more convoluted than planning comparison shopping or

tudying stock market graphs. And it is so much more important in ė long run.

You may find that, contrary to what you had thought, the few mes you were with your spouse during the week you had great

3 5 8 C r e a t i v i t y

conversations and felt relaxed. That at work, despite stress and hassles you felt better about yourself than when watching television. O“ conversely, that most of the time when you were at work you fe' listless and bored. "Why were you so irritated with your children? S~ impatient with the people you work with? So cheerful when walkin " down the street?

You may never find out the deep reasons that answer these ques­ tions. Perhaps there are no deep reasons.. The point is that once yò know what your daily life is like and how you experience it, it is easf ier to begin getting control over it. Perhaps the pattern of feeling1

shows that you should change your job—or learn to bring more flow to it. Or that you should be outdoors more often, or find ways to d; some more interesting things with your children. The importan*1

thing is to make sure that you spend your psychic energy in such , , way that it brings back the highest returns in terms of the quality q experience.

The only way to stay creative is to oppose the wear and tear existence with techniques that organize time, space, and activity your advantage. It means developing schedules to protect your tirrr' and avoid distraction, arranging your surroundings to heighten con . centration, cutting out meaningless chores that soak up psychi; energy, and devoting the energy thus saved to what you really car1

about. It is much easier to be personally creative when you maxiroiz; optimal experiences in everyday life.

'fį.

Internal Traits ă

The next step, after learning to liberate the creative energy of won^ der and awe, and then learning to protect it by managing time, space, and activity, is to internalize as many of these supporting structures into your personality as possible. We can think of personality as «į habitual way of thinking, feeling, and acting, as the more or less* unique pattern by which we use psychic energy or attention. Sony* traits are more likely than others to result in personal creativity. Is im­ possible to reshape personality to make it more creative?

It is difficult for adults to change personalities. Some of the habits; that form personality are based on temperament, or the particular^ genetic inheritance that makes one person very shy, or aggressive, or distractible. Temperament then interacts with social environment-^

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 5 9

ts, family, friends, teachers—and some habits are strengthened, ’ ers weakened or repressed. By the time we are out of our teens,

jmy of these habits are strongly set, and it is difficult to invest atten- on—to think, feel, or act—in any other way than what our traits ~w.

lit is difficult, but it is not impossible. Strangely" m our culture we v-nd billions of dollars trying to improve our looks, but we take a glistic attitude toward our personal traits—as if it was beyond our

bilities to change them. If all the energy expended on dieting, cos- -etics, and dressing up were turned to other uses, we could easily :lve the material problems of the world. Yet most of that energy is -*ted because how we look, or how much we weigh, is more diffi­ di to change because it is more dependent on genetic instructions an are personality traits. And, of course, improving who we are is a

i-eat deal more important than improving how we look. ’Ίο change personality means to learn new patterns of attention,

p look at different things, and to look at them differently; to learn

think new thoughts, have new feelings about what we experience, hn Gardner was by temperament extremely introverted. He was

y and retiring, undemonstrative and unemotional. This worked •ell for him up to a certain point, but when in his forties he became " foundation officer he realized that he was intimidating the appli- änts who were coming to ask him for support. As they described ;eir projects, they were hoping to get some reaction, some signal

m him, and all they got was noncommittal silence. .»At that point he decided to become more extroverted. He forced

himself to smile, to make small talk, to show some vulnerability in pnversation. It wasn’t easy to change these deeply ingrained habits,

t every little success made him a much more effective leader and pmmunicator—the domains in which his creativity eventually

erted itself most strongly. He never became an out-and-out extro­ vert, but he now impresses an interlocutor as warm and caring—

' hich was always potentially a part of his personality, but he had pen unable to show it. I If we go through life with habits that are very rigid, or inappropri­ ée to the kind of job we do, the creative energy gets dammed up or

pasted. Thus it helps to consider how to apply what we learned about the personalities of creative individuals to the traits that may be useful in everyday life.

