Creativity is one of the engines of success, but we’re always told to look outside for inspiration. Rubbish. Time to start thinking ‘inside’ the box.
The idea for today’s blog came to me in a dream.
I was walking on the beach with 1980s Elle McPherson. The sun was setting and she was laughing at my jokes. And then a little yappy dog starts snapping at my heels.
“Hey Jon!” it said. “You need to come up with an idea for you No B.S blog.”
“Rack off” I said, and tried to hit it with the French bread loaf I was carrying. “You’re downing my vibe.”
“But nah, I’ve got a great idea. It’s awesome. It’s a masterful piece of divine inspiration, come fully-formed, straight from the source. It’s witty and poignant. A guaranteed winner.”
“You had me at ‘sauce’” I said. “Alright then little dog, tell me what it is.”
“I already did Jon… I already did.”
And with that, he disappeared, and I was in the office, without any pants on again.
“Good nap, Jon?” said Georgia.
“Aw, I got another visit from that stupid little dog.”
“Sorry to hear it.”
What could it mean? Don’t let your pets distract you from your goals? No cheese before nap time?
I pondered it for a while, and then decided I knew what it meant:
The concept of divine inspiration is bullshit.
I think we have this totally romantic notion of where creativity and inspiration comes from.
It’s the ‘muse’ model of creativity. That is, there is some sort of super-natural being, even God himself, whispering beautiful thoughts into your ear.
The only job of a creative being like a poet or an artist or an ad agency exec is just to write it down.
It’s the archetype of the poet, wondering the forest, contemplating the light dazzling off the threads of a spider’s web, and then BAM! An amazing poem hits him.
He vomit’s it up, fully formed, and that’s it. End of process. He takes the rest of the day off to drink tea and eat scones.
Rubbish.
I don’t think creativity ever comes this way. It’s never been my experience.
And I think it’s a disempowering fiction.
First of it all suggests that creativity or inspiration is unavailable to those of us who don’t have a sixth sense for communicating with forest spirits.
If you’ve never had the sensation of an angel whispering saucy thoughts into your ear, then you’re just not a creative person. No point even trying. Drop out of graphic design and get into civil planning.
Now I’m not saying true divine inspiration never happens. But if it does, it’s incredibly rare, and I don’t think it has much to do with a theory of creative practice.
And for me it’s hard to imagine that if the angels or God could communicate directly with us, that ‘odes to flowers’ would be top of their priorities.
I imagine it would be more like “Oi. Stop being dicks to each other and clean up all the plastic. Don’t make me get out the smiting stick.”
The other reason it’s disempowering is that it makes creativity seem like a pure stroke of luck. There’s no work involved. It’s like finding a four-leafed clover.
And so you can’t make creativity happen. There’s no effort involved. Maybe that’s why it’s such an appealing idea. We’re hard-wired lazy.
All you can do is wait until it hits you on the head, like an apple falling from a tree.
The muse model also ignores all of the work that preceded that inspired moment of clarity.
Like Newtown under the apple tree. I dare say that Newtown wasn’t the first person to be hit on the head by a falling apple. But none of the others ever came up with a working model of applied physics.
Newtown could because he’d spent a lifetime trying to fit all the pieces together. Decades of hard work.
The falling apple wasn’t so much an inspiration as it was a catalyst. It was a fresh perspective that caused him to see everything in a slightly different light. Suddenly, everything fitted together.
And that’s where I reckon creativity comes from. It comes from within.
It emerges out of our knowledge and experiences. It’s novelty lies in a new way of putting the pieces together. New structures. New relationships.
In this sense I don’t think you can ‘make’ anything new. All you can do is come up with new perspectives.
And if that’s true, then the only way to get creative – to come up with creative solutions to problems, or bring flair to your work – is to take time out to get a fresh perspective.
And how do you do that? Take a break. Have a nap. Chill out under an apple tree. Stop trying to push the issue.
And if there’s a magic here it’s in the power of the unconscious. Give it a problem and it will go away and work on a solution until it comes up with something.
