Creative Ideas & Inspiration

CREATIVE SOMETHING Creative ideas and inspiration.

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The psychology behind people believing they

aren’t creative. WELCOME
This is the premier blog for
Posted September 10th, 2012
creative ideas and inspiration. If
you're looking for creative
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25 inspiration, motivation, ideas, or
insight, you've come to the right
Creative thinking is an
place.
innate ability in each of us.
If you have a brain that
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functions fairly well you can
dream up new ideas. It’s
that simple.

However, there are quite a

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few people in the world

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today who believe that
they’re not creative, that
they simply cannot think
creatively, and that no
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matter what they do they’ll

forever be a straight- Subscribe

shooting analytical thinker.

You might be one of those
people.

It’s just not true to believe

that anyone can’t be GreenCoffee800
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Consider the child who plays with a toy where they have to fit small, cylindrical shapes into holes in a box.
The holes are cut in a way that they will only allow one (or two, if you’re really creative) of the shapes into
each. One is shaped as a circle, another a square, another a star, and so on. If you leave the child alone to
Creative Problem Solving
play with the toy, eventually she’ll figure out how to get the right pieces into the right holes, without any Workshop materials to teach problem
intervention from a more-knowledgable adult. solving & decision making.
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That’s creativity in action: finding an idea or solution that works by experimenting and playing.

And yet, there are still so many people who believe they just can’t do it. When they’re faced with a problem
at work, or school, or in their relationships, they go with the default solution and, if that doesn’t work,
eventually give up. When they can’t fit the peg into the hole, they quit trying, because they can’t think
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creatively.

There are a few reasons so many people don’t think they’re creative, I believe. And psychology can’t
explain some of the biggest. Here are two reasons that I deem as the most prominent for people believing
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sources for creative
they aren’t creative. inspiration.

One of the reasons people don’t feel creative is because they consider it a big-sum game. They
see people like Einstein in the history books, or Steve Jobs in the news, creating innovative ideas that The rules of a creator's
life.
change the world, and they think “I could never do that!”

This mentality is especially strong today, where you only have to turn on your phone to hear or see Creativity takes no
someone doing an absolutely revolutionary task with their ideas. It’s hard to compare yourself to those excuses.
who are succeeding (more often than not) on such a grandiose scale. But creativity isn’t always about big
innovation or revolutionizing the world. Even small problems require creativity (like when you were a child How to be a successful
creative.
and had to put the square peg into the square hole).

Another perspective that causes people to get stuck in believing they aren’t creative is an ingrained
fear of failing.

As a child, and into young adulthood – particularly in the United States during the past few decades – you
were likely taught that being wrong or making a mistake is final. Once you mess up, you’re done, game
ABOUT

http://www.creativesomething.net/[13-Sep-12 1:40:37 AM]

Creative Ideas & Inspiration

THE
AUTHOR
over. Fail a class or don’t get that perfect job and your life is as good as over. But as we grow up and
explore the world we begin to realize that’s not entirely true. Yes, there are times when failing will be a
terrible end, but it’s safe to say that more often than not you can make a mistake, learn from it, and carry
My name is
on. Most problems in life are ones you can fail at and still come out on top by trying a different way.
Tanner and I
Unfortunately, because the belief that failing is such a terrible thing to experience, many people can’t have been
accept that exploring is perfectly normal. So they never explore. They have a question or an idea pops into writing here
their head and they brush it aside, only accepting what they know to work as the possible solution. It’s this since 2008.
fear ingrained into their thinking that causes so many people to believe they’re not creative. Other writers
may join me here from time to
But anyone can be creative. It takes work to be creative , and for many people it will take a lot of time too, time, but for now it's mostly me.
but that doesn’t mean the possibility isn’t there. You should follow me on Twitter .

Breaking these two psychological locks as to why a person may believe they can’t be creative is the first
step into helping them see that they are.

Photo by Jim .

How caffeine affects your creativity.

Posted September 5th, 2012

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It’s common for creatives to pour
a cup of coffee before sitting
down to work every day, but how
does caffeine actually affect
creative thinking?

