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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind
Boldness is fascinating. Whether it’s an iconoclast like Kurt Cobain or an innovator like Steve Jobs, we’re drawn to people who break, or remake, the rules. But what exactly is it that makes these mavericks so magnetic?
Well, there is no one thing that accounts for a creative mind.
In the 1960s, psychologist Frank X. Barron studied a number of famous creatives and concluded that successful creativity had no single source.
Previously, there was thought to be a causal relationship between IQ and creativity, but Barron’s findings showed that brainpower is but one contributing factor among many.
Furthermore, creative minds are often paradoxical. A group of writers, for instance, measured above average on tests for psychopathology and mental illness; however, their overall mental health was also above average.
This mental collage of paradoxes and contradictions – the “messiness” of the creative mind – is reflected in the unstructured, “messy” work habits of creative people.
When working on Guernica, one of his many masterpieces, the painter Pablo Picasso followed no clear plan. He improvised, revising and rethinking as he went, and “wasting” a great deal of effort along the way. Some of his initial sketches appear in the finished painting; others were reworked over and over, only to be discarded entirely.
Instead of making a schedule and sticking to a plan, creative people seem to follow the plan imposed on them by their work. As psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi notes, creatives aren’t led by a rigid structure, but rather obey the demands of the work in their chosen field, and how they interact with it.
Wired to Create (2015) attempts to make sense of that elusive human trait, creativity. It traces recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology by exploring the habits and practices of highly creative people. The “messy minds” and contradictory traits of creative achievers reveal the importance of habits such as imaginative play and daydreaming, passion and intuition or openness and sensitivity, all of which have been central to great art and innovation throughout human history.
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. – Friedrich Nietzsche
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Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma