From Ancient Art to Atomised Avocados

In order be creatively courageous you need to be either really really old, anywhere in the region of 40,000 years + should do it, or really young, 5 years old or under should suffice. The reason for such an incredible bandwidth of time? Well it’s just a cheap trick to get the grey goop in your head whirring like a second hand Nutribullet.

What I’m getting at is origins (no not the shower gel, although I’m happy to accept free samples if the brand manager is/was reading this).

Lion...Man

The very essence of being a human is to be creative. You can’t be one without the other. Making up new stuff and solving problems is in our DNA as a species. We are creative/creative are we. If we go back to the emergence of homo sapiens from the other bipedal apes walking around Africa initially and then ultimately beyond, what is noted as a key turning point is termed the ‘cognitive revolution’. What set us apart was not just language but the ability to tell stories about things that did not exist in the real world. We made sh!t up! Nothing else was doing this. Nothing else right up until the very recent emergence of AI has EVER done this. We created things in our minds that were abstract and that not only weren’t real but had never been real.

The first example of this is the ‘lion man’ figurine which is carved from mammoth tusk. Sitting proudly in a glass box in the British Museum is a crumbly looking, rounders bat size ancient piece of art. It has the body of a humanoid and the head of a lion. Lion man. This craggy dude is at least 40,000 years old.

So someone carved Liono (least favourite Thundercat by the way) out of a furry dead elephant tooth? No biggy. Whatevs. Well you might say that but if I could just tap the side of your Nutribullet and switch up the rotor speed... it’s a BIG line in the creative sand.

Manipulating the Universe

Proof that we were creating abstract art, ideas and concepts as long ago as 40 millennia gives an indication to how we carved out such an advantageous capability over all other living things and ultimately into manipulating many parts of the known universe to our own needs. Stories bind people together. They allow large groups that wouldn’t normally coerce or collaborate to bond over a common belief. And the core ideas of that belief don’t have to exist in reality. In fact, if they don’t, they can prove to be even more powerful. What I take from this is that by being alive in this moment we’re all currently the collective waving tips of the very ends of the spindliest branches of a giant ancestral tree of human creativity, inventiveness and discovery. Our ancient ancestors rocked at being creative and brave and they’ve passed that on to us whether we like it or not.

Great! We’re ALL creative? It’s in our DNA? Huzzaah I hear you confidently roar! Well up until the age of about 5, yeah, we all are. After that though, many of us start to believe we’re not.

Left-brained Industrialists

‘I’m an accountant – I’m not creative...don’t need to be” I hear Stephen (not Steve) say. “Haha I can’t even draw a stickman” Terrence (not Terry) exclaims, “I didn’t even do an Art GCSE at school” snorts Kevin (not Kdog).

One of the many echoing reverberations of the industrial revolution is the notion in our schools that education is best served memorising facts, especially across the sciences, rather than expression of the creative spirit within. The right side of the brain was not needed nor revered nearly as much as the left side. The capitalist model of our time has traditionally rewarded analysts over artists. This has left its mark on recent generations, who have readily relinquished their inherent artistic, weird and wonderful minds. Believing that only a select and elite bunch of humanity has the gift of creativity.

Squashed Avocado

In order to have creative courage you must first know and believe that you are creative. No one is less or more creative than anyone else. You have it in you to be creative because whether you like it or not you are part of a very long line of creative beings. The next step is to take the time out of your day to be curious. Look up, look around. Question everything. Get close to nature. Observe it. Observe the universe. It will set your cognitive smoothie maker into overdrive. The final, most difficult and important step is to get what’s whirring around your head like squashed avocado experiencing 7.5Gs, out into the real world. But you don’t have to invent the next Tesla model or sketch out a symphony. Any idea you may deem small, insignificant and minuscule – get it out into the real world. You could be staring at a tree on your lunch break - sketch it. You might be doodling before waiting to go into a zoom call – write a short poem. You might have an awesome shot on your iphone of a swan in mid-flight – frame it and mount it on your wall.

Get Out of Your Head

Getting ideas out of your head and into the world is true creative courage. And once you start doing it, it feels good. When you realise you’re carrying on a 40,000 year tradition, it feels even better. That feeling will allow you to understand that your ideas can exist in the real world. It doesn’t matter what people think or say about what you produce – if they also produce (bring ideas into the world), value their opinions, but don’t stop. If they don’t produce but have an opinion, listen, but you may also want to ask when the last time they honoured their ancient ancestral roots.

Get ideas out of your thought world and into the physical world. That’s the most important, most difficult and also most rewarding step. Doing this propels you into a world of creative bravery.

Now go grab a smoothie.