In a nutshell: caffeine blocks the

chemical receptors in your body
(known as adenosine receptors)
that tell it to rest or sleep. With
those receptors blocked other
chemicals – the kind that
stimulate neurological activity –
can work overtime. There are
plenty of pros and cons for creatives when it comes to consuming caffeine, so grab a cup of your favorite
caffeinated beverage (or don’t) and let’s explore.

To start us off, consider this: as you read this, neurons (those microscopic connections in your brain that
look a lot like spider webs) are firing off at a rapid pace.

It’s these tiny signals being sent through your brain – and all around your body – that allow you to process
thoughts and experiences coming through your senses. Basic biology 101 stuff.

As your neurons fire they release a chemical known as adenosine, which serves several purposes in your
body. One thing adenosine does really well is to act as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, which means that
when the chemical builds up in the body, it signals that the system is exhausted and rest is needed. The
more your brain works, the quicker you’re going to reach exhaustion.

Caffeine does some pretty interesting things in your body, one of which is to mimic adenosine. When
caffeine is consumed, it blocks the biological receptors that typically activate when
adenosine is received, sneakily telling your brain that the body doesn’t need to rest (when it actually
might).

So a big cup of coffee isn’t actually giving your body energy, it’s simply telling the body that the energy
reserves it currently has are still good to go. This is good news for reasons we’ll explore in the next few
paragraphs, but it’s also bad.

It’s bad because, at some point, your body will realistically be out of energy (glucose is one fuel that is
naturally created in the brain, which we also get from food, which neurons burn through). Caffeine tells
your body that energy reserves, like glucose, are still at the level they were when you first started drinking
that cup of coffee.

So how does this bit of trickery affect creativity exactly?

With your adenosine receptors blocked, your neural activity continues to pump away, allowing two
other major chemicals to work overtime in your brain: dopamine and glutamate.

Dopamine is the chemical that acts as a primary neurotransmitter in the brain, building and maintaining the
bridge between nerve cells. Caffeine allows the dopamine levels in your brain to more or less maintain,

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Creative Ideas & Inspiration

keeping the signals between neurons firing on all cylinders long after their energy levels would regularly
allow.

You’re cheating your biological system when you consume substantial amounts of caffeine. Tricking
dopamine into thinking there’s a full tank of gas when there may very well not be.

Glutamate is the other chemical that keeps on working away when you consume caffeine. As another
primary neurotransmitter, glutamate works to create a long-lasting signal between neurons. It’s a super
powerful cognitive chemical that helps major functions like learning and memory, and because it’s allowed
to work overtime when caffeine is introduced into your body, you’re more likely to use reservoirs of it up
quickly.

Stronger and longer lasting signals between neurotransmitters in the brain means you’re more likely to
make connections between pre-existing ideas (which is all that creativity is). So yes, caffeine
certainly can help you to think creatively.

Unfortunately the results are short-lived and not always worthwhile. Sapping your energy reserves with
caffeine can leave you stuck in a cycle of tricking your body into thinking it doesn’t need to rest, then
experiencing a heavy loss of energy, trying to make up for it with more caffeine, and on and on.

When the adenosine receptors that caffeine blocks suddenly free up, and real adenosine finally gets
through, that’s when people typically feel a big “down” that kills productivity and, more importantly,
creativity.

So, if you’re looking for a quick boost in productivity and creative thinking, a cup of coffee can certainly
help you out. But if you’re the type of person who has a regular cup or two (or twelve) every day, you’re
burning on fuel your body doesn’t really have and you’re going to be in a fight for good ideas.

Caffeine can certainly help you think, but only if you consume it once every 10 days or so (a good half life
for the affects it has on your body).

So have a cup or don’t, just remember what’s happening to your body when you do.

Photo by Laura D’Alessandro .

Why we create.
Posted August 30th, 2012

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When I awoke before the sunrise this
morning I had an intense desire to
draw or write something.

As I scrambled to get my morning

chores done and prepare for work the
feeling that I needed to stop and create
became so powerful that I had to
physically sit down and catch my
breath. I grabbed my laptop and quickly
began to write, the first draft of this
article is what I created.