3 6 0 C r e a t i v i t y

Develop what you lack. All of us end up specializing in some which usually means that we neglect traits that are complementary the ones we developed. For example, if someone learns to be v~_ competitive, he or she probably has a hard time cooperating; an i-· itive, subjective person usually ends up mistrusting objectivity. though Aristode figured out twenty-five centuries ago that virr consists in the golden mean between such opposite traits as cour and prudence, we still take the easy way out, which is to be' o;

dimensional. As we know, creative individuals tend to be exceptions to this rut

In chapter 3 I presented the ten main dialectic poles that descri their personality. The point here is that everyone can strengthen missing end of the polarity. When an extrovert learns to experien the world like an introvert, or vice versa, it is as if he or she disc~. ered a whole missing dimension to the world. The same happens if very feminine person learns to act in what we consider a masculin manner. Or if an objective, analytic person decides to trust intuiti for a change. In all of these cases, a new realm of experience ope t

up in front of us, which means that in effect we double and dr double again the content of life.

To start, it makes sense to identify your most obvious character·" tic, the one that your friends would use to describe you—such ; " “reckless” or “stingy” or “intellectual.” If you don’t trust your от*, assessment, you can ask a friend to help. When you have identified^ central trait, you can begin to try its opposite. If you are basically reckless, take a future project, or relationship, and instead of rushih into it plan your moves carefully and patiently. If you are sting splurge. If you are an intellectual, get someone to explain to you w football is such a great sport and try watching a ball game in light - this knowledge. Keep exploring what it takes to be the opposite о who you are.

At first it won’t be easy and will seem like a waste of time. Whr

try to save money when you enjoy being spendthrift? Why trus intuition when you are so comfortable being a rational person Breaking habits is a little like breaking your own bones. What shoul keep you trying is the knowledge that by experiencing the wori. from a very different perspective, you will enrich your life consider

ably.

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y ' 3 6 1

Ift often ftom openness to closure. Perhaps the most important duality 'creative persons are able to integrate is being open and receptive

j^e one hand, and focused and hard-driving on the other. Good tists, like good artists, must let their minds roam playfully or

- will not discover new facts, new patterns, new relationships. At same time, they must ako be able to evaluate critically every nov- jthey encounter, forget immediately the spurious ones, and then “entrate their minds on developing and realizing the few that are

'mising.

ecause this is such a central trait, it is particularly important to price it. Take some task you often do at your job—for instance, 'Iting a weekly report on a project you are involved in. Start with ;xmg your mind; look out the window if you can, or let your eyes 'm unfocused over the desk and the office. Now try to grasp what

most important issues about the project. Grasp not only intel- ly but also at a gut level, emotionally. 'What’s really important?

...ŕt gives you a good feeling about it? What scares you? Or try to ; images in your mind, like scenes in a film. Picture the people ived in the project. What are .they doing? What" are they saying

pach other?

ien start jotting down some words on a pad, or on the com- '. Any word that comes to mind concerning your feelings about

project or the movie in your mind. Words that describe facts, or ■, or persons. When you have a few words down, see if you can

them together into a story—it should not be too difficult. The you glimpse at this stage represents your strongest feelings about is happening on the project.

is at this point that the emphasis might shift from openness to cipline. Begin to choose words carefully, keeping in mind the als of your department, division, or the corporation as a whole, as -11 as the interests, tastes, and prejudices of the bosses who will read e report. You want to be effective and convincing. So muster all ur skills to write a report that conveys your beliefs as clearly and ccinctly as possible. If you manage to be intuitively receptive at the

ginning, and rationally critical later on, the report will be consid- :Ыу more creative than if you relied exclusively on one of these

«•egies. [Shifting from one of these poles to the other is important ako in

v

3 6 2 C r e a t i v i t y

relationships—between friends, spouses, or parents and children. F a relationship to work, it is essential to listen to the other person,· try to imagine why she says what she says, what she feels, how .s’* sees the world. It is essential to change perspectives when necess* to compromise, to understand the world and to act different’ because this is what the other person’s reality requires. Yet it is jus* important to remain in touch with our own beließ and perspectiv* In a relationship we should be able to shift moment by moment fro' our own viewpoint to that of the other. We can see depth oní because looking with two eyes gives us slightly different perspective How much deeper can we see when instead of two eyes we rely о four! This dual vision again doubles the riches of the world we exp*/ rience and makes it possible to react creatively to it.

