4 Things In Your Life Killing Your Creativity

Feeling you’re not creative enough? You’d be a great writer, if only you could find the right words? Can’t think of what you should make for dessert? You’re preparing for a date and absolutely have no idea what to wear?

Whether you consider yourself an “average” person or a creative prodigy, for each one of us the time comes when we just can’t think of ideas we need so bad at the moment. Before you dismiss yourself as not-born-creative, think maybe it’s not entirely up to you. Things in your life can bury your creativity without you even noticing.

Image courtesy of geralt, pixabay.com

1. People you surrounded yourself with are not creative, or in the worst case – dull.

There’s a good reason why creative artists usually hang out together. Yes, there is inevitable amount of jealousy among them, bot most of the time they inspire each other by sharing ideas and engaging in creations. If your loved-ones and co-workers are only good at telling boring my-boss-is-a-jerk stories and copy-pasting others’ ideas your creativity would be scared away by all that mediocrity.

Good thing is there’s a fix for that (I’m not suggesting the extreme measure of shutting your friends out). For starters, it would be best for you to find just one single creative person in your life, hear out the words she says and follow the things she does. Trust me, her work can inspire you to create something great yourself. Creative minds think alike. Once I started writing this blog, my creative work almost immediately attracted like-minded people who helped me see my writing more clearly.

2. Your audience hated your previous creative effort.

So what? You’re gonna forget about your awesome idea just because someone didn’t like your way of thinking? Trying to create something to please the others is the best way of putting your creativity in the ground, for good.

My first public speech was a complete flop. I was literally shaking on stage. I forgot some of my lines, I mumbled, people coughed and yawned. Far away of what I imagined my pitch would look like. I knew I could deliver the best speech ever, but somehow miserably failed. Did that stop me trying again? No. Next time, I changed my lines, practiced more, but failed again. This time less miserably. That encouraged me to keep on trying. With time, I realized my biggest mistake: I was focusing more on the audience, and less on the presentation itself. Yes, I wrote the speech for them in the first place, but found myself constantly changing it so everyone could like it, which seemed more and more impossible. I ended up with a speech I didn’t like myself. Delivering a piece of work I didn’t like to a people who didn’t approve of it – a complete disaster.

The fix: When you feel like creating something, start doing it for yourself only. I already mention the dessert. Make whatever you want – your guests will love it only if you do. It’s that simple. Yes, with bigger things than dessert, when you need an engaging audience, you’ll have to adapt your creation for others to a certain level, but always remain true to your original idea. In time, it will evolve and you’ll get your approval. Not from everyone, but for some who matter the most for your future creative work, whether it’s the homemade cupcakes or an epic novel.

3. Creations of others around you (a.k.a. “the competition”)

Creative people are like kids – we see everyone who does the similar thing as the competition. The only difference is we don’t admit that. Even the most creative minds fall into the trap of “competitive work of others” by:

a) not paying attention to creative work of others at all

b) paying some attention, but mostly despising others’ work

c) obsessing over the works of others thus forgetting about the value of their own

Image courtesy of fc00, deviantart.com

Let me explain.

Completely ignoring other’s efforts around you (be that artistic images, pop music, or the dessert your friend made) means you’re not creative yourself. Even the greatest creative minds at first only observed creations around them before making their own.

If you have mostly negative opinion toward other people’s work, that doesn’t mean you’re not creative. You’re just a hater (not like it’s a good thing). The haters usually bury their own potential by negativity.

The mistake some creative people do often (I know I do) is spending too much time seeking inspiration from works of others, obsessing over it and finally ending up not creating their own because of “too much inspiration”. Yeah, it’s possible.

I remember the first time I wanted to write a motivation essay about choosing the right calling. Preparing it, I read so many others’ perspectives on the topic, some good concepts, some bad ones, but during the process I lost my main idea in the sea of others’ and ended up frustrated.

In time, you will learn how to determine the amount of inspiration you need at the moment and not to overdose yourself with “borrowed ideas”.

4. Staying in one place for too long.

So you’ve bought a house and settled. Everything seems perfect but not inspiring enough for you to do something exceptional.

I’m not suggesting the extreme measure of leaving your home in search for inspiration, cause simple getting out of the common places works amazingly well too. When I can’t afford to travel, but need to be creative (which I need on a daily basis), I just go someplace in my city I’ve never been before – whether it’s the new coffee shop, sports stadium, or the riverbank I’m now on typing these words.

Traveling inspires the most. Period. It’s just that magical feeling of fearing the unknown and desiring to explore it. New places and unknown people around you can shift your creativity to a whole new level.

So did you find your “creativity blocker” from these examples or you have some of your own? Let me know in the comments below!