But the experience got me thinking:

what drives anyone to create? What
goes on in our bodies and minds when
we begin to explore creative
possibilities? What was the feeling that
made me want – so deeply – to create
something almost randomly?

For some people creating is an

emotional response. When a lot of
thoughts and stressors begin spinning
around inside of your head, one of the
best ways to relieve the compression is to create, to get words or shapes out of your head and into the
real world.

This reasoning explains my sudden drive to create in the morning: I had so much going on in my head that
I had to let some of it out in order to make room for other things. Think of it like trying to stuff a lot of notes
into a notebook that’s already full, at some point you have to start using a different notebook.

Another reason people create is for mental calm. When you grab a paintbrush and let your hand make

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Creative Ideas & Inspiration

marks on a canvas without thinking much, it’s affects are similar to that of meditation on the mind . The
same type of feeling you get when you suddenly “space out” in the shower, or while doing the dishes, or
driving to work, or listening to really boring story.

The act of creating can easily allow your brain to subconsciously sort through everything it needs to while
your more conscious reasoning watches ideas – those nearly indescribable, intangible neurochemical
signals – transform into real shapes and colors or words or objects.

There are definitely more reasons for creating as well: boredom, trading to get a good grade, because your
boss told you to, psychological exploration.

One other reason we create is for money. Believe it or not: there are artists out there in the world who only
find pleasure in painting because it makes them money. Same for writers and dancers and teachers and
other creative thinkers. Money is a big motivator for some people, whether or not that’s a good reason for
creating is a topic for another day.

It’s important to know the reason you’re creating. If you ever feel that drive inside of you to sit down and
just write, you’re better off taking the time to figure out why you have that drive before you even start.
Often understanding why you’re creating will help you identify what to create.

So why do you create? What drives you every day?

And while we’re on the topic of why we do what we do, Merlin Mann posted an excellent video way back in
2010 that touches on the issue of getting stuck and procrastination being a result of temporarily forgetting
who you are and what you should be paying attention to.

Building an inspirational environment for

yourself.
Posted August 27th, 2012

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Your environment affects your thinking a lot more than you may realize.

Research has shown that even the smallest, seemingly unnoticeable things we encounter every day affect
our ideas. Something you experience today, even subconsciously, will affect your creativity well into the
future.

It’s our environment, more often than not, that causes sudden “sparks” of creative insight. If you’ve ever
had an idea suddenly spark in your mind, with no explanation readily available, odds are that something
you encountered earlier on was the source of isnpiration.

Too often we surround ourselves with things that are either uninspiring or unintentionally demeaning
though.

We install the successes of others into our lives, through pictures and music and even furniture and
clothing. We build up ecosystems that remind us of how far we have to go in order to feel accomplished
and happy (which isn’t true anyway, happiness and success are never really that far).

In order to feel successful, why not try surrounding yourself with your own, past successes, big or small?

To truly feel creative, make sure that you are creating enough work to surround yourself with it, good or
bad. Small reminders that you are a creative individual, even the smallest of them, can make the
difference between a productive day, and a day feeling as though it was completed wasted.

Look to your environment now: is there enough around you to make you feel inspired and like a true
creative?

Six things you need in order to be creative.

Posted August 22nd, 2012

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A lot of these things are fairly straightforward.
Yet, it’s so easy to forget each of the elements
we need to think differently about our
problems, our work, our dreams, and our lives.

Today I am keenly aware with exactly how

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Creative Ideas & Inspiration

valuable it is to be reminded of this stuff

repeatedly.

1. You need to experience a lot of things

in order to build up a cache of
knowledge in your life.
2. You need to explore the world around
you (physically and mentally) and have
real adventures.
3. You need to be open to outcomes and
especially to being wrong, failing, or
temporary pain (which Nassim
Nicholas Taleb explains so elegantly in
his book The Black Swan ).
4. You need to find time to relax and give
your brain a break so it can sort things
out without being pressured into set
outcomes.
5. You need to believe in yourself, what you’re doing, and what you’re capable of (which is always
more than you feel).
6. You need to get out there and do the work (sometimes it’s easy, most times it’s not).

Photo by Tommaso .

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Copyright 2012 Tanner Christensen . All rights reserved unless otherwise noted.

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