It’s like when you’re racking your brain trying to remember someone’s name. You can’t quite grasp it. You give up, and then when you’re doing the dishes, the answer suddenly comes.
‘Jon! My names Jon! I should really write that down.’
I tend to think the unconscious likes to get its hands dirty in more than just memory games. It likes to try its hand at anything. Give it a problem, and it will go away, gather all the info and try and fit it together.
And it will let you know… but only when you stop the conscious gears and allow enough quiet for the subconscious to find its voice.
The key to creativity is quiet. It’s allowing what has been nourished and developed with you – giving it the space to blossom and emerge into your work.
It’s not in dreams or muses or talking dogs.
It’s within you.
How do you access your creative talents?
Jack says
That’s pretty powerful dope your tokin’Jon boy.
I started getting creative when you mentioned Elle and inside the box.
Jon Giaan says
ha! that’s exactly what I’m talking about. you spend your whole life with one thing on your mind, then as soon as the conditions are there, inspiration strikes… 😉
al says
Jon – (you are pretty close here in my view – but the butt – is not it either of course) say of this next what you will to may …(I suggest you have a saboteur at large?) .
Carl Jung could have seen your life in a summary nearing end of an indelible period meaning you had already passed beyond your high point (setting sun = long past your Midheaven of life peaks from even more distant earliest times when the dawning of your current lifes progression from your first ‘yawning’ into this living ‘paradigm of your current longer term most important section of your life where we all commonly need to achieve and have all the ‘mojo’ naturally available to achieve individuated success for the sake of ‘self-stamping’ an integral life period – … which is what the “”” little dog keeps yapping about …”””” Oi oi – where are you going now Jon ? – Where are we going now Jon ??? “””…. …and ‘Elle is romancing the self ego’ into a trance that may fall into the trap of not being fully aware in a “practical minded understanding” of just how little time there actually really is left before you are going to “get it” – but – as it commonly is for dreams – you must “recall something important you self-discovered as if – “right here soon aka – now something you wondered about previously is highly possible to become … initiated – enabled …activated ” so you need to potentially decide understand
whether ‘your previous contemplated loyalty to ‘earlier times awareness of that
concept (whatever it is) is worth recalling on your merits of making the effort to ‘float that boat idea’ …. around this particular period of time in your life journey ..
The key issue does seems suggested as an atypical because the dog is ‘saying’ – ‘NAH’ I’m not telling you what it is … if it really matters John you will have to remember by your-self – that’s what ‘loyalty to divine inspirations are all about” – not forgetting – so some kind loyalty to something that you saw or did then said to yourself you would not forget ‘come back to that “view-concept-idea-comment” and then just – ‘play the idea/concept flat out on the table’ – SO here you are at a point of time in life where it is time to focus on recalling the collectively inspiring idea or ‘dream on’ aka “Elle” is an “every males” other “perfect instinctual natural distraction” appearing as the “saboteur tour” to your intrinsic wider loyalty yourself that truly wants to explore and expand helping others “make it” ….. the dog is not the problem – (and no pants on – well might be a relevant part of why Elle’s is so appearing for you? – as may also be said of a French bread stick = (lol -its almost not funny? ) no butt – any ideal butts off is my guess you seem forget something about perfectly clear … no bullshit Friday …. Is your self-loyalty but – to who and what is that ??? – retrace your own comments or the … “All you can do is wait until it hits you on the head, like an apple falling from a tree may be soon? because … one does not be Einstein to see ask ‘where or why did the little dog in your dream’ got you see itself notably via collective mirror ponds offering your life reflections?
… ideals may never leave our psyche but at some time always ‘they do in life’ take care and be fully appreciative of those near and dear to you …once is all we know for sure at the moment I’m glad dawn follows every sunset religiously has no end.
…p.s. wearing your pants would be Jung’s first reflection to a ‘standing’ question? leading you on to ask who is/was the baker etc at the hearth of your family tree that you still potentially have as an important ‘handle-connection’ to ‘now’ because you’re inner family loyal line is attentioning you an important sunset is n.t far away
– dogs have awesome hearing are you listening to your intuition go ask your wife – (wink!) … put your best pants ‘on and go out’ romancing … rock on – till you flop ..!
jack says
Jon,
Don’t know what drugs these other creatives are on but I’m still think about Elle???
