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Three key reasons we avoid being creative

The reasons we avoid being creative are numerous of course, and often unique to the individual. But there are three reasons why the majority of people just aren’t creative, or avoid trying it.

1: Fear of failure

In modern society we have developed a massive reliance on predictability. It permeates every aspect of our lives from transportation (bus schedules) to television schedules to standardized testing in education to delivery dates for babies. People spend billions trying to ensure that the outcome of everything is predictable and reliable. In some cases this has a good purpose, but we are letting this roll over into our creative arena also. When we write, we aren’t all going to produce J.K. Rowling-esque work the first time, or even the thirteenth time. When we paint with oils, it’s not going to be Michelangelo or Da Vinci or Van Gogh the first time, or even the two hundredth time, because we aren’t them, we are us. Our need as humans to have a predictable outcome has led to a profusion of ‘paint nights’ where each step of a process is broken down for participants. I have been to several, and EVERY SINGLE time I hear the large portion of painters say things like “well at least yours is straighter than mine’ or ‘your colours are so much brighter’. This is an ingrained societal behaviour, that we must achieve greater than we do when we try something. We beat ourselves up when it isn’t as good as what we imagined we would produce. As a creative we both deal with this daily. In some areas we have far more confidence (Jess is a flower designer, dress maker, knitter. Emily is a writer, a painter and a singer.) When we venture into other arenas we are afraid of not getting it right the same as any other person, but we are also able to see that the experience will teach us something. And so we go for it. Most of the time- we probably aren’t likely to try modern dance any time soon.

2: Fear of judgement

Linked to the fear of failure is our western fear of what others will think. How we are measured on the social yardstick can be a real and terrifying experience, or alternatively can be a totally imagined measurement that turns out to not exist. Both are true. Social media has turned some people into the ‘judges of life’, who troll the internet making nasty comments and bullying others for their lifestyle, choices or way of living. Young people in particular suffer here; why post images of your work (writing, acting, singing, making, painting, fashion, design or engineering) if the internet is going to tear you apart. It’s really sad, and one of the things we hope here at Clougazing Creatives to change. To create a community of supportive makers and doers so that young people will feel safe enough to be the world changers that they are. 

The other reality is that we can also imagine this judgement. Because we have seen it acted out on others, we may fear that our creativity will be judged by a standard that we create in our head. Cloud gazer Emily lived this for many years about her singing. Only about ten years ago did she finally take the leap and start singing in a church choir (group singing feels safer). 

If we think that others will not like our work, we are less likely to speak up or show it. Have an idea for helping prevent climate change? Maybe someone has already done it, maybe it’s too small to make a difference, maybe it’s too expensive, maybe it won’t actually make a change, maybe people will laugh, maybe people will say I’m stupid, maybe, maybe, maybe. See how it goes? The courage to be creative is your biggest gift- let’s change the world together.

3: Attachment to outcome

This one is closely related to the other two- with a personal edge. When we have an image in our head of what our creativity will produce, when it doesn’t achieve the vision, we become discouraged. A community of creators to support you can be vital. Even ONE person to cheer you on can make a difference here, and yes, sometimes that person is you. Sometimes you are the only one who can really see the future in a project, and it may take a long time to get there. 

Whether writing a proposal for a new product, pitching a business idea (entrepreneurs fall into the ‘supercreator’ group), painting, designing a dress or planting a new flower bed it matters that you see the positive and accept the negative instead of deeming any project an utter failure. And this takes practice. Like meditation or yoga, creators can practice trying and failing. Just ask Simone Giertz, a swedish inventor and internet star who purposely designs things to fail. It can be a very cathartic experience, and is one that children can be really good at in the right environments. The experience of creating and being okay with failing is like playing. When children have a set of open-ended materials in front of them they will experiment with placement, colour, design or usage until they find something that works for them. Then they will repeat the experience over and over again, trying small changes until they have absorbed all the information their development needed from the play. Then they move on to other materials to learn again. Creative adults can do the same.  

When collated together in this list one giant feature jumps out. We are afraid. The world is a scary place. Fear helps to keep us mostly safe by curtailing the number of risky ventures we try. Evolution gave us this trait to protect our bodies and ensure our future. But evolution also gave us the ability to explore alternatives. We have a brain that enables us to do risk assessments, to make explorations into territories that otherwise we would avoid. We CAN push past the fear to achieve new things, if we are willing to let go of the need for a perfect result, if we let go of our worry about how others will see us and if we can rise above the fear of something not working the first time. Because ultimately that’s what creativity is; getting up to try again.

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Podcast Season One Episode Two-creativity during lockdown

listen here

This episode Em & Jess chat about dealing with feeling we should be creative during the pandemic lockdown and how to take some of the stress off ourselves.

mentioned in this episode:

Artist Hannah Bulmer Ryner makes transient art in the wild that sometimes no one sees

Dr Laurie Santos podcast “the Happiness Lab”

The Science Of Wellbeing- online course at Yale

Sign up for our emails to learn more about the Colour Hunt creativity hack Jess used during the first lockdown to help keep her creativity working

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Running wild- how our childhood supported our creative worlds.

Emily: I want to offer you all some insight into how we became the creators we are- meaning Jess and I, not people in general; that’s a whole ‘nother blog post! It might help solidify and support the knowledge and experience we are sharing with you if you understand the story of how we came to be.

We were born, as people generally are, in the seventies to Mum, Sue and Dad, Mike in a quiet area of rural south west England just outside Bath. It was the most idyllic place to live; rolling hills, fields, roman and prehistoric ruins, farms, and of course flares and long hair. We were exposed at a very early age to creative pursuits as a way of living, and when our parents weren’t doing that, they were taking us to living museums to experience the same thing in a historical context. 

Jess:  Wow, Em- looking back, we were basically children roaming pretty wild, weren’t we? At the time I wouldn’t have said that, but now as a Mom living in a city in the current age…boy, we were almost feral!

Emily: Dad, although he maintains to this day he isn’t creative, happens to be a creative thinker, doer and problem solver. He is an accomplished public speaker, I learned everything about speaking and presentation from him, particularly from his early involvement in politics (bet you never thought creativity and politics would appear in the same post!). Dad is a great gardener just like his dad, and my sister inherited their love of the green. Our garden always looked like one of those ‘English country gardens’ you see in magazines. Dad also fixed the drystone walls that are a feature of the area, and it is an art unto itself. Dad showed us how to appreciate a wide variety of music, from James Galway to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles to the Dubliners and the Wolfe Tones to Dusty Springfield. 

Jess: It’s funny to me that Dad doesn’t think he’s creative at all, because when I think about our childhood and how we were surrounded by creativity, Dad’s always there in the thick of it with us. My parent’s group of friends were always having themed dress up parties so we got to see Mum and Dad create amazing costumes out of basically whatever they had at hand. And the village had a yearly Pram race where teams would transform a child’s pram into something magical and basically race from pub to pub along the main street. Mum would usually come up with the concept and creative details but it was Dad who had to think creatively and transform something ordinary into something it wasn’t, AND have it still function and carry a full grown adult inside.

Emily: Mum was a maker. She learned a lot of it from her mother; who grew up in an orphanage after her mother died when she was four. My Nan was a wicked cook, and made the best Barmbrack you’ll ever eat. Mum loves to cook, and we got to experience more variety than the average Brit of the era, from curries to cakes, baking to European stews and her divine Apple Charlotte and pavlova. Mum sewed most of her own clothing as a teen, much of ours as kids, as well as being a good knitter. She learned macrame, basket weaving and quilting for the fun of it. 

Mum made our May fair costumes, helped us make Easter bonnets and set up and ran a volunteer playgroup five mornings a week so we would have friends to play with. 

Jess: Yes! And remember, all of this was in a rural village in the late 70”s and early 80’s, so there was no looking for ideas and how to’s on pinterest, it was all from peoples creative minds and you couldn’t order the DIY kit on Amazon or anything, people were just using what they had but seeing it in different ways.

