Notes to Self – Build Creativity Skills Like You Build Muscle
I believe one of the most important skills needed for the AI revolution is creativity. In a landscape where AI tools are rapidly achieving parity, fueled by universally accessible data, the true differentiator lies within our personal experiences. Our individual journeys—comprising unique challenges, solutions, and perspectives—equip us with an unparalleled dataset, enabling us to approach problems with distinct insight. Whether that is in accounting or marketing we need to ensure that we are harnessing our creativity.?
However, harnessing this inherent creativity requires deliberate effort, akin to building muscle through regular exercise. There are a couple great books that I think of that are helping me build a muscle of creativity: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. These books offer invaluable insights into nurturing our creative faculties, emphasizing the following strategies:
Confront Resistance: Identify and tackle resistance head-on, recognizing it as the primary barrier to creativity, manifesting in procrastination, self-doubt, and fear.
Create a structured routine and stick to it. Discipline helps in battling resistance and maintaining focus on your work. People think they need to be hit with inspiration but it’s more like going to the gym every day.
Turn Pro: Commit to creativity with the dedication of a professional—show up every day, persist through challenges, and do work for the sake of work itself, not for external rewards or recognition.
Let go of the Outcome: Focus on the creative journey rather than the destination. Letting go of expectations liberates us to explore and innovate.
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Invoke the Muse: Be open to inspiration, acknowledging the mysterious spark that fuels our creative endeavors.
Courage Over Fear: Confront and act despite fear. Every act of creativity is a victory over resistance.
Shitty First Drafts: Allow yourself to create badly in the first drafts. Understand that perfectionism is a barrier to progress and that you can refine your work later.
Find Your Voice: Be authentic and true to your own voice. Create in a way that is uniquely you, rather than imitating others.
By integrating these practices, we not only bolster our creative muscle but also position ourselves to leverage AI as a tool for amplification rather than substitution. The journey to embrace our creative potential is challenging but offers a path to innovation and differentiation in the digital age.? Let's commit to nurturing our creativity, transforming it into our most powerful ally in the AI era.
I help leaders craft The Second Half of Their Lives
1 年Kevin, you’re hitting the right buttons for me with these posts. I still think often of you talking about ‘building the innovation muscle’ from our time working together. It’s an important way to think about it.
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1 年‘The war of Art’ funny book name, I read that title twice. Haha! Added this to my read list. I’ll trade you, check out. Amy E. Harmon. She has two (2) books conducive to visual learning and growing the creative aspects of ones brain ‘smART’ & ‘Visual Intelligence’. The author was tasked by the US government to train and support policeman. As a collective they recognized the need to improve implicit bias from day to day incidents and incident reporting for police officers, by studying art and challenging those folks to see things from the different perspectives generated from a singular artist. IMO, you’re nail on the head, with this one. Creativity is important for any growth but especially in AI. The same ‘inclusive’ approach the author describes is important to training ML & GenAI data lakes. — Kevin Crowe. KC… man you’re killing it with the articles ????. Do the VQ test in the link and let me know how you score ??.