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Creativity: A Call to Adventure
Creativity is forged in the fire of the unconscious and the unfathomable depths of the unknown where nothing is predetermined and everything is possible. Its presence is often heralded by the seductive “spark” of an idea or image that brings with it feelings of flight and the godlike brilliance. And yet, for the tens, hundreds, thousands of ideas that burst up out of our unconscious, very few if any get carried to fruition. No sooner does the spark rev us up with the feeling that we can do anything, than we find a 101 reasons to cast away the idea, worse yet, stomp it into the dust bin of possibilities that might have been our lives. Clearly, not all our sparks are worth the time and effort it would take to carry them out; not all are even viable — but the problem for many of us is that we indiscriminately throw out the baby with the bath water. For our creations are truly our babies, born of us, male and female, as surely as our flesh and blood children.
There are some who do not discard these newborns of the unconscious. There are some who have a reverence for these sparks and embrace the risk and the passion it takes to see them through to fruition. These are the creators and innovators – the brave warriors of creativity as I like to call them -and they are everywhere in society, some known, far more unknown. They can be found among people who work under the roof of a shelter for the homeless as well as under the lights of the Broadway stage. They are writers, artists, scientists, inventors, gardeners, businesspeople, and just folks who go through their days and carry on their pursuits and relationships with an energy that comes from living one’s life the way one wants. Their appearance may be nondescript or they may, at the age of sixty or seventy wear long, graying pony tail or braids; they may wear wild, bright colors and loads of make-up or they may never get out of jeans and sneakers. Although diversity is the calling card of creators, there are more similarities than can ever meet the eye. The similarities are not, for the most part, tangible, yet they are powerfully shared.
After more than thirty years of coaching people on the creative journey as well as interviewing creative people in all walks of life, from writers, painters and dancers to teachers, doctors, physicists, mathematicians and innovators, I have distilled the characteristics in successful creators to these five.
Successful creators are:
1. Passionate about their work
2. Risk takers
3. Technical experts at their craft
4. Comfortable with failure, do not see failure as failure and know how to get the job done
5. Appreciate their uniqueness
Of these five characteristics, passion is the prime mover. In fact, it is safe to say that passion=creativity and creativity=passion. As you might expect then, creativity cannot be taught. Creativity is experiential. It must be unleashed. That’s where the risk comes in.
As a creativity coach, I see myself as blood sister to the white rabbit; my task is to guide those I counsel “down the rabbit hole” and to their own personal Wonderland, which is a metaphor for the cosmic landscape of the creative unconscious. But unlike the white rabbit, I can’t tumble down with nary a backwards glance because most of my clients won’t follow. Falling down the long dark rabbit hole into the unknown is scary. Which is another way of saying the creative journey is scary. Creativity demands time in the dark, psychic mud of the unconscious. Creativity requires risk and passion and a belief in the power of the unknown. Chaos is integral to the process. For in the chaos, the new, unexpected order lies, waiting to be revealed in all its magnificence. This is a difficult terrain to travel alone.
I didn’t. I had several guides along the way, and I understand their importance in my success. Which is why I see myself as a more than a writing coach. I perceive myself as a guide, leading other into their home in the creative unconscious. I believe in this passionately, for I believe exploring, owning and delighting in this realm is the birthright of everyone on the creative journey. But if this is true, then why is it so difficult? Why do so many of us hold on to the edge of the rabbit hole for dear life? Even when we begin to slide, we hold on (metaphorically!) until our knees and fingertips are raw and bleeding – and the amazing part is that when we finally fall, when the doorways to our creative unconscious open, we wonder why we feared the journey.
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Source by Emily Hanlon
