CALLING ON OUR CREATIVITY

CULTIVATING our creativity is good for personal and community growth and wellbeing. Our city is celebrating this theme in Geelong Design Week, with events celebrating Geelong’s international recognition by UNESCO as a Creative City of design (geelongdesignweek.com.au).

This starts with an evening at the Palais with Claire Bowditch on Thursday, inviting us to “skill up” our creativity after two years of Covid that may well have cramped our style. To develop our creativity, it may help to have a fuller understanding of what it is. It partly relates to problem solving, coming up with original and adaptive solutions for whatever problems we face. Creativity also relates to how we express ourselves in unique ways, individually and collectively. This can give pleasure and enhance our sense of identity.

In his book Creativity, the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi outlined what supported exceptional creativity by studying the lives of people who demonstrated it. He highlighted that creativity did not only result from the efforts of one individual. It is not based only on brief episodes of insightful genius, but is underpinned by lengthy periods of hard work.

Personality attributes that support creativity include being curious, open, flexible, independent and prepared to take risks as well as to work hard.

However, creativity is also greatly influenced by our interaction with others. Very creative efforts in any particular domain, whether they involve significant discoveries or artistic accomplishments, almost always require a person to have a high level of knowledge about their field. This is strongly influenced by having helpful teachers, mentors and encouraging peers. We also rely on others with relevant expertise to endorse the value of our creations. It also helps to have the resources available to develop our creative efforts without having too many constraints, such as undue time pressures.

This means our creative achievements can be strongly influenced by luck in terms of what opportunities we have and what networks we’re exposed to.

However, as Louis Pasteur emphasised, “chance favours the prepared mind” – more creative individuals will likely recognise and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

The creative process itself, whether it be coming up with scientific solutions or artistic creations, typically involves four stages of a creative cycle – preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. We might associate creativity mainly with the two middle stages when someone is mulling over something and a brilliant solution comes to them, such as Archimedes’ “Eureka” moment in the bath, Isaac Newton’s encounter with an apple or Paul McCartney coming up with the melody for Yesterday in a dream. However, this might distract from the hard work they put into reviewing and conveying what they had discovered, let alone the previous years of commitment to their field or craft. It’s easy to forget the

99 per cent of perspiration if we focus on the more dramatic 1 per cent of inspiration that we associate with creative genius.

We might maximise our own creativity by “following our bliss” and identifying things that we like doing and are good at. We’re then more likely to be satisfyingly and productively engaged. To assist this further we might hone our practices and routines that help us focus our concentration when working on a creative task. This might include arranging and personalising our workspaces to help us focus. We can prioritise creative work sessions to be free of distractions.

We can also take time out for pleasantly distracting activities when insights might more frequently bubble to the surface. We’re more likely to have our own “Aha moments” when we’re not so directly focused on the creative task itself, such as when we’re jogging, swimming, gardening, driving or even in the shower. We can sometimes vary our routines to encourage fresh perspectives.

In particular, we can appreciate opportunities to express our creativity and talents when they arise such as seeking out teachers, mentors and others who can encourage our efforts. We can also recognise and appreciate others’ talents and creative efforts. Supporting the creativity of others can help new solutions and meaningful expressions make their way into our community and beyond.

Chris Mackey is the principal psychologist at Chris Mackey and Associates, Geelong. Our next two episodes of the Psych Spiels and Silver Linings podcast on creativity can be found at psychspiels.com.au

CREATIVITY ALSO RELATES TO HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES IN UNIQUE WAYS, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY. THIS CAN GIVE PLEASURE AND ENHANCE OUR SENSE OF IDENTITY.