And just as in climbing a tall mountain, you’ll get to the top one step at a time.
In both the summarizing and application steps, I’ll be asking you for excuses, justifications, procrastinations, etc. in order to bring them into the fresh air and peel them off like a snake sheds its skin. Take this opportunity to dig deep and rid yourself of these barriers, so that you can take action, which is the whole point of this book.
To set the tone of the book and your work with it, I don’t want you to feel like it’s supposed to be a hard or solemn experience. Quite the opposite—you should find yourself being more lighthearted and joyful about life as you progress through the book.
Let’s make this climb together and arrive at a whole new view; a whole new way of living as art.
Be sure to go to SilberStudios.com/Create-Resources for additional resources as you read the book.
Since you’ll need more space when working with either the Summarizing or Application steps, shift over to your notebook, using as much paper as you need. Make a section of your notebook for these answers. For easy reference, note the page number from this book followed by the Summarizing or Application step you’re working on. For example, the next ones are 17-1, 17-2, and so on.
1.What’s an example of a time you learned about a new tool that improved your creativity?
2.Can you think of a time when you didn’t leave “room in your cup”? What were the consequences?
3.How can you be fully involved while going through this book?
4.What are some examples entries you could put in your daily notebook?
5.Why is it important to peel off excuses, justifications, and procrastinations?
1.Set your schedule: I’ll work with this book these days of the week: ______________________________
for at least ______ minutes.
2. Get your notebook and begin to write in it daily.
Optional: Have some fun and get different colored pens or pencils, stars or stickers. Use these to highlight your entries, to get across the mood you want. Put stars on big flashes or breakthroughs, etc.
3. Find a good place to work where you won’t be interrupted: set it up with this book, your notebook, pens and dictionary.
4. Write three ways you could put off doing this course (get really creative here).
a.
b.
c.
5. Write down your goals or areas you most want to improve by using this book.
Part One
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
—W. Somerset Maugham, author
Chapter One
The Cycle of Creativity and Its Parts
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
—Albert Einstein
There is a natural cycle to creativity, as there is to all parts of life. For example, if you want to learn to cook a certain dish, you follow a cycle of first visualizing or getting an idea of how you want your dish to turn out. Then you consult the recipe, and get out your kitchen “tools”—pans, cheese grater, etc. (learning how to use each if needed), then you cook the dish, taste it and add more salt or basil, for example, to make it just right, and then you share it with others.
I’ll be covering each of these parts in detail to help you break down the whole subject of creativity into its components for ease of understanding.
What Does Creativity Mean?
Let’s begin with the word “creativity” and see how each part of the cycle fits into this definition by Oxford American Dictionary.
“Relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” The derivation is from create: “Late Middle English (in the sense ‘form out of nothing,’ used of a divine or supernatural being): from Latin crear—‘produced.’ ”
Note that when you are exercising your creative abilities you are forming or producing something “out of nothing,” which, by this definition, makes you a “divine” being. How true! When we are creating, whether as an art form or in some other aspect of our lives, we are operating in a higher state, which the Middle English originators considered divine or supernatural. But it turns out creativity is a natural ability that you can tap into any time.
Another important part of this definition is to see that when you are being creative, then go into action, you will have produced a creative product or result.
Now let’s look at the definition of art from the Oxford Living Dictionaries:
“The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Also: “A skill at doing a specified thing, typically one acquired through practice.”
Let’s be clear here that “creativity” and “art” apply broadly across all of life not just to “artistic” activities. Don’t think of it as being segmented into small slices of your life or day, instead look for the many ways to use your imagination to “form out of nothing” with the end view of having produced a creative result, with emotional power. This could be as simple as planning and throwing a fantastic party, inviting your friends, resulting in sharing a truly memorable and creative evening thus adding art to your life.
You can see the cycle of creativity begins with your imagination, moves through the steps of producing it, and winds up at the final stage of sharing it with others.
The Most Important Step in the Creative Process
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