Aim for complexity. The ability to move from one trait to its oppositr is part of the more general condition of psychic complexity. Com plexity is a feature of every system, from the simplest amoeba to th most sophisticated human culture. When we say that something complex we mean that it is a very differentiated system—it has mauw distinctive parts—and also that it is a very integrated system—the? several parts work together smoothly. A system that is differentiated! but not integrated is complicated but not complex—it will be¡ chaotic and confusing. A system that is integrated but not differenti: ated is rigid and redundant but not complex. Evolution appears tof; favor organisms that are complex; that is, differentiated and inte-? grated at the same time. ;f

Complexity also is a feature of human personality. Some реорЦ, are integrated but not very differentiated: They hold on to a few: ideas, opinions, or feelings. They are predictable. They come across,' as boring, one-dimensional, rigid. There are others who express*; many opinions, who are changeable and constantly striving tet’ accomplish something new and different, but who give the impress!

'· sion that they have no center, no continuity, no ruling passion. They? have a differentiated consciousness that is not well integrated. Nei-| ther of these ways of being is very satisfying.

As we have seen, creative individuals seem to have relatively com­ plex personalities. Neither the centrifugal nor the centripetal force prevails—they are able to keep in balance the contrary tendencies;, that make some people turn inward until each becomes a hard shell, !

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 6 3

^others fly outward at random. A creative person is highly indi- "íalized. She follows her own star and creates her own career. At same time, she is deeply steeped in the traditions of the culture; /learns and respects the rules of the domain and is responsive to łppinions of the field—as long as those opinions do not conflict ' personal experience. Complexity is the result of the fruitful

ction between these two opposing tendencies, ut psychological complexity is not just a luxury reserved for cre-

~ individuals. Every person who wants to realize fully the poten- :ty of what it is to be human, and who wants to take part in the Tution of consciousness, can aim for a more complex personality, ■'¿do so we need to explore and strengthen those traits that are now :lting, to learn to shift from openness-to .discipline, within a-con- ?nt of curiosity and awe for the miracle of life. The notion of com- şjdty adds a deeper layer of understanding of why it is important to

■hieve this. By fully expressing the tendencies of which we are -able, we become part of the energy that creates the future.

he Application of Creative Energy

p to now I have said nothing about the role of thinking in personal -cativity. The reason is that if motivations, habits, and personality -:ts are in place, most of the job is done. It is inevitable that one’s eative energies will start to flow more freely. Nevertheless, it is also

-•ful to consider what kind of mental operations expedite novel Tutions to problems in the domain of daily life.

gobiem Finding

įeative people are constantly surprised. They don’t assume that they

’ derstand what is happening around them, and they don’t assume at anybody else does either. They question the obvious—not out

^ contrariness but because they see the shortcomings of accepted “lanations before die rest of us do. They sense problems before ey are generally perceived and are able to define what they'are,________

The reason we consider the artists of the Renaissance so creative is at they were able to express the emancipation of the human spirit m. the shackles of religious tradition before the humanist scholars anyone else did. The use of perspective in painting broke down

e flat hierarchical order of Byzantine composition. The introduc-

3 6 4 C r e a t i v i t y

don of expression,' movement, and everyday subject matter into pi ; toriai art lifted human experience to the level of importance prev1’ ously occupied by static representations of religious ideas. Witho* expressly intending to, without a dear understanding of the cons; quences of their actions, the Renaissance artists changed our p* spective on the world.

The creativity of artists in this century also consisted in formula ing a new visual perspective on the human condition, albeit a muer

more pessimistic one this time. The experiments with cubis ~ abstraction, and expressionism in the visual arts, in music, and in lit( erature were precursors of relativism in. the social sciences an deconstructionism in philosophy. They expressed in visible form th1

problems of our age: The lack of a common set of values, the suspi­ cion of ultimate beließ, the loss of faith in progress brought about by two world wars and their horrors—these were prefigured in the dis torted, anguished, and random representations that populate mode "

art. If you learn to be creative in everyday life you may not change

how future generations will see the world, but you will change the way you experience it. Problem finding is important in the daily; domain because it helps us focus on issues that will affect our expen’i enees but otherwise may go unnoticed. To practice this skill you; might try the following suggestions.

