Creativity isn’t Always Appreciated
Being creative has brought me both a lot of trouble and a lot of positive things. When I look at my different work experiences, I was sometimes a bit “ahead of the curve” of my co-workers and largely misunderstood. I blame my creative abilities. I’ve been on teams where I have been shunned, rebuked, or even chastised for suggesting an idea that seemed to be the obvious next step for the project. On several occasions, those ideas were later brought up by another team member and eagerly adopted by the team. I’ve experienced this situation repeatedly in different environments. At the time, my knee-jerk reaction to these events was always to become angry and frustrated. I doubt I’m the only one who’s had experiences like these.
Over time, I’ve accepted these experiences. And I now see them in a positive light. The ideas I had weren’t taken into consideration at the time. But sometimes, I got to see my creative intuition put into play as the ideas I had were accepted, implemented, and proved successful in the long run. This has made me more confident. It’s also helped me not to be attached to every idea that comes along. An idea might be fantastic, but it may not be the right time for it.
Creativity is Mandatory
Psychologist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl relayed that — in the concentration camps of World War II — prisoners would create various artistic works such as poetry, songs, and paintings. He said that this activity gave their difficult lives purpose. Frankl goes so far as to say that the creative activity was not just done to improve their circumstances. It seemed to be mandatory… “an almost biological need”. At the same time, author Daniel Levitin makes the point that being creative isn’t voluntary. It is an evolutionary trait. Those with creative brains were more likely to survive. They could find shelter and food when others could not (Levitin 18).
I’m not–by any means–comparing my workplace struggles to those of a concentration camp. But, I think creative people would agree that the need to create seems rather compulsory to them. The work experiences I referred to earlier offered a bare minimum of creative sustenance for me. I was not a good fit for those environments. They were stifling my natural creative drive and my sense of purpose. Accepting that nourishing my creativity is mandatory is making my life much easier.
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