I do these amazing Creative Catalyst sessions, and I’m endlessly fascinated by how deeply creative people are and also by how deeply creative they don’t think they are! And for most people, the ideas are already there. The problem is that we have all sorts of things that are blocking the creative pipe. Everybody has access to this creative pipe – it’s not a special gift that only some people can tap into. Some are certainly better at it, but everyone has access to it.
But most of us block that pipe with excuses, old unhelpful beliefs, judgement, fear, and stress over “doing it right”. All you need to do is let those things out of the pipe. If you leave them there, all the good ideas will be trapped and you will not be able to access them…not because they don’t exist, but because they’re stuck behind layers of crap that just needs to be released! So here are 10 things that might be blocking your creative pipeline.
1. “I don’t know”
When you first start thinking about creativity, the first reaction is almost always “I don’t know” – I don’t know what the idea is…and people don’t let that just come out.
But “I don’t know” isn’t the final answer, it’s just an initial reaction.
It’s like my initial reaction when I see the sunshine is “yay! T-shirt weather” and then I have to think about it and think “hang on, it’s April, it’s 10 degrees C out there…it’s not T-shirt weather!!” Just let your first reaction come out, and then see what’s after it.
What’s behind the ‘I don’t know’? It may be more “I don’t know”s – let them come out too – what’s behind them?
2. Judging your ideas as they come out.
I want you to just imagine that you know somebody who has 56 amazing ideas, and they share idea number 1 with you and you shoot it down – no, that won’t work, I’m looking for something bigger /smaller /taller /greener /better /brighter /easier /quicker. Now, how open do you think they’re going to be to sharing their 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 56th ideas with you?
Don’t judge your ideas as they come out.
Let them out of the pipe anyway. They might not be exactly what you’re looking for…but maybe idea 2 or 7 is precisely what you want…let the ideas flow without judgement. Also, when you do this, sometimes you find that your initial judgement is wrong! For example, you may be looking for an idea for a blog post, but what comes out is an idea for a course…and when you examine it, you realise there are ideas for 52 blog posts within that one course idea!
3. Needing the ideas to be brand new.
Most people have already got loads of ideas hiding in their brain. Often, unblocking the creative pipe means taking out the ideas that have been in there for a while and doing something with them… Sometimes you just need to get the “old” stuff done so you can move onto the new.
Let your old ideas come out, see sunlight, be assessed and considered.
For example, this blog post is an OLD idea – it’s probably 2.5 years old. Today I was thinking “what’s new that I can write about” and this OLD idea came up again. If I insisted on waiting for something new, instead of trusting that this idea’s time had come, I might still be waiting for inspiration to strike and getting stressed and anxious!
4. Not giving yourself time to mull and ponder and ruminate and consider.
It makes me laugh when I ask a client a question and they give the answer all of 2 seconds thought, then tell me they can’t or they don’t know. Uh huh…wanna give it a bit more than 2 seconds thought? Especially if your creative pipe has been blocked and isn’t running smoothly, you need to give yourself time to think.
I have done this too – I have sat at my desk to write my weekly article and “Can’t think of a single thing”..and I’ve been thinking for about 40 seconds! This doesn’t mean you sit staring into space chewing your pen (unless that works for you!) but you can try other ways to get the thoughts flowing – dancing, yoga, walking in nature, meditation, free writing, shaking off the energy, lighting a candle, laughing. Note: wandering off to the internet and getting lost down a facebook hole isn’t often the best way to get your creative juices flowing! Give your brain some space to come up with the creative ideas, don’t crowd it with other people’s material.
5. Discounting what you know
Most of us tend to discount what we know because it is obvious to us – things that we naturally do, our tale of life, things we take for granted that everyone knows about and we don’t need to share. So when those ideas spill out of the pipe, we discard them and get disappointed by our lack of quality ideas. Hmm. (see ‘judging your ideas’ above!)
I’ve been writing weekly articles for 10 years…and some of the most popular have been the ones that I think are utterly obvious or no one would be interested in. Most of us like to get to know the person behind the business, we like to peek behind the curtain…and while you might think we know what you know, we don’t.
