33 Ways to Stay Creative: Quit Beating Yourself Up

Be Gentle with Thyself

Let’s face it, beating ourselves up is something we pretty much all do. They say “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” But so often we forget that divine element, especially when we are the ones making the errors. Sometimes it seems as if beating yourself up over little things is some sort of national pastime. I know I do it far too often (maybe 75% of the time I make a mistake). Needless to say, this is something that is not good for your emotional well-being. Constantly beating yourself up over mistakes - things anyone might do - is a sure way of sending yourself into a blue funk or black hole. Believe me, I’ve been there.

But think about what this does to your creativity when you constantly - or even occasionally - tear yourself down over your failures. If someone else did this, you know it would dissuade you from attempting whatever it was a second time. When you do it to yourself - the person who “knows” you best telling you that you are a failure - it is even more likely that you will give up. Your creative juices will dry up, and all those great ideas that lie within you will die on the vine.

Unless you acknowledge the fact that, yes, we all make mistakes. Not only do we all make mistakes, those mistakes are at times the catalyst to an even greater creative idea. An interesting article in Forbes (“8 Successful Products That Only Exist Because of Failure” by Sujan Patel, January 2015) details how failures gave us some of our best known products. For example, did you know that bubble wrap was first developed as a textured wall covering and then as an insulation material before someone said, “Hey, let’s wrap something up in this stuff, put it in a box and mail it off.” Well, maybe they didn’t exactly say that, but you get the idea.

One of my favorite shows of all time was Mythbusters, and one of their catchphrases was “Failure is always an option.” It all stemmed from a myth they tested about two semis hitting head on with a small car in between. After a near-disaster when one semi went off track and hit a fence, they coined the phrase. They even went so far as to paint half the phrase on each truck so when they hit the whole phrase appeared for a moment. I have taken this a step further to create a poster in my classroom that uses the Mythbusters phrase, but then reminds students to “Just remember to learn from it.”

What is the takeaway from all this? Simple. Give yourself a break, and see if it helps your creativity to flourish. Take a chance, and if you fall, get back up and try it again, and again, and again. And remember to learn from your mistakes and build on them to create something even better.

33 Ways to Stay Creative: Be Otherworldly

Yep, that’s what they call it.

First of all, what the hell does “be otherworldly” mean anyway? This is going to be the real challenge for most people - trying to figure out what you need to do to be “otherworldly.” So, let’s start with some definitions.

Merriam-Webster defines “otherworldly” (I promise, the last time I’ll put it in quotes) as:

1  a: of, relating to, or resembling that of a world other than the actual world
    b: devoted to preparing for a world to come
and
2: devoted to intellectual or imaginative pursuits

Dictionary.com has this definition:
     relating to an imaginary or spiritual world.

Going further down the rabbit hole, the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus has the following synonyms for otherworldly:
     metaphysical, paranormal, preternatural, supernatural, transcendent, transcendental, unearthly

Taken all together, I’m going to say being otherworldly is something like being in that focused state where the world around you fades away and all you “see” (damn, more quotation marks) is whatever you are focused on. I like the idea of being “devoted to imaginative or intellectual pursuits” as in the second M-W definition. That seems to fit in with the idea of a hyper-focused state. But how would this help you be more creative.

Well, maybe being hyper-focused allows you to see possibilities that might not be apparent otherwise. Your increased focus makes the impossible seem possible, as some might say. I have been working with a friend on an idea regarding multi-creative individuals and the concepts of “fixed imager” and “changing imager.” It’s too much to go into here (and we aren’t ready to roll it out yet anyway), but suffice to say one challenge creatives have is focusing on one thing to its end. Being otherworldly might be a way to bring that focus into play, at least long enough to complete one creative idea.

Obviously, the biggest drawback to this technique is figuring out what otherworldly means for you. Are you focused and devoted to some intellectual pursuit? Are you preparing for the world to end? (In that case, you have other things to worry about than creativity.) What about some imaginary or spiritual world? Whatever you finally determine is your otherworldly, let it bring your creativity to the forefront. Just don’t forget to come home when your trip is over.