Let’s start this post with a simple and no explanations (yet) exercise. Read the following questions and note only “YES” or “NO” answers. It should take a couple of minutes.
- Do you daydream?
- Do you cook or plan menus?
- Do you have your own style of dressing?
- Do you like different music genres?
- Do you enjoy reflecting on the positive highlights of your life?
- Do you ask a lot of questions?
- Does the complexity of things make you wonder about them?
- Do you have books, magazines, newspapers in your home that you have meant to read but not got around to it?
- Are there other things that you have promised yourself but not got around to yet?
- Are you moved by musical, theater, movie, sporting performances . . .?
- If I could wave a magic wand and make you instantly amazing at one thing of your choice; what would you say (Yes or No)?
- Do you feel alive?
- Do you enjoy thinking about exercises like this?
Add Up
How many Y’s and N’s? Just for your reference.
I’m Not Judging
Every “YES” answer suggests you are creative in that area. Even question 8 which could easily be linked with procrastination but, even procrastination can be linked with creativity.
A brief definition might be helpful.
Procrastination
“English speakers borrowed the word in the 16th century from Latin procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning “forward,” and crastinus, meaning “of tomorrow.” Like its synonyms delay, lag, loiter, dawdle, and dally, procrastinate means to move or act slowly so as to fall behind”.
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastinate)
How Can Procrastination be Creative?
Well, putting something off because we see it as too challenging, difficult or painful is never going to work for our best interests but there are times when procrastination can be a good thing because in allowing it, it can assist our creative intelligence and believe it or not, we all have a healthy amount of that (back to this soon). The problem is that many of us think that we don’t because we go through life with linear thinking. That, however, is not how we started out on this journey through life. It’s something that we learned. Our creativity is gradually edited into the background as we progress through life.
Research
An experiment was conducted in The US and investigated the amount of creative potential used by people across various age groups:
According to psychology, creative intelligence is the ability to produce new products, ideas, or inventing new or novel solutions to problems. Think about a few people who you consider to be successful in whatever they do. Are they also masters of creativity?
What Sets Them Apart?
In 1981, Professor Roger Sperry was awarded a Nobel prize for his explorations of different thinking activities and their effects on brainwaves. He accurately predicted that brainwaves would be different for different activities. What he didn’t predict was how our amazing brains divide activities very clearly into, left brain / right brain activities.
The Division of Labor
Left Brain: Words, Logic, Numbers, Sequence, Linearity, Analysis, Lists.
Right Brain: Rhythm, Spatial Awareness, Dimension, Imagination, Daydreaming, Color, General Awareness.
Professor Sperry also discovered that when one side or the other was at work, the opposite side relaxed and went into a meditative state. This is true in every healthy human and he went on to show that everybody has a massive range of intellectual, thinking and creative skills and shock / horror, most of us are not using our full potential. This is what sets “The Masters” apart; they are effectively using both sides of their brain and their creativity has not been edited out.
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try” (Dr. Seuss).
Take Your Brain to The Gym
More research has proven that when good teachers train people, they discover that they can do things they previously thought, “not possible”. Ninety percent of people say they are genetically unable to sing, perform a quick mental calculation about how much interest they owe on their mortgage or draw an accurate portrait. Yet this has shown to be untrue. There’s hope for all of us!
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have” (Maya Angelou).
Training the brain is like training a muscle that’s been dormant for a while. The artistic, numerical and musical skills have always been there, it’s just that they’ve been side-lined. If we train the areas we consider weak we strengthen our mental muscles and they in turn strengthen the other mental muscles from the opposite side of the brain. Left and right talk to one another.
Find an Instructor
In this high-tech information age, there’s no shortage of instructors to help train us in say, ‘imagery and art’. The pay off is that we learn more skills than we bargain for. If we develop these skills, we also develop word and numeracy skills. Our creativity skills increase.
Study A Genius
One of my favorites is left brain genius, Albert Einstein. But wait! Einstein solved his problems by allowing huge doses of imagination to run riot so, he was a left/right brained type of guy.
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions . . . I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking”. (Albert Einstein)
Think about a musician you respect. Right brained creativity at its best surely? No! Music is sequential, written on lines and follows logic; that’s left-brain cortex at work. Your favorite musician uses both sides of the brain effectively. The creative brain uses the whole brain.
“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted”. (John Lennon)
Procrastinate Away
Of course, procrastination can be a bad thing that stops us from doing the things that matter or might make a difference but, there is also a creative side so long as we don’t judge the word as purely negative. Challenging I know; Merriam-Webster don’t exactly show it in a positive light.
Think for a moment about questions 8 and 9 from part one of this post:
- Do you have books, magazines, newspapers in your home that you have meant to read but not got around to it?
- Are there other things that you have promised yourself but not got around to yet?
If you answered yes to either of those, you crossed over into the procrastinator camp. Yet, 95% of the people who were asked those questions in a survey answered, ‘Yes’, so you are not alone. I’m with you on that!
Turn it Around
Creating apparent excuses for not reading or delivering on the promises to self is highly creative. It takes some thought to create an excuse. I might have studied the research that has helped me with this post when I first came across it. Instead, I scanned it and put it on the ‘meant to read’ shelf until I got around to it. Yesterday I got around to it after some procrastinating thought and I didn’t pause to wonder if procrastination is always a bad thing as some would have us believe; because,
“Non-judgment quiets the internal dialogue, and this opens once again the doorway to creativity” (Deepak Chopra).
Creativity is such an incredible and limitless source of power that it goes on for a lifetime.
Toolbox
We need a box of tools to challenge our limits and move forward toward success. If you feel that you may benefit from help, please leave your contact details in the comments section below and you will be contacted by your preferred method. Please understand that your contact details will never be published and your privacy is assured.
Comments and Questions
Please leave yours below. Your thoughts or questions may well ignite a positive spark in other readers thinking. You will always receive a prompt response to your questions and there is no such thing as a bad question; only the one that was never asked.
I wish you a wonderful and successful day.
Peace & Light
Steve Costello is a British Community & Youth Studies and Psychology honors graduate with over 30-years theoretical and practical experience in the Personal Development public and private sectors. He founded ExGro in 2018 with business partner, friend and clinical psychologist, Leo Faerberg.
Ger Leijen.
Hi Steve. A wonderful post 🙂
I must be very creative 😆 I am constantly thinking of ways to improve EVERYTHING I do, so much so that, I procrastinate and ‘things’ build up, then overwhelm sets in and I take a ‘brain-break’ for as long as I need, to reset.
My tendency is to ‘do’, not ‘be’. Time is needed to change this, but I’m getting there 🙂
Your list of questions got me thinking about my day and some possible tweaks I can apply, to improve my overall life experience. Number 9 stood out – Are there other things that you have promised yourself but not got around to yet? Life is too short, the promises I have made myself are promises that will positively impact the world.
Just like you Steve, my intentions are good. Thank you.
admin
Thank you Ger. Left brain / right brain activity can be exercised and developed. None of us are simply either / or although we do lean toward one or the other and much of that depends on life events. I was frequently told my mathematics abilities were not great and I believed that for many years. Training as a psychologist changed that thinking and especially when I was challenged to learn some (at the time) quite difficult statistical formulae and calculations. They are no longer difficult. As Dr Seuss said, “. . . Oh the thinks you can think”.