Emily: I believe the part of our upbringing that has the most impact on who we are today is the experiences our parents let us have. We did not come into our talents solely through genetics (that’s the other blog post); I draw and paint but neither of my parents ever really engaged in that. So creativity also cannot be put down to what I was taught, because most of my education in drawing was self taught using books, pictures and a lot of mistake making. I think the most important aspect of our creative lives was that we were allowed to give it all a go BECAUSE WE WANTED TO. Not because we were looking for someone to admire what we did. Not because we were particularly good at something (hey, I tried dance class), but because we just wanted to give it a go. Modern kids spend most of their childhood being told that every scribble they bring home is ‘beautiful’, that every effort gets a ribbon and that everyone will love and admire all they produce. This is counter-productive. Why try if it will always be brilliant? And why learn and grow when it’s always appreciated? Our parents supported our every effort; they let us dance with mum’s blue and orange nylon sheets to James Galway in the kitchen, they let us climb the 200 year old beech trees behind the shed, they let us drop rocks on our feet, hammer nails in trees, collect wildflowers and press them, make plaster casts of animal footprints, weave flower crowns, make hay castles, sled in a feed sack, cut their flowers for bouquets, stick our jammy fingers in their biscuit mix and generally have a chance to learn about everything. And through trial….lots of trial, and error we found the things we liked, and the things we are good at. And those are not always the same thing. I loved dancing in the dining room on the lino floor with the flutes playing feeling like a fairy in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, but I am not a dancer!!. That is creativity. We try, and if it doesn’t work, we accept that, and either try again or move on. Our parents showed us how to do that- and indeed are still doing that today as they help us start businesses (there have been quite a few in the family), decide on career moves and build our homes. When you have someone (anyone) who supports you – and yes that sometimes is only yourself- but does not overdo the false praise, who helps you recognize mistakes and manage them, who offers a whole wide world of experiences just so you can be a creator then your creativity will bloom. 

Jess: I agree, they were wonderful at just letting us do things and enjoy things, but also not making it have to define us. If we wanted to dance around the living room putting on “ballet” they encouraged us to enjoy it, but there was no pressure to be “good “ at it or need to learn to do it correctly. Somethings we followed through into later life, somethings we just enjoyed in the moment and then let go.  I think our parents allowed us to learn lots of important life skills, but especially they sat back and let us fail at things , but also let us try again to figure it out. Em, remember when we would tramp down to the streams in the valley and figure out how to damn parts up to create bigger pools, and then we discovered the sides were clay and we could make use of that too? We’d play for hours, thinking we’d got it, then the water would overflow and the damn would be obliterated and we’d figure out you need a sluice gate to let off pressure so we’d start again.

Emily: So the lesson here is: support yourself (mental health matters), or go find someone who will do it for you. Make those mistakes. Try something new. Learn and create. Because that is what humanity was made to do from childhood on. It doesn’t die, it’s always there, and YOU have it too!

Jess: Yep! I’m trying to get back to a place of learning for enjoyment’s sake and allowing myself to not be good at things but still enjoy them, to make mistakes and take up the challenge of trying again. I really think that’s where most of the creative magic can happen!

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3 great reads for creative thinking inspiration

There are SO many great books out there that can inspire us to think and live more creatively. Here are three of our current favourites, definitely worth adding to your gift wish list this holiday!

Every Tool’s a Hammer, by Adam Savage

Chances are, you know Adam from his long stint hosting the TV show Mythbusters, where every episode was an exercise in thinking outside the box. In this book, Adam gives not only a look back on his journey as a creative and a maker, but also some really good solid tips and thoughts on organizing your creative ideas, how to attack projects and how to create your own tool kit, whatever that may look like for you.

Conscious Creativity, by Philippa Stanton

Philippa Stanton, otherwise known as 5ftinf on social media, gives us a very unique view on looking at the world through a creative viewpoint, guiding you through ways to see what’s around you in a different light. Philippa has Synesthesia, meaning her senses overlap, so sights become sounds for example, and this wonderful ability helps her to encourage others to look deeper at everyday items to see , feel, hear and sense more.

How to be an explorer of the world, by Keri Smith

Keri Smith is, quite simply, awesome! This book is made to be used in the very real sense as a guidebook and museum of your experiences. This will bring out the kid in you that collected interesting stones or snail shells and wanted to put them together into your own mini exhibit! Keri creates space for you to explore, document and analyze whatever excites you in your surroundings. This book is a must read!

