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How Do We Lose Our Creativity?
Posted by hanxiansheng • 12/06/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: Adventure, creativity, job, lose creativity
Whether you believe it or not, you are losing your creativity. How do I know this? In essence you lose your creativity because you have no sense of adventure, you are afraid of losing your stable job, so you work as your boss let you do, you think following your boss’ thought, in such case, day by day, you will lose your creativity in the end. You are just a body walking through the crowd.
Alas, we don’t have enough courage to take adventure! You have a dream of running your own company, you don’t like to work for others, but the possibility of failure frighten you heavily. You are afraid of your child having no good life, you are afraid of losing you steady daily income. So the result is you will quit your dreams and live a normal and simple life like most people do.
You will have no thoughts of your own, you think as others think, you do everything as others do. You become a drop of water in the ocean. You disappear. What a pity!
What's your opinion?
User Comments
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That's why I do crazy things and disrespect authority. -
Yes! Live life and get out there to smell the flowers! We also find that being burnt out on a heavy workload can really impede your creativity. -
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I think just the opposite. I think you lose your creativity when you think too much about "being creative" instead of just being.-
I concur. TV, Movies, and to a lesser degree, Books have all created a situation where many people have handed over their imagination to 'professional' creative types. Some people, myself included tho I fight it, have an idea of what "creative" means. That definition is influenced by everything we see and hear.
The only way to truly be creative instead of imitative is to truly be yourself and live your life in your own way. -
Madame x that's a very zen way of looking at it, I agree totally with you. -
@mme x: so true! -
YES!
I think quite a bit of 'creativity' is a matter of taking the brakes off, then keeping track of where your mind goes.
The 'zen' observation is appropriate, I think.
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trying to be creative is like trying to be a bird. birds don't try. they just fly.-
@horatio: some birds have broken wings. any idea to heal?
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When you stop dreaming you lose creativity.
Keep dreaming. -
Seconded.
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I agree!
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When you don't use it you lose it. The good thing I've found about blogging, is that you can reinvent your imagination! -
I better not. I won't win at chess anymore -
STOP planning everything, just go out do something on an impulse !
Sit down, take TWO minutes and write down a list of things you want to do, without thinking about it. RAMBLE ! Then DO THEM !
Often you get very good results on impulsive things, I know I do.
If you're neighbor give you the evil eye, then you know you're on the right path
Don't start of with burning down your house though.. do this within reason..lol -
by not smoking the herb -
lol
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Then how do advertisers come up with all those crazy TV commercials that never make any sense?
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I think we lose our creativity through compromise. Rather than shoot for our dreams, or for what we want, we settle for what we feel we can easily achieve. Of course, that "we" doesn't apply to everyone. There are plenty of creative, individualistic people in the world. Some of them blend in, some stand out. It's all about the journey.-
"Lose our creativity through compromise" - I like this.
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this one could keep me going for hours...
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yeah, i think the way to keep creativity is always have dreams and have the passion to let them come true. Don't follow others' steps.
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I became creative by packing my suitcase and leaving the country! -
I'm now confirmed that the technology we built in creative process are used to destroy the creativity in current world. I have applied BritDocs (Channel4) funding to my documentary so if you have any extreme and absurdic stories to tell, I would be more than happy to hear those. I will present three most absurdic stories in deep.
Some stories of my own - veikoh.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/have-recruitment-agencies-destroyed-the-it-...
Veiko Herne
Southwave Productions Ltd -
creativity requires unlearning, but learning is required to get to that point
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Unlearning the notion that "this is not possible"? or "this is the way to do things"? or unlearning by not deliberately gaining knowledge?
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abandonment of the known way of doing things
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An example is, i've been working on a piece of music and was very clear on how I was going to play it. I started out with a notion on what instruments to use. As i worked through it I had to disregard what I thought and let something else drive it, because I was pushing it one way and wanting to play what I thought was the right way to play. I've ended up playing very very slowly, now this is odd, because I worked years ago at trying to play very fast, and if most guitarists heard what I was doing, they'd say 'where's all the guitar?' but the music says one thing and my learning says another. Very few players would play minimalistically, but I because I don't need to prove that I can play, i don't have to play. So, I had to learn how to play the instrument properly (or to a decent standard) but in order to complete the task, I have to drop all the musical history and work differently. In fact I' haven't even been using my picking hand the way i have for almost 40 years, and this only came about during the recording, and I didn't realise until hours later how I'd been using my picking hand. And I find it all very odd, but it's working. And tomorrow I'll rerecord the main guitar part because I can see where it wants to go and I know it requires even less.
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So creativity is liberating, yes? By letting go your preconceived notions, you created something new, beautiful, different, and, perhaps, better.
Great example. -
yep
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Maybe when we start trying to be like other people? Maybe we see blogs and change our ways to become like them when in the end our readers like us for who we are already?-
Yup-- folks who take their own path and approach to their creations may risk a bit by not following the crowd, but also stand out and ultimately gain respect for being unique.
Be yourself and never stop learning and there will always be something to spark your creativity. -
yep blogengage
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It's use it or lose it proposition.
These are examples of me using mine.
kotybear.com
kotybear.blogspot.com
kinseybarnardrocks.blogspot.com -
Creativity comes deep within. I think every person is creative or at least has the capacity to be creative. The more one exercises it, like a muscle, the more it is strengthened.
Creativity can be lost through disappointment, hopelessness, oppression and other. Yet it can easily be rebirthed.-
yes true
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@globalgirl: some might need help to overcome the inner or outer censorship of partners, envies, colleagues. i fired one of my co-authors for these reasons.
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I was an Art Student for 2 yrs at a University. my Professors loved me and urged me to take the trips to France and other places in Europe during the summers.... I dunno but I did loose my creativity.
