BLOG POST 13: Unleash your Creativity - PART III
Twyla
Tharp tells us that we can observe a lot by watching. When you observe, observe
without judgement because when you apply judgement to your powers of observation,
you become selective. You edit. You filter the world through your particular
prism.
Is
memory an element in Creativity? Many of us spend a lot of time worrying about
memory. One of the horrors of growing older is the certainty that you will lose
memory and that the loss of vocabulary or incident or imagery is going to
diminish your imagination. The author suggests giving memory a workout; trying
to keep it sharp.
Creativity
is more about taking the facts, fiction and feelings we store away and finding
new ways to connect them. Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if it is not
art itself. Metaphor is our vocabulary for connecting what we are experiencing
now with what we have experienced before. It’s not only how we express what we
remember, it’s how we interpret it – for ourselves and others. If all art is a
metaphor, then all art begins with a memory.
else’s
footprints, is a vital means to acquiring skill.” She also adds it’s very rare
to come across something truly original in a corporate environment. Most, if
not all, of your good ideas are probably sitting somewhere. All you have to do
is to find a way to tap them – by digging through files and listening to the
people who have worked in it for a long time.
Every
young person grows up with an overwhelming sense of possibility, and how life,
in some ways, is just a series of incidents in which that possibility is either
enlarged or smacked out of you. How you adapt is your choice.
Where do
you begin? Start ‘scratching’. We have to scratch for little ideas. Without the
little ideas there are no big ideas. This means you have to dig through
everything to find something. It’s like clawing at the side of a mountain to
get a toehold, a grip, some sort of traction to keep moving upward and onward.
When you are in the scratching mode, the tiniest microcell of an idea will get
you going. A good idea should be the one that turns you on rather than off. It
keeps generating more ideas that improve on one another. A bad idea closes
doors instead of opening them. It’s confining and restrictive. A bad idea in
the hands of the right person can be easily tweaked into a good idea.
Why is reading important? Reading will be your first line of defense against an empty head. It’s how you learn as a child. It’s how you absorb difficult information. It’s how you keep your mind disciplined. If you monitor your reading assiduously, it’s even how you grade your brain’s conditioning; like an athlete in training, the more you read, the more mentally fit you feel. It dosen’t matter if it’s a book, magazine, newspaper, billboard, instruction manual or cereal box - reading generates ideas and letting your imagination filter them for something useful. When you stop reading, you stop thinking. It’s that simple. Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – are all lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find how big a prize you’ve won.