Take some of those “obvious” ideas and use them, you might be surprised at how much expertise you have.
6. Wanting to get it right from the very first.
This makes me laugh. The whole point of creative expression is that you cannot get it wrong. But most of us want our creativity to be correct and in an acceptable, known format instantly.
I get it, I do it too. When I did a jewellery making course, I wanted to get everything right first time, and I wanted my work to be acceptable…and then I realised: a) there’s a learning curve. You get better as you go along. And b) there is no “right” – in our class were 6 of us and each one would interpret the same instruction (to make ear-rings, or a bracelet, or a necklace) in a different way…and they would all be great in their own way. Very occasionally something would get made that was truly terrible, but it was rare and usually a source of much hilarity rather than shame because it’s all just part of the creative journey.
Let yourself create things that aren’t great – take off the shackles of having to get it right and just let the creativity flow – sometimes you just need to move some of the sludge from the bottom of the pipe to get to the clear, pure, fabulous ideas beyond.
7. Perfectionism
My jewellery teacher used to say “it is the imperfection that makes the work perfect”. This was mainly to stop us all panicking when we had got a tiny thing wrong! Because he knew that perfectionism is a creativity killer.
When you try to shove your creative output into a certain shape, a certain “box”, you will stifle it.
Let your creativity have some freedom to turn into what it is. Allow yourself to be a beginner, even if you’ve been doing something for a long time! Allow yourself to get it wrong, to be all at sea, to make a mess, to have to start again. Sometimes mistakes turn into the greatest things we’ve ever created…and sometimes we just learn how not to do it!
8. Comparisonitis
At any time, comparing yourself to others is unhelpful…when it comes to creative output, it is another creativity killer. Our creative output is all a unique expression of who we are and where we’ve come from.
Comparing ourselves un-favourably to others is a sure way to stopper up the creative pipe.
Especially as all too often we compare ourselves to people who’ve been practicing their creativity for years more than we have. I would look at people I admired who seemed to be churning out endless creative works and feel I wasn’t creative. An idea that now seems absurd as I have enough creative ideas to keep me busy until 2080…and that’s only if I have no more ideas! Now I know people who look at me and think I am super-creative…and they’re not. It’s rubbish. They are, they just need to unblock the pipe and tap into the well.
Also, never forget that you’re comparing everything you know about you (everything) with everything you know about them (not a lot) – if you think everyone else has it together all the time and you’re the only basket-case in the world…that’s just because not many people share their basket-case-ness!
9. Labelling yourself as “not creative”
As I said, I did this…for years! Because I couldn’t draw or paint I labelled myself as “not creative” – completely ignoring the blogs, articles, even books I’d written over the years! And I know I’m not alone. But no one is “not creative”.
Everyone has access to the infinite well of creativity…everyone.
All you need to do is sink a pipe or two into it. If you don’t exercise your creative ‘muscles’ they’ll be flabby and underused. Once you take up a way to creatively express, you’ll tap into that infinite well – and the more pipes you sink into the well, the more creative ideas you’ll have. Rip off the label that stops you even trying to create, pick a creative activity that appeals to you and have a go!
10. Not understanding your creative process
We all have a creative process that we go through – it sometimes takes a while to figure it out. Often because we think it’s ‘just us’…but it isn’t, everyone experiences the ups and downs of the creative process…and they learn how to cope with each phase of the process.
Mine starts with ideas, then moves to (hopefully) flow, which moves to ebb, and (hopefully) back to flow again until the project is complete. In between “this is shit” visits a few times, “this is taking forever” rears its head a few times, and sometimes “writer’s block” also makes an appearance. The project always ends with a “it’s finished/no it’s not” phase which is such fun for an impatient creative! This is all just part of my process. But I could easily get stuck in the ebb, the “this is shit”, the “this is taking forever” etc and let them block the creative pipe.
Once you understand how your creative process works, you’ll just let the ebbs flow through the pipe and not get too excited about it because it’s just part of the process.
The creative well is infinite and if your creativity feels blocked, it’s not you…it’s that something is blocking the creative pipe – clear that, let it out and let it go, and creativity will return. What is blocking your creative pipeline?
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