Being Creative Effortlessly

With the internet in vogue, each one of us has the platform to learn new things and participate in the important or not so important discussions going on all over the world. Few initiate it and others participate, judge and critique.

The question I ask myself most of the times is ‘who are those people who initiate and how do they come up with new ideas?’ Because eminent people are the ones who contribute rather than just participate, and to contribute you need to have a ‘creative mind’.

Now how do we get there? How do we create something which is of interest to the targeted stakeholders and which simultaneously opens up new horizons for them? In short how do we come up with new ideas and insights?

Nancy C. Andreasen in her book “The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius” defines Creativity as the capacity to see something new that others could not. Going back to the geniuses of all time, the author closely studies the experiences they had when they created that one musical masterpiece, that one hell of a painting and that one epic poem.

The most fascinating truth about creativity is that, one cannot be creative on demand as most of the geniuses agreed. They were not able to create anything worthwhile when they tried consciously putting efforts in it. Somehow all their masterpieces were produced when they least expected it (the aha moment) – going for a walk, listening to music, reading something, in a state of sleeplessness, talking to a friend. The important part is that they were able to recall it afterwards.

“I am a photography enthusiast and which is the only talent I showcase at most of the platforms however last year I decided to write something (article or poem) for a quarterly magazine at my office. It was an easy decision to make but was very difficult to come up with something good. I invested 2 hours for 3 consecutive days and tried really hard to come up with something useful but to my dismay I could not. At the end I gave up the idea and shortlisted some of the photographs I clicked, to send across for the magazine. And the very next day when I was returning from office in Delhi metro with my earplugs on, all of a sudden, few words came to my mind and I could think of 4-5 lines which actually made sense for the magazine. I tried hard to memorize the lines as it was not feasible to write it down then and there. As soon as I reached home, I jotted down the lines and started working on it. Within next 30 minutes I could come up with a piece of poetry. Yes, that was my aha moment, a sudden realization that was extremely effortless.

Consciously putting efforts and getting nothing is something we all are familiar with. But are we aware of those sudden bursts of insights and novel ideas that could lead to unexpected solutions effortlessly. Try and remember those ideas and work on it. You might find most of the ideas silly but you never know when you will be stunned.