The Dual Nature of Creativity
Does Your Personality & Psychology Impact Your Creativity?
Thanks For Joining Me...
I originally wanted to end this with a recap episode, but I came across an article I felt I had to share and leave you with to end the year. So...in this show we discuss an article in Psychology Today about the creative persona and consider how our personality influences our creative development. The research seems to dispel the cultural myths around the tortured artist, or the flamboyant attention seeking weirdo.
We end the year with some questions to consider and practices to try around the information in this article as well as some of the themes we have explored on Starling over the past year.
Listen in at the link below and explore the curated content. A recap of the 10 traits we discussed as well as the practices and questions I shared are found here as well.
Thanks again for joining me and...Season 2 will start in February.
Here's a link to my personal artwork...figured I should share
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Article: 10 Traits of Highly Creative People
My Recap of the 10 Traits:
In this his research Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered, after over 30 years of study that the artist, and true creatives in every domain or field are so much more complex than that idea of a tortured artist or explosive spirit. According to the research, where he interviewed and observed a myriad of creative people, by studying their habits and personalities he identified the most successful creative people to have an internal duality within them and that beyond balancing chaos and order…they really inhabit the borderlands in every aspect of who they are. They embody conflicting ideas as traits of who they are. I’m going to share with you these 10 concepts briefly and as I do, I want you to think about your own natural inclinations and personality. Consider whether you feel these things to be true about yourself.
- Highly creative people are capable of exerting a great amount of energy towards their work and yet are also capable of being quiet, reflective and able to rest or relax as needed. So it is not that they are always on, or hyperactive, but more that they are able to focus intensely and then take a rest so that they can return to the work recharged and refreshed.
- While creative are often highly intelligent, there is a childlike naivety to them. There is a childlike wisdom to them, and a flexibility in thinking that is not rigid. This allows originality. It is as if they are able to balance convergent and divergent thinking, switching back and forth as needed.
- Creatives are able to balance responsibility and discipline with playfulness. While it is important to be playful and open with ideas, they also know when it is time to get to work. Being able to find within themselves the right moments to play with ideas and concepts and when to buckle down and develop them more seriously.
- There is an understanding of fantasy and imagination that is grounded in reality. Creative people are willing to take a leap into imagination to go beyond what is known, while remaining tethered to current understandings.
- Creative people are capable of being both introverted and extraverted. While for most people this component of is the most foundational and consistant components, creative seem to be both of these and are able to honor both aspects as necessary to their being.
- Creatives are able to be proud of their work and humble at the same time. Most are aware that they are building on all the work that came before them, which gives them some perspective on their own contributions. While they will recognize what they have accomplished they won’t focus on it. They are always looking forward, so no matter what great things they have done before that has lost their interest and they are onto the next challenge that keeps them humbled.
- There is an androgyny to creative in their way of thinking. Not in their sexuality or their appearance but in their way of thinking. They do not consider themselves male or female first and dismiss the stereotyping of gender…that is not relevant very relevant to their creative process. Able to harness apsects that are seen as masculine such as willpower and toughness as well as traits that are seen as feminine such as sensitivity and nurturing, creatives can develop strengths in both areas.
- Both traditional and rebellious creative people can see the values of traditions and the need to let go of them, or allow them to change. A willingness to break tradition, not as an act of defiance but as an act of creative development is natural for creatives. They can internalize their natural culture and are also able to let go of that cultural conditioning to allow innovation.
- While passionate about their work, creative people are also able to be objective. Part of this is because they are able to be somewhat detached from the work which allows criticism. They can then use the critique to develop the work.
- Creative people are able to be sensitive and open to the harder emotions such as pain and suffering, yet are able to find enjoyment in life. Aware that we know sadness only because we have been happy and that we know happy only because we have sadness.
So, What did you think? Do you feel that you are similar to the creative personality identified by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his reseach?
Finding Flow Article
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Lecture on Creative Personality
The Wheel
Join The Starling Community
I'm noticing that getting creatives to interact is not all that easy. I'd love to see this become a place to share our practices, discuss our discoveries, support one another in working in the borderlands and overall be a community for creatives. Join at the link below...and say hello!
Recommended Questions to Consider & Practices:
Lets think about these "end of year" questions to review our progress and discuss some practices that could help us pinpoint our location and plot our path forward.
1. What new skills have you developed in 2019 that you could add to your toolbox? These could be skills you feel you have mastered as well as emerging skills that you have gained some proficiency in but are still developing.
2. Thinking back to earlier episodes and discussions. Have you thought about that concept of the 4M’s…Motivation, Making, Mastery and Malleability that we discussed in The episode Building the Foundation? What has your motivation been? How much time have you been able to allot to actually making work? Do you need to adjust that? Are you gaining some level of mastery in your content area? How do you know? And then malleability…have you been able to play with the skills you have in new ways?
3. What fears have you overcome or what fears are still holding you back from potential? How have you used your relationship to fear in your creative practice?
4. Where are you spending most of your creative energy gathering skill? Observation, Memory, Imagination or Expression.
5. What questions have you been able to answer through your creative practice this year? What questions have arisen from your creative practice?
6. Who are you making the work for?
From those basic questions, I suggest you come up with at least 5 more for yourself that are specific to your themes and work. Look over your output for this past year, or even this past decade and as you evaluate your personal development. See how you have grown and where you think you are. It is very important to figure out how to look at your work and see how it shows you where you have been and where you might need to go. This is where you can be both compassionate and critical…able to see how much work you have done and what you have accomplished without holding it as precious so that you are able to continue to grow and expand from where you are.
Consider how you will continue to move from this comfort zone to develop further in the months and years ahead. We can be proud of all the effort and work we have put into getting to this point and celebrate our accomplishments here…knowing we will have even more skills in our toolbox at this time next year.
OK…some practices around these ideas that may spark some work…
- One of the ways we can make sure we use those skills we are developing in our craft in new and unique ways is to continue to develop our philosophical ideas and focus on personal psychological development as well. Think back over those dualities of the 10 traits of highly creative people and see honestly where you think you fall there. Are you close to the center of the wheel or are you still holding on to the tire? I will put my recap of those 10 ideas and a link to the actual article for you to review in the show notes link and encourage you to take time to think about your relationship to his ideas and research.
- Choose one of the 10 traits discussed and build work from where you are. For example…and easy one to consider at this time of the year is number 8. This was the one that is both traditional and rebellious. Where you can appreciates traditions and yet is able to let go of traditions that no longer serve you or to re envision them in ways more conducive to who you are. At this very tradition focused time of year around the holidays…what traditions have you held onto and why? What are ones you have let go of? Why are traditions so important to the winter holidays…are there new ways you could create from this? It doesn’t have to be that one…it could be any of the 10 traits that you want to work with…but pick one and see if you can create some new work from the ideas that arise when you try to see where you are with balancing those dualities.
- I would suggest you consider if you are working with big c or small c creativity. I cannot stress enough how valuable both of these are…as many people are not actively working with creativity at all. So there is not judgement on big or small…the world needs both. The question really is, are you working on personal development with your creative practice or are you working on ideas that are more universal and for more than just you? And this is more than just knowing your audience…it’s about where you see your sphere of influence and what you want that to be.
- And finally…as we head towards the longest night of the year and the return of the light. What are you going to be bringing from the dark into the light in the coming year? What have you found from your time in the shadows this fall that you are going to warm through the winter to bring forward in spring?