Find a way to express what moves you. Creative problems general· emerge from areas of life that are personally important. We have seen» that many individuals who later changed a domain were orphaned as· children. The loss of a parent has a huge impact on a young person's life. But what, exactly, is this impact? Does the sadness include a fed, ing of relief? Of heightened responsibility? Of freedom? Of increase·* closeness to the surviving parent? Unless one finds words, ideas, o' perhaps visual and musical analogies to represent the impact of th: loss on one’s experience, it is likely that the parent’s death will caus" violent pain at first, a generalized depression later, and with time ï' effects will disappear or work themselves out unconsciously, outside: the range of rational control.

Other problematic issues in early life include poverty, illness, abuse, loneliness, marginality, and parental neglect. Later in life th*; main reasons for unease may involve your job, your spouse, or th~

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 6 5

" te of the community or of the planet. Lesser concerns may derive ;m a temporary threat: the scowl of a boss, the illness of a child, e change in the value of your stock portfolio. Each of these is likely

0 interfere with the quality of life. But you will not know what ails *u unless you can attach a name -to it. Thefirst stepi in-solving a

joblem. is to find it, to formulate the vague unease into a concrete roblem amenable to solution.

nok at problems fiom as many viewpoints as possible. When you know ţ you have a problem, consider it from many different perspec-

'ves. How you define a problem usually carries with it an explana­ ron of what caused it. Our first impulse is to label problems by rely- ig on tried-and-true prejudices. If we have a disagreement with our

pouse we immediately assume that we are innocent and the fault is ťth the other party. This may be true some of the time but certainly ot always. The most realistic assumption is that both parties are at

‘ult, and the question is to understand what motivated each partner о take his or her position in the argument.

Also, although the argument may be ostensibly about one thing, r instance, money, don’t assume that appearances are true. The dis—

-reement really may be about financial decision making and hence

bout power; or it might be about lack of respect or about inequality

the amount of psychic energy invested in the relationship. How u identify the nature of the problem is critical for the kind of solu-

on that will eventually work. Creative individuals do not rush to define the nature' ofproblems; ey look at the situation from various angles first and leave the for- ulation undetermined for a long time. They consider different uses and reasons. They test their hunches about what really is

oing on, first in their own mind and then in reality. They try tenta­ ţie solutions and check their success—and they are open to refor- -.ulating the problem if the evidence suggests they started out on the ?rong path.

'V A good way to learn problem finding in everyday life is to stop ourself when you sense you have a problem and give it the best shot

t a formulation. If someone has been promoted ahead of you, you ght define the problem as “This happened because the boss dis­

hes me.” As soon as you do this; reverse the formulation: “It happened ecause I dislike the boss.” Does this way of looking at the problem

3 6 6 C r e a t i v i t y

make sense? Could it be at least partly true? And then immediate!* consider a few more alternatives: “It happened because I haven’t kep; up with the changing job as much as I should have” or “Lately ; have been too distraught by what happens at home, and it affecte, my performance.” Which formulation comes closest to representin1

the problem? Perhaps each is true to a certain extent,, and your col ' league’s promotion was overdetermined by several unrelated causes. ;T

It is possible that you eventually decide that the fact that you didn’t get promoted is no problem at all. Being passed over may give you: more time to spend at home, to learn something new, to devote your; psychic energy to some other task. You may come to realize that thé problem was your competitiveness, your ambition, the fact that yo\|; invested all your energies in advancing on the job rather than doing good job for its own sake, or living more fully. So the failed promo^ tion, instead of being the problem, is really the first step to the soluti don of a more fundamental problem. J