Cheers!!!
Jack
Peter says
The physicist is Isaac Newton, not Newtown which is a Sydney suburb.
Jon Giaan says
property on the brain…
geo says
what was the name of the dog?
Jon Giaan says
I’ll ask next time i see him… why?
John from Perth says
The “How We Got to Now” tv series discusses this inspiration issue when it investigates innovations. I thought Eddison invented light bulbs and sound recording but all he did was buy the patents from others and then put a team of scientists together to develop the invention. His real invention was to be the first to put teams of scientists to work on developing things. Up until then most inventions had been slow developments usually based on accidents that resulted in unexpected improvements eg clear glass was invented by accident when a plant containing the right combination minerals was put in molten glass.
Eddisons methodology has paid big dividends for mankind. The Australian governments slashing of R & D spending is very shot sighted as one of the few thinks that Australia does very well is innovations and it has had a big pay off for our standard of living.
Louise says
I totally agree! Being labeled a creative I find the best ideas come when I’m gardening, going for a walk with the dog or even in the shower, not sitting at the desk waiting for inspiration to come.
suzsi says
I let my brain loose – really, let it out of gear and walk all round the matter and then come up with a different perspective. Works for me and like Louise (below) I find that ideas come in the shower. Difficult to write down….. LOL
Tom says
Spot-on Jon!!!
Personally, to me, all the ideas about spiritual beings are figments of Man’s imagination. In an effort to explain or account for observed phenomena, man has given anthropomorphic images to unknown forces. We are obsessed with “Cause & Effect”. We can create noise, so the noise of Thunder must be due to some hugely powerful man-like being crashing equally huge cymbals together. For thousands of years, before the advent of the scientific method, different cultures fashioned their own explanations for the inexplicable. That’s how Gods came into the human psyche. The politically minded found that they could control their communities by claiming authority from these fictional characters. Fear was their chief weapon. The ‘afterlife’ was a beauty! In effect, they would say, “Fear that, even if you don’t fear me!” And it worked a treat. As is typical of social animals, the apes who (or which) were our ancestors developed herd behaviours, with family ties being predominant. With the enlargement of the brain, and the development of the faculty of logical thought, came the ability to communicate with speech. Interests could develop beyond the immediate needs of safety, food and shelter. As with the scientific method, an hypothesis could be put forward and assumed to be acceptable until it was disproved or found to be less satisfactory than another – which then replaced it. The inexplicable were all bundled together in the too-hard basket and called ‘Religion’. As physical explanations were discovered, ideas were taken from that basket and placed where they fitted in some field of science. Theologies were developed to provide a logical thought process, however all go back to premises which are merely assumptions. But the religious politicians, (known by whatever name or title their religion gives them), who relied on that basket for their ‘authority’ have always fought tooth & nail to hang on to the dwindling remnants of their dominion. Normally ‘Church’ and ‘State’ are assumed to be different, but in reality they are both mankind’s ways of allowing a few to lord it over the many – generally for their own gain. Their nice theories no longer hold any justification, but they refuse to relinquish their control.
All religions are MAN-made systems. I use that term deliberately! What woman would design the blatantly inhumane, gender-biased precepts which organised religion imposes on the females of our species? The sooner we, as a nation accept this, the better.
However, taking away the ‘Black & White’ explanations will remove the crutches upon which we have all relied. We will have to inform ourselves thoroughly and make our own decisions. That scares most people, so they run back under Mother Church’s apron, for protection – from reality!!! Without those myths, life might look scary; but in reality, it is liberating and hugely fascinating.
Tim says
So you are happy to hang onto the belief that there was a cosmic burb and out of that chaos order came about. That is like me saying I have a Swiss watch and if I pull it all apart, put the bits into a bag and shake it for a couple of billions years, I can then pull out a perfect Swiss watch, going and on time. Sorry I don’t have that much faith.