We haven’t linked these books up to any of the major retailers ( you know who we mean) because we want to encourage you to find them at your local indie bookseller if you are able- support small business!

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Why we ( think we) aren’t creative

A post by Emily.

Creativity and problem solving are the lifeblood of every invention, art, business and adventure that humanity has ever undertaken. In my work with children I have a unique vantage point to observe the earliest development of creativity in each child I care for. But in recent years there has been a startling decline in the ability of each cohort of children to be creative. This is an actively researched statistic, measured as ‘creativity quotient’, and research shows that each decade children are measurably less able to creatively solve problems. ‘Standardized intelligence’ scores are rising over the same period, also demonstrating that academic performance is not the same skill as creativity. Dr. Kim of the College of William and Mary has done years of research that demonstrates a clear pattern of decline AND that decline worsens more quickly each decade as well.

https://www.ideatovalue.com/crea/khkim/2017/04/creativity-crisis-getting-worse/

The long term effect of this decline becomes magnified- less creative employees, fewer entrepreneurs, less interest in the arts, lowered participation in activities that benefit mental health, which results in a decline in mental health, business systems become less efficient as people stop using innovative thinking, the fall out is endless.

Infants show creative problem solving skills emerging from a very young age. The need to explore objects, people, and their environment means they begin learning how to manipulate things very quickly (haptics). Babies have to decide how to get from one place to another, reach a toy they can see, communicate a need without words – all forms of creative problem solving. As children grow they start to really branch out; climb on counters, swing from branches, stack logs, throw balls, rocks and other objects. They don’t do these actions randomly. Each one has a purpose; if I throw this rock, will it come down here or there? How fast? How hard? Will it break? Will it bounce? The children are attempting to classify their world, and test these theorems regularly and extremely creatively when given space, time and freedom to do so, But society in North America is becoming far more restrained. In general terms we are governed more by fear than say, thirty years ago. Children live in a world where playgrounds must be ‘safe’, school yards should be as flat and grassy as possible to allow for sports, trees shouldn’t really exist in school and definitely not bushland or ‘gasp’ open water!

Somewhere in the past we have begun to slide towards valuing total safety, behavioural conformity and academic intelligence over risk, creativity and assertive behaviour. Risk, creativity and assertiveness are very tricky to promote in group care models, and the larger the group- say at school- the harder it becomes to promote them. Some of the most widely respected (and creative) education models in the world are also models that are considered ‘exceptions’; charter schools, forest schools, Reggio programs, Waldorf and nature based programs. Educators everywhere sigh with jealousy when talking about such innovative programming as New Zealand’s Te Whariki or Australia’s newer mixed age group ‘facilitated learning’ schools- but the North American system still remains mostly unchanged from the 1950s.

Somewhere between kindergarten (which in Canada can be as young as 3 and 8 months old) and the end of high school the majority of children begin to believe such things as ‘I can’t draw’, ‘I’m not artistic’, ‘I am not a creator’ ‘I can’t solve that problem’. Creative arts in grade school becomes a half hour lesson once per week, taught by a teacher who has a math or english degree and a teaching certificate. Problem solving becomes formulaic, applied under certain situations to certain subjects. Even those who are creative are told to have ‘an alternate plan’ for a ‘real job’ after school. Children who are creative in school become labelled and grouped (drama student, art student, music student) as if being creative is not a valued skill in engineering, business, science and mathematics.