' Perhaps none of these formulations is “right” in the sense that it-i identifies correctly the causes of the event. Nevertheless, it щ

extremely important to identify the nature of the problem, because; what you will do next depends on it. By naming the problem and attributing a cause to it you will shape not only the past but, more; important, the future. It is in this sense that the lives of creative indii, viduals are less determined than most of our lives. Because they pause? to consider a greater range of possible explanations for what happens,;' to them, they have a wider and less predictable range of options Щ

choose from. . '4

Figure out the implications of the problem. Once you have created ц formulation, you can begin to entertain possible solutions. Q£ course, solutions even to a simple problem like “Joe was promoted; ahead of me” vary incredibly depending on how you formulated i* and therefore what causes you attributed to it. Solutions mighf include finding interests outside the job, or learning to understand? and to like the boss, or catching up on job skills—or a little of each. y

At this stage, too, it pays to consider a variety of solutions, to; entertain different possibilities. Creative individuals experiment with;

·, a number of alternative solutions until they are certain that they haw? Д found the one that will work best. Again, as soon as you think of ^

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 6 7

ood solution, it is useful to think of an opposite one. Even the most Experienced person is often unable to tell in advance, just by think- jug, which solution will do die trick. So first trying one way of oing about the problem, then trying another tack for a while, and en comparing results often yields the most creative result. It is good

!o be quick and consistent. But if you wish to be creative you should ' e willing to run the risk of sometimes seeming indecisive.

J„«V ‘

^implement the solution. Solving problems creatively involves continu­ ous experimentation and revision. The longer you can keep options pen, the more likely it is that the solution will be original and ppropriate. Artists who do more original work change their tech- ; -que as they are painting, and their paintings develop on the canvas &i less predictable ways than those of less original artists. This is ecause the original artist is more ready to learn from the emerging “ork; he or she is alert to the unexpected and is willing to go with a etter solution if one presents itself. Similarly, creative writers often tart a story without knowing how it will end; the ending emerges as key follow the logic of the evolving story. \ How does this apply to creativity in the domain of everyday 'e? To take an absurdly trivial example, if you are giving a party

want to make sure that the seating arrangement around the ;-ner table is the most appropriate for a good mixing of the ests, it makes sense to prepare a seating plan. But if by the time

’nner is ready you notice that some of the guests whom you had -heduled to sit side by side seem cool toward each other, you may

hnt to change the plans at the last moment. And if the dinner ms out to be dull, you should try to match up people in differ-

nt combinations for coffee and dessert. Such flexibility works only if you keep paying close attention to e process of solution and if you are sensitive enough to the feed-

âck so that you can correct the course as new information becomes ” ble. The reason most people prefer routine, tried-and-true solu­

ns to their problems is that this requires less psychic energy. In ct, we could not afford to be creative all the time because we ould soon stretch the limits of attention and collapse. Routine -ults in great savings. But it makes good sense to know how to

rae up with a creative solution when we need one and can spare e effort.

3 6 8 C r e a t i v i t y

Divergent Thinking Not ail thinking involves the solution, of problems. Sometimes ~ are asked to respond to what other people say, or to produce ide in response to events, without having a particular problem th needs to be formulated and solved. There are more or less creati: ways to pursue these less focused mental tasks. In talking to a frien I can use trite phrases or I can try to say things in a fresh, topics way that more closely represents what I feel at the moment. I c- use stock images or try for more vivid ones, based on comm-

experiences. ¿ Most commercial programs designed to increase individual creati’

ity focus on this particular aspect. They try to enhance three dim·*”

sions of divergent thinking that агеч generally held to be important С creativity: fluency, or the knack for coming up with a great numfr of responses; flexibility, or the tendency to produce ideas that are di ferent from each other; and originality, which refers to the relativ

rarity of the ideas produced. Brainstorming programs are ways * stimulate people to increase the fluency, flexibility, and originality .^

their ideas and responses. You can obtain the same results by tal ‘ ' things in your hands and following these suggestions..

Produce as many ideas as possible. If you have to write a thank· note, a report, or a letter, identify a key word and then try to genep ate as many synonyms for it as possible. If you get stuck, turn to:f thesaurus. Or instead of words that mean the same thing, shift t‘ meanings that are similar but lead in different directions. At first g; for quantity; later you will be critical and edit for quality. :

If you are planning a weekend or a vacation, do the same thin' First, come up with as many options as you can think of, even ■ ’ they are not all very sensible. A crazy suggestion may jolt you im '¿

thinking in new directions and lead to more acceptable alternativ-1

you would not have considered otherwise. If you are shopping £b clothes in a department store, don’t just go straight to the familia floor but try on the greatest variety time allows. Browse for boo’ " outside the accustomed categories. If your boss aslö for an opinio*· don’t give only the predictable pet viewpoint based on your inter ests. Surprise her with a whole range of ideas, options, and possi, bilities—how wild you can afford to be depends on how conserva;

tive she is.

