One of the often noted generational differentiators seems to be around creativity. When Bob Dylan was asked recently if he could create the sort of work he did when he was young, he responded, after a long pause, with a no. He said he can do many other things now that he couldn’t before, but he is not able to write like he did. According to Bob, he was not writing them—he was channeling something that he was able to capture and record. This is pretty much what Elizabeth Gilbert writes in Big Magic. Creative thoughts and ideas are not from us, but, rather, from somewhere outside of us. And when we sense them, as the Greeks put it, the “creator” is essentially a capturer who chooses to grab what is presented in front of them. This week in the FT, producer Jack Arnoff spoke about his long collab with Taylor Swift and marveled at how long the “channel” has been open, and how, in general, these things tend to be momentary or very short-lived.
There does seem to be a certain frequency of inspiration that is more available to young people (pop music comes to mind as being fueled by the audacity of youth). There are, however, channels open to all of us, if we choose to see them and to act on them. The issue with aging is that it can fill us with doubt and pessimism, thus drowning out the signal with a noisy fear of failure. Optimistic people seem to be able to access inspiration more readily than the doubters. Another impediment is if we have accumulated a certain amount of success and notoriety doing one thing; then listening in on a new inspiration can cause us conflict and fear of change. This shows up in artistic style, which, in the current art world, is another word for the sameness of personal branding. The agile creator, however, can work within tight restraints of style and continue to innovate. Cindy Sherman at age 70 is example A, or Jody Foster at age 61.
Creating is essential to any joyful, satisfying life, and it’s not limited to the creative arts. There is a human exhilaration that comes from creating newness—be it a new dinner for the family, a new way to express one’s love, or a new business. There are some time-tested tricks to ward off our inner naysaying creative editors, those nasty brakes that tell us “You dare not go there”. Here are a few: Write 10 things you are grateful for, do 12 minutes of mindfulness practice, take a 20-minute nature walk, do 45 minutes in the gym, or any manner of craft-oriented hobbies. Any of these activities help to deflect our natural negativity bias by providing an opening to something bigger than ourselves. I am not a woo-woo guy, I am an action guy; yet, when I witness the creative process in my friends, it seems to be much less of doing than of listening and responding. This is where we can shine. While in youth it was all happenstance, now we know how to put ourselves in the right place for what Dylan and Gilbert call “the magic”, and, maybe, just maybe, we have accumulated enough wisdom to accept the good ones as the gifts they are, and see where we can run with them. Remember that new things, new experiences and new people tend to open us up; they expand the window of opportunity, extending our antennae to be able to receive inspiration. Life is short. Let’s see where we can go.
Onward and upward,
David
