About the Creative Process
Creativity: speaking in your unique voice.
Each of us has a unique genetic code, a distinct fingerprint, and a completely individual way of expressing ourselves. When we think, speak, or make something creatively, we're doing it in a way that reflects our individuality. We're shaped by our genetics, our life experiences, and--for those readers who are not scientific reductionists--the particular nuances of our souls. For this reason, we all vary in how we make sense of the world. Not even identical twins are identical!
Sadly, we often override what is unique to our own natures when trying to express ourselves or create something that truly reflects our experience. This has a lot to do with the fact that we're social beings. At about the age of eight, children become very concerned that their art projects don't look "real." Wanting to reflect "consensus reality" becomes a rite of passage into the social world, where non-conformity can have dire consequences.
Although a few of us manage to maintain a connection to the original "beginners' mind" of childhood, most people have to work to quiet the voices of conformity so that they can hear their own inner voice.
Learning to use one's creativity is a bit like a horse learning to lift the latch on the paddock gate, in order to escape and run wild again. "Thinking outside the box" is really about escaping the mentally-imposed cages we become accustomed to inhabiting. It's also about ceasing to care--for at least a little while--what others might think about what we're doing or thinking.
In this way, the creative process is very often about going against the belief system of the collective mind. This can seem scary to many people, and there is a good reason for that. In the old days you could get stoned to death or burned alive for striking out on your own path--or at least placed under house arrest, like Galileo. There is tremendous pressure in every culture to conform. Thus, accessing your creative energy depends on a willingness to take risks, and to find or make a safe setting for doing your work.
Many books on creativity teach that we're all equally creative, but that some of us are just more "blocked" than others. I agree with this up to a point, but I also think that some people are born more predisposed to being comfortable with risk-taking than are others. Can people learn to increase their comfort level with risk? I think so. It's helpful to start out with small steps. For instance, making a time and a safe place a few times a week for reckless experimentation with a challenging creative activity is a good start. And by safe, I mean that you do not allow yourself (or any other person) to harshly judge your experiments. They can be worked over and groomed for the public eye at a later time, but in the first stages you are just allowing your voice to emerge.
My color teacher at the University of Minnesota, David Feinberg, said over and over again that every experiment is valid, even if it doesn't turn out the way we thought it would (or should). The entire human storehouse of the arts, science, and technology has been created by people playing around and seeing what happens. Much of what people call "success" comes from someone trying something out, seeing what about it works and what doesn't, and then trying the next thing built on the knowledge thus gained.
Few people realize that Van Gogh's early figure drawings were crude. He was not born already knowing how to draw. He had to allow himself to make mistakes, and just kept drawing for hours a day, day after day. He put time, effort, and money on the line in order to realize his creative gifts. His commitment to his own vision and his willingness to dare -- in addition to his unique personal outlook -- were what made him an artist.