E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 6 9

eve as many different ideas as possible. Quantity is important, but try ■;avoid redundancy. Variety in conversation, in the selection of usic, in a menu, is generally appreciated. It pays off to learn how to temate topics of conversation, types of restaurants, kinds of shows, ays of dressing. Robert Galvin of Motorola trained himself to do a

■’■pie mental exercise: Whenever someone says something, he asks mself, What if the opposite were true? Imagining alternatives to

at others hold to be true is probably going to be useless 99 per- ' “t of the time. But that one other time the practice of flipping to a

vetgent perspective might generate arrinsigfrt~that is not only Origi- г-] but also useful.

()y to produce unlikely ideas. Originality is one of the hallmarks of eative thinking. If asked to come up with names for a baby, or ways

* use a paper clip, or things to do at a party, a creative person is ¿:ly to give answers that are different from the answers of the jority. But these answers won’t be bizarre. Once people hear

-em, they are likely to say, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it ;yself?”

¿■It is more difficult to learn how to think in original ways than to —n how to be fluent and flexible. It requires cultivating a taste for r ality that is not necessary for the other two. One exercise involves king a random paragraph from the paper each day and seeing if you

■an find unique, more memorable ways of expressing the same ideas, 'the paragraph is too dull or obscure, substitute another. Or you iin look at your office or your living room, and ask yourself whether reflects your personal taste, and if not, what you could do to bring in closer harmony with your unique self.

f If your job involves frequent meetings and conferences, you might ’tivate the habit of jotting down brief summaries of what the oth- aroimd the table have said. Then you can quickly generate alter­

ative positions to those that have been expressed, or integrate the ious perspectives in a more comprehensive perspective. Instead of

titing views that are based on your previous positions, use the lines f force emerging in the meeting to suggest new ways of thinking out the issues.

To think in a divergent mode requires more attention than think- ş in the usual convergent style. As usual, it takes more energy to be

3 7 0 C r e a t i v i t y E n h a n c i n g P e r s o n a l C r e a t i v i t y 3 7 1

creative than to be a routine thinker. Therefore, you must choo- when to try for creativity and when not to; otherwise you mij ' burn yourself out in a blaze of intense originality.

Choosing a Special Domain If creativity consists in changing a particular domain, then person?' creativity consists in changing the domain of personal life. We call:; physicist creative if he or she changes the way physics is practiced; person who can change his or her own life we call personally ere*, ative. The domain of personal life consists of the rules that constrain psychic energy, the habits and practices that define what we do da; in, day out. How we dress, how we work, how we conduct our rela¿ tionships define this domain, and if we can improve on it, the quality of life as a whole is improved. The suggestions in this chapter hay/;

been about how to increase creativity in the domain of everyday lifoį But even though personal life can be very complex, it is also limj

ited in scope. Much of what makes life interesting and meaningful belongs to special domains: Music, cooking, poetry, gardening bridge, history, religion, baseball, and politics are symbolic systems, with their own special rules, and they exist outside any individual’s life. They and thousands of other such systems make up culture, an ‘ we become human by seeing the world through the lenses they pro* vide. A person who learns to operate by the rules of one of thes; domains has a chance to expand enormously the range of his or hr' creativity. ■?'

