Why do creativity come in bursts?
Creativity comes in bursts.
If you work in a creative field, you may have noticed that. Creativity has this special character; it comes in bursts. Lately it made me wonder why? Sometimes it is really annoying when a creative outburst happens when I am in the middle of a serious project working together with my Boss. What am I supposed to do? Stop everything I am doing and start writing poems during a cooperate meeting? Why doesn't creativity occur when I want it? Like during the afternoon, when I am bored and wanting to watch NETFLIX? What else in life have this character of coming in Bursts?
What else in life comes in bursts?
Of course, troubles come in bursts. Sometimes so pathetic we wonder where we got that unlucky gene from? Is it from father? Or mother?
Forest Fires comes in bursts, if you ask a firefighter, they will tell you why it is important to let controlled small fires burn parts of the forest from time to time, as it would prevent an uncontrollable fire happening.
Bull Markets happen in bursts. Suddenly everyone wants to buy, and stock market gives you ridiculous prices. This not only happens in stock market, any auction market, from time to time have this tendency to sell for stupidly higher prices.
Compounding happens in bursts, and you can learn a lot from nature. Growth of a bamboo happen in bursts, and even growth of a human comes in bursts One at mother's womb and one at puberty.
What underlies all these bursts.
Closest I have come up with is the "Power Law" Which I have written an article previously. It seems creativity also stems from some underlying power law, although I cannot see the entire process from outside.
So, what can I do to enhance this process and really what should I do when it happens when I am in a middle of nowhere?
Things you can do to increase and capture your creative outbursts.
If compounding is the underlying mathematic behind creative outburst, and creativity matters in your life, I suggest you start doing all the tiny things which doesn't mean much today, but have the potential to push your creative work in a positive direction day after day. Maybe a tiny practise you do after your lunch. Maybe a line of code you write, a half an hour of self study. A brief moment of awareness. A walk in the nature in the afternoon, contemplating your thoughts. Turning pages of a dictionary. As long as you have a system of habits, you will have those creative outbursts.
More importantly you should have a method to capture your creativity when it happens. There should be a book with empty pages, a voice recorder, a note app, a canvass, a camera or any tool depending on your creative activity. Pre prepared and ready just to capture your thought in the moment. As you can see inspiration is perishable, and if you do not capture that you would loose the ideas.
This is not just my idea, Jean Micheal Basquest, the famous painter in 80s in NYC happened to be exactly knowing what a creative outburst is. He would run away from whatever he was doing, in the middle of a conversation or during a meeting, just to be in his studio and start creating something just popped up in his mind. Someone needs to be very aware of their own thoughts just to do that in real time. No wonder, many people nowadays are not creative, as their attention is eaten by moths.
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