I used to be so carefree and was a free-spirited person.
Trying to reclaim it back...-
@zawadi: just by traveling? how sad, i am sorry. an idea might be to hire a coach nearby helping you getting connected again to your roots. trust your intuition. don´t be afraid... good luck, zawadi.
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gotta be messy to be creative! don't work well for tidy people (me) -
"Whether you believe it or not, you are losing your creativity. How do I know this? In essence you lose your creativity because you have no sense of adventure, you are afraid of losing your stable job, so you work as your boss let you do, you think following your boss’ thought, in such case, day by day, you will lose your creativity in the end. You are just a body walking through the crowd."
Speak for yourself, buddy. I have to think on my feet every day; my boss doesn't tell me how to do my job, he just tells me what he expects done. He can't do my job and doesn't know how.
And I get to surf the net all day while doing it. How cool is that? -
I understand the sentiment you are trying to express and I would like to pass on the words of wisdom imparted to my son by his 1st grade teacher in response to his near constant "I'm bored" refrain.
"You are not bored, YOU are boring."
Creativity and Adventure are found within and, while others sometimes inspire or attempt to supress, only you can really unleash them.-
I'd try and get rid of the teacher straight away or take my child away from a person like that immediately and find a better teacher. To have an adult say to a child that 'You are boring' is about as bad as it gets. What the child was probably saying is "You are a hopeless teacher, with no creative skills, this is a waste of my time and if my mum and dad were really listening to me they'd put me in a decent school where the teacher actually likes what they do and can develop creative and inspiring content that meets the learning outcomes of the syllabus for a first grader. But a child hasn't yet developed the skills to say that yet, there are much better ways.
Your child is truthful, the teacher is lazy.
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Take a good night and sleep. Get a good night's sleep and you will find your creativity again.
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yup or a shower. - www.travisjmorgan.com/blog/2005/10/01/shower-fuel/
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If you try to think outside the box, you are stepping into another. There is no inside, or outside, nor box.
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I was going to say something similar, but I like what you said better.
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@ the OP, speak for yourself, I work for myself and I'm semi-retired at 36, not everyone fails you know. -
Strange -- pretty much nothing you describe is a factor in my life. Yet I still have creative and less creative periods.
Sometimes the muse is there, sometimes the well runs dry.-
sometimes the muse takes us in other directions and we create differently, but like you I don't relate to the original post either. So, no I don't agree with the original post. Sometimes working a day job frees an artist up to work on what THEY want on their own terms,because they don't have to worry about paying the bills. And what pray tell is a normal life?
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@ moderator:
share your opinion with us (-: about "followers,creative dummies", please -
Just go with your instincts . . .
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hanxiansheng ... who is this "you" you speak of? They sound very unhappy to me.
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You're bringing up several different, if linked, ideas.
- "You have no sense of adventure:" I'll agree there, although I'd have focused on a sense of wonder
- "You are afraid of losing your stable job, so you work as your boss let you do, you think following your boss’ thought:" I think I see your point, but don't agree. In the twenty years I had a stable job, the boss was signing the paycheck, so I did things his way - and on my own time started designing websites, continued chipping away at a creative project that I've got more time to work on now, and pursued some of my visual arts interests
- "The possibility of failure frighten you heavily:" It should. I've got a family to support. Since a 'good life' includes regular meals and heat in the winter, and we live in Minnesota, that's non-trivial. Quit my dreams, though? Never!
- "You will quit your dreams and live a normal and simple life like most people do:" I don't think I'm constitutionally capable of living a "normal" life, and at least one of our kids takes offense at being called "normal."
- "You will have no thoughts of your own, you think as others think, you do everything as others do. You become a drop of water in the ocean. You disappear. What a pity!" As much as all of us have in common, even identical twins have distinguishing characteristics. However ...
I also remember the sixties, when young people in America asserted their individuality by wearing T-shirts and jeans, and growing long hair. (All together now, say "I am an individual!")
So, although I agree that the suppression of individuality can be a problem, I also think that the suppression is an individual's choice. -
Chalk it up to unconfronted existential anxiety...the truth is that we are spinning through space on a giant chunk of rock and the world is a frightening place. Trying to hide, makes no sense--it is impossible to hide--yet we try. And try. And try.-
First function of mythology, according to Joe Campbell: to help us grapple with the "mysterium tremendens," the terrible horrible mystery of existence.
Enh.
Really, it depends on one's perspective. Try lying on your back on the ground some night looking up at the sky, hopefully with stars in it. Either you'll feel like you're a gnat clinging to the side of a huge planet, gazing out at an unfathomable cold lifeless void that goes on practically forever, while the planet beneath you is spinning and hurtling through space at hundreds of miles an hour...
or you say, "WOW! What an amazing thing this universe is! And here I get to be a part of it!"
Then again, a lot of people looking up at night, if they look up at all, never really consider the view, where they're standing or what they're looking at.
It just depends on the person, the moment, the mood.
Back to the first post of the thread -- people live such vastly different lives, I'm somewhat amazed at the sweeping generalizations and assumptions about this "you" that you're preaching to.
hanxiansheng: Do you have any idea who you're talking to? How can you? I guarantee you there are "dreamers, makers, singers and shapers" in this community as there are anywhere; poets and wise fools and people who are more than you'd ever guess from what they show or say.
Don't be quite so quick to assume you're surrounded by sheep. Yeah, I get appalled and frustrated by what seems to be portrayed as normal, by the way elections go which show me I don't think like the majority. But I don't assume that's the whole story and I don't assume everyone around me is a sheep. If that's all you see, you're missing out on one precious part of the world around you-- the many different kinds of souls in it!
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I abandoned my creativity, my life, for seventeen years. It feels great to have it back!
Wayne
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