Too many people assume that most of the world is off-limits to them. Some consider art as being beyond the realm of possibility* others sports or music. Or dancing, science, philosophy—the list of things that are “not for me” can be endless. And it is true that sonu,, domains just don’t agree with some people. But generally the prob­ lem is that cultural resources are underutilized. Either because о ignorance, low self-esteem, or habits of thought established early, wei discount the possibility that we could enjoy and be good at many о the things that make others happy. It took several years of jail fo Malcolm X to realize the power of religion and of, politics, and t"

discover that he had gifts for both. о Few of us know in advance what domains we may have an affini

for. Prodigies are children who from an early age show a definite gi_‘ in some direction, but most of us are not prodigies and it takes u-

'ecades of trial and error to find out what we are best cut out for. /ven in our sample, some individuals did not realize what their voca- ’ons were until they were middle-aged. And often the realization /as forced on them by outside factors, such as a war or the necessity ’-'do something that then turned out to-be-just right. - —‘—“■ ii lt is important to try as many domains as possible. Start with lings you already enjoy and then move to related domains. If you

’’ e to read biography, you might try history. Swimming may lead to kin diving, to scuba, and then—why not?—to skydiving. Learning 6 operate within a new domain is always difficult, and love at first :ght is rare. A certain amount of persistence is necessary. On the

-{her hand, it makes no sense to persevere in an activity that gives no oy, or the promise of it. I Eventually you should be able to find one or more domains that fit *our interests, things that you enjoy doing and that expand your life, “deally we should be able to do so in as many domains as possible, ut in practice the limits on psychic energy make it impossible to

e on more than a few discrete activities seriously. i There are two dangers as you become involved in a domain. The jrst is addiction; some domains are so seductive that you may invest о much attention into it that you have none left for your job and *amily. Some chess players become so taken by the game that to all

tents and purposes they become zombies; the same can be true of 4ting on horses, collecting art, studying the Bible, or cruising the -ternet.

•V The other danger is the opposite: You can become so diffuse,- so ' -’ectic, that what you feel in different domains ends up being the me superficial experience. Like the traveler who goes everywhere

/id is still the same boring, provincial soul he was before he left, any people seem to gain nothing from sampling the best that the

ulture has to offer. As is usually the case, the best solution does not e with the extremes.

As you learn to operate within a domain, your life is certainly -ing to become more creative. But it should be repeated that this oes not guarantee creativity with a capital c. You can be personally ; creative as you please, but if the domain and the field fail to coop­

te—as they almost always do—your efforts will not be recorded in íe history books. Learning to sculpt will do wonders for the quality fyour life, but don’t expect critics to get ecstatic, or collectors to

372C r e a t i v i t y

beat a path to your door. The competition among new memes is fierce; few survive by being noticed; selected, and added to the cult ture. Luck has a huge hand in deciding whose с is capitalized. But if; you don’t learn to be creative in your personal life, the chances of:« contributing to the culture drop even closer to zero. And what really .|g matters, in the last account, is not whether your name has been Ц attached to a recognized discovery, but whether you have lived a full Щ

and creative life. .·;. Ц

A p p e n d i x a

Brief Biographical Sketches of

the Respondents Who Were

Interviewed for This Study

4dler, Mortimer J. Male. b. 12/28/02. Philosopher, author. 'American. .ecipient, Aquinas Medal, American Catholic Philosophical Association -1976). Honorary Trustee, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (1973-). uthor, How to Read a Book (with Charles Van Doren, 1940); Six Great Ideas 1981); The Paideia Program (1984). Chairman of the board of editors, Ency- -pcedia Britannica (1974—). Associate editor, Great Booh of the Western World 945-; editor in. chief, 2d ed., 1990), Syntopicon (1952, 1990); editor in chief, he Annals of America (21 vols., 1968). See his Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher at «rge (1977). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (1/17/91). Age 88.

v Anderson, Jack. Male. b. 10/19/22. Journalist, author, writer. Ameri­ en. Recipient, Pulitzer Prize for national reporting (1972). Author, The hderson Papers (with George Clifford, 1973); Fiasco (with James Boyd, ;983); others. See his Confessions of a Muckraker (with James Boyd, 1979). interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (5/6/91). Age 68.

Asner, Edward. Male. b. 11/15/29. Actor. American. Recipient, five “Iden Globe awards; seven Emmy awards. President, Screen Actors Guild

1981-1985). Roles in theater, motion pictures, and television, including ~,ie Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV series, 1970—1977); Roots (TV miniseries, Í977); Lou Grant (TV series, 1977-1982). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde 4/30/91). Age 61.