Being a Creative Rebel
NASA study found that 98% of children at age 5 were creative geniuses, but by the time people reach adulthood that number drops to 2%, Why? I was listening to a Podcast called, The FUTUR with Chris Do. For those interested, it was episode 212 “The Laws of Creativity” with Joey Cofone. Their conversation was all about why people struggle to be creative.
Creativity come Natural for Kids
For a kid, being creative just comes natural. Think about it; they have no frame of reference. When they are very young, they don’t know that cars can’t fly or that snakes can’t walk. They learn that overtime. While being aware of realty is important, if that isn’t tempered with encouraging creativity, then they will be pushed farther away from their creative geniuses. If we tell a kid that something is unsolvable or can’t work, then according to NASA, by the time we are adults, 98% of us won’t even try.
So what happens when kids get told they can’t do something? You rob them of their creativity; You are killing their potential. There are so many people I have met that are super talented in the technical aspects of their creative work, but are not really creative. This is something I’m fighting against. The fear I have of someone not liking what I create, even if it’s something that speaks to me. One of my favorite quotes is from Joseph Fields, “To live a creative life, one must loose the fear of being wrong.”.
Are we Programmed to Lose our Creativity
We have all been programmed to conform. We are shaped in large, by the feedback we get, as we grow up. That programming might change as we encounter new groups of people and get new feedback, but the overarching program of conforming is well established. This happens a lot in families where there is clearly higher value jobs or career paths that are considered “not real jobs”. This kind of thinking is so pervasive that most of us deal with it in varying degrees. I grew up with the mentality that artistic pursuits were nice to have as a hobby, but were terrible career paths and I was told what the family’s position was on YouTubers or content creators: “A 30+ year old living in their parents basement just goofing off.”. Well, I didn’t want that label, so I shoved that desire and drifted along, working jobs I hated, with no real plan on how to better myself.
Can We Reprogram Ourselves to be Creative?
It’s much harder to “unlearn” something than it is to learn something new that is opposite of the thing you wish to “unlearn”. I had to learn a new way of thinking; That being wrong and weird was a good thing. I found that doing things, like no-one else had done before, was a superpower not a detriment. Our society programs us to conform. It tells us what what to think, not how to think. This is counterproductive to a creative mind. Being a rebel, thinking outside the box, being weird, and being unconventional are all unique superpowers of creatives. All these are what we need more of in our word today.
Answer the Call to be Creative
We’ve all heard the stories of the starving artist. We have also heard of the artist that do only the technical part of “art”, then we see other people killing it in the creative space and we admire them. You may even envy them. What most of us will never see, is the years of toil and dead ends that it took them to get were they are. No-one is ever a overnight success. It takes years of hard work and dedication to obtain you goals. So be the rebel. Be the outcast. Be the one nobody understands. Hold true to yourself. It might take longer and it might be harder, but you will be proud of yourself for holding true to who you are. You can make it. You will become the artists you are meant to be…it just might not happen the way you think it should. Remember there is a hidden artists in us all. We are born with it. You can chose to resurrect it; it’s out there calling to you, just like in the movie by Walt Disney, “Frozen 2” Elsa heard something calling to her that no-one else could hear. I’ll leave you with this; Answer the call and follow it…who knows where it will lead. It may be hard, but it’s worth it!