One of the most basic reasons that we are less creative today is that the building blocks of creativity are not present in our lives anymore. Children require specific types of input to their brains in order to develop the neural pathways needed to creatively solve problems. Take tree climbing. Do you recall climbing trees? Think about modern children’s opportunities for that now- accessibility, safety concerns, municipal code, child protective services, social views and a litigation minded society, all have a role in ending the likelihood that a child will climb a tree. Yet the action of climbing, specifically a living tree, has immense neurological and developmental impacts on the brain. The decision making process involved in moving your body to find a support is complex, requires vestibular, proprioceptive, touch, hearing and logic processing to achieve. As you move from branch to branch your body is processing more data than at any other time due to the complexities of movement and placement plus sensory input plus environmental and weather information, measuring strength in the various branches, thinking about the path up and back down again. In childhood you have more neural connections than at any other time in your life. As we stop ‘using’ them, they become pruned away, by limiting the types of input we provide we get stronger skills in some areas, but fewer in others. EVERY child has the ability to be creative, but only those in environments that promote and support creativity will continue to be that creative. The others will begin to believe they are not creative. These and other basic building blocks of ensuring a creative brain are being eroded faster than we can make adjustments. From the rise of cell phones, to safety concerns to fears of being labelled a bad parent or worse, having your child removed because you ‘endangered them’; the freedom to explore and create is being largely curtailed.

In essence the journey from childhood to young adulthood is fraught with many dangers…none so great as the loss of your creativity. It IS still there, dormant and slumbering. You have neuroplasticity to thank for that (another blog for another time). You CAN reconnect with your creative self; not by following a step by step how to video on Youtube (although it will help you produce a perfectly lovely piece of something), but by engaging with your inner child. Play, exploration and letting go of fear are the keys to true creativity. Let’s explore them together!

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Cloud Gazing Creatives- a brief history

Despite that fact that I work in what is considered a “creative industry, I’ve been struggling with a feeling that my creativity wasn’t there anymore. Or maybe, it was exactly BECAUSE I work in a “creative ” industry that I was having the problem in the first place.

I’m Jess, one half of the founding duo of Creative Cloud Gazers. I’m guessing, if you’ve found us here, that you’re probably struggling with the same thing I am, or at least some variation of the same: Why do I feel so unable to think creatively?

Let me give you a little more background. I’ve worked as a florist and floral designer for almost 25 years ( pretty much my entire adult life). I’ve owned my own business for almost 20 years. I “create” things pretty much every day. People come to me because of my creativity. Yet I still found myself at the end of last year feeling empty of creative thought. I even felt afraid someone would ask me to go ahead and just “be creative” rather than choosing exactly what they wanted me to recreate. And there in, I guessed after much frustration, lay the problem. I had over time, due to the nature of my “creative” job, ceased to use my creative thinking ability and creative talents, and had in fact begun to work by rote. The client told or showed me what they wanted and I recreated it for them. And recreation is NOT the same as creativity.

So I embarked on a mission to recapture my creative self. I began to follow creative people online. I began to read any and all books on creativity I could get my hands on. I started a daily art practice, where it didn’t matter that the art I made wasn’t good, it just mattered that I kept on making it. And I talked to my sister about my frustrations. And it was at that point, as I started to pay closer attention to what my very creative and super smart sister, Emily, was doing that I had my ah-ha moment. Creativity & creative thinking has to be practiced. And it isn’t about art.

Mind blown, my sister & I started having more conversations about common struggles with creative thinking. Emily works as an early childhood educator. She’s deep in the thick of it, working hands on with kids right at the age when they are their most creative. And even she was noticing how year over year, kids were coming in with less and less creativity, making her role even harder. Basically, Emily’s job is to be creative and think creatively EVERY SINGLE DAY….and to encourage and enable the children in her care to do the same.

And I realized other people I know struggle to be creative too. Over the years I’ve taught floral design workshops to many groups of people, and every time it gets harder and harder to convince the attendees to just try it out, see what happens. They in general always prefer to be told what to do at each step and how to all reach the exact same destination. Which gives a good feeling of “getting it right” but it isn’t creativity.

So Emily & I talked about how much we wished we could help people get past this idea, this lack of creativity and this need to “get it right” over trying something out. At first we thought, let’s organize workshops, like crazy sleep away camp for grownups where we tromp through the woods and collect things and create marvelous inventions from our imaginations for no other reason than to try it out. And then of course, COVID-19 happened, so inperson events went out the window. And Cloudgazing Creatives was born.

An online resource, where we can share our journeys through creativity and our exploration of what works, what doesn’t and what we know and what we don’t know. The sleep away camp for grownups might still happen, it may just take a while 🙂 In the mean time, let’s hang out here!