How to Maintain your Creative Fitness
I’ve always been curious about this thing called Creativity. What is it and where does it come from? Why is it that some people are incredibly creative, while others have a hard time color coordinating their outfits each day? As marketers we are constantly being asked to think outside the box - whether it’s to come up with that killer brand idea or to be creative with the limited marketing dollars we have. Or maybe you work in an agency and you have to come up with a breakthrough ad campaign, web campaign and so on. Whatever the case may be, we need to constantly be stretching our creativity.
Creativity is like a muscle. If you don’t practice it all the time, it will atrophy. You need to constantly practice your creativity to meet the demands of today’s business world. You are being asked to think on your feet for new ideas. You are often being challenged to defend your thinking. You have to be agile and work out continuously to maintain a sharp, creative mind. Here are some tips on how you can begin to maintain this creative fitness that's so essential to your job:
1. Think and act like a child
At age 5, we are using 80% of our creative potential. We invent daily, and we are innovating at a remarkable rate. By the age of 12, our creative output has declined to about 2% of our potential – and it generally stays there for the rest of our lives. That means that most of us today are only operating at 2% of our creative potential!
What does this mean? It means that we need to go back to those activities that fed our creativity when we were children. We should run in the park barefoot, splash in fountains, and sing songs out loud – even if we don’t know the words. And we should create a lot – with crayons, paint, clay, play-doh – whatever. We need to embrace our 5-year-old selves because that’s when our creativity was the most expansive.
2. Train like a Creative Athlete
Yes, there are some artists that create art under the influence. But the vast majority of us need to have our wits about us to create. That means that we need to treat creativity just as we would treat a sport. We need to get enough sleep, hydrate, eat well and get regular exercise. According to our circadian rhythms, it’s also important to take breaks once every 2 hours. Even if you are writing or working intensely on a project at your desk, you need to get up, stretch and walk around every two hours. It’s also good to fuel with healthy food in small portions every 3-4 hours.
Athletes are incredibly regimented in their daily activities. If you want to be a Creative Athlete, you also need to be disciplined in your activities. Take a page from an athlete’s training regimen. That means going to bed and waking up at the same time, eating at the same times every day, and doing your creative activity at the same time. When you treat your day as precious time to work out your creativity, you will have more energy and more stamina to make your art.
3. Do an Artist’s Date once a week
This is something that I learned from Julia Cameron’s book, the Artist’s Way. She wrote the quintessential handbook on opening up to the creative flow of life. I recommend her book to anyone who feels a bit stuck in life – either creatively or emotionally. It’s a step-by-step weekly program on unleashing your creativity. One of her recommendations is to go on an Artist’s Date once a week. This is something you must do by yourself and it must be something that you enjoy.
When I started doing Artist Dates, it was strange to do because I often did the things I loved with other people. But the idea is to nourish the artist within you in an intimate way, and to give yourself the self-care that you deserve. The dates I like to do are to journal in my favorite café, to go to a movie or a play, to eat at my favorite restaurant alone, or to take a walking art tour. The activities you chose will depend on what feeds your creative soul.
4. Chant, breathe and speak from your diaphragm
I know this might sound strange, but our authentic voices are sometimes buried deep within ourselves. Sometimes we need to rediscover this authentic voice. I witnessed this first hand when I took a Voice class at an acting studio. In class we laid on floor mats and practiced saying phrases like, “Huh…” while holding our diaphragms. The exercise was to teach us how to speak from our diaphragm. Then we chose a short phrase that we practiced saying diaphragmatically. I watched one woman do this exercise and it was clear that she was speaking from her throat. When the teacher taught her to speak from her diaphragm, she began to cry. This is where her authentic voice was, and she discovered it right in front of us.
A lot of times we aren’t conscious of how we are breathing or speaking. Most of us talk from our heads, our throats or our chests. When we are stressed out, we breathe from our chests through what’s called ‘shallow breathing’. To connect with the deepest parts of ourselves, we need to breath from our diaphragm. This is why chanting is so powerful because it forces us to breathe diaphragmatically.
5. Be clear about why you create
A lot of motivational speakers and business authors talk about identifying SMART goals when articulating your goals. Initially coined by Peter Drucker’s ‘management by objective’ concept and revised by a number of different authors, SMART elements are the key to developing effective goals. SMART stands for goals that are:
Specific (Goals must be clear and unambiguous)
Measurable (Goals must have concrete criteria for measuring progress towards the attainment of the goal)
Achievable (Goals must be attainable and realistic)
Relevant (Goals must relate to your vision and mission)
Time-bound (Goals must have an identified duration)
I think that the most important thing about identifying creative goals is to identify why you are creating art. This is related to the ‘Relevant’ part of SMART stated above. So whether it’s to express yourself, or to advocate for a specific topic, or even to make money – identify why you are creating. When you are clear about why you create, you have more energy and more focus when it comes to completing your creative task.
6. Get help to stay motivated
Along with contemplating the reasons why you create, it’s important to keep motivating yourself by giving yourself small attainable goals to get to your macro goal. For example, National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) –is coming up. The goal of NaNoWriMo, a national writing organization, is to inspire writers to complete a novel during the month of November. The goals are SMART. It’s Specific – you write a novel in a month. It is Measurable – the average length of a novel is 300 pages. It’s Attainable – many people have done this before. It’s Relevant – if your goal is to write a novel. And it’s Time- Bound – you have 30 days to write it. Let’s say you know that you want to write a story about a puppy mill to bring awareness to the problem of animal cruelty. Now you have your 'why.' Now what?
First it’s helpful to write down your macro goal and post it in the space you create. Then break down your goal into smaller more manageable segments. So, if you want to write a novel during the month of November, break down your goal to writing 10 pages everyday, or one chapter every three days. It also helps to write your micro goals down, along with anything that helps motivate you to get your goals done. I have a sign above my writing space that says, “You are free to write the worst crap in the world.” The sign is a reminder that I can create without having to edit myself and without having to face the ‘It’s not good enough demons’ in my head. It's very liberating and helps me stay focused on my writing goals.
The last thing I'll say about staying motivated is to get the help you need to get your goal done. Using my example, you can find a number of organizations that sponsor NaMoWriMo write-ins. You show up at a designated space at a specific time, and write for several hours. If there isn't one in your area, organize one yourself. In addition, many motivational coaches suggest having a focusing partner – someone who checks in with you regularly and keeps you accountable to your goals. A focusing partner can help you stay motivated and focused. They can also keep reminding you of your 'why'. I have different focusing partners for different projects, and it’s helpful to have someone who can hold me accountable, especially when I start to lose focus.
This list is in no way conclusive. There are many other ways to maintain your creative fitness. There’s also moving your body and getting into nature – to name a few more. This list I outlined is just a starting point for anyone who wants to start maintaining his or her creative fitness. Like any fitness program, it’s easy to fall off the wagon. I’ve often found myself losing focus on important creative projects. I go back to some of these tips and I always manage to get myself back into a creative fitness routine. I hope you do too!