Well, earlier this week I wrote a post entitled Creativity and Depression. A comment by Sari offered the other perspective on the subject. Among a number of interesting points Sari argued that media presentation and our own willingness (as creative people) to express ourselves skewed the perception towards that of the suffering artist. I’ve paraphrased heavily here, so Sari, I hope I’ve not misrepresented your stance.

The Creative Instinct Blog is all about achieving the joy and fulfilment that expressing creativity brings – but the focus does tend to be about the barriers and blocks that get in the way, and how to overcome them.

In fact the book I discussed in my previous post, The Van Gogh Blues, also argues that creative expression brings joy and meaning to our lives – it’s just that too many of us find our path to expression blocked.

That doesn’t always mean lots of suffering or depression- if family work and other interests are also meaningful. Many years ago (back in the late 70s!) I met many people who exemplified this. For a couple of years I worked as an ‘insurance man’. My job was to visit people in their homes to collect their insurance premiums and theoretically, sell them more insurance too. I was a young man and not a great insurance man. I never did sell enough new insurance and as I’ve always been fascinated by people my conversations with my customers often slowed collections down.

Senior Creatives

I found one type of customer was particularly interesting – the retired person who finally had chance to embrace their creativity. Most of them were painters – and very conventional painters at that – but wow, did they get joy from their art. These were men and women in the suburbs of Rotherham, an uncompromising steel and mining town (now ex-steel and mining) in Yorkshire, UK.

These happy people didn’t express regret at not being creative during their working life – just pride, enjoyment, enthusiasm and gratefulness. When I taught creative writing some years later I saw the same thing.

I suppose one frustration I felt on their behalf was that starting so late made it difficult for them to truly develop their undoubted abilities. That-s why I like to emphasise the need to use your creativity now, if you can. Paradoxically though, you might argue that beginning your creative life early and then being blocked by your other roles in life could be more frustrating (and depressing) than making a decision to leave your creativity for later in life.

Danger of Explosion

Well, I know that some people can put it to one side because I’ve met them – but many others simply can’t live with that. I’m one of them and so is my wife, Lynda. We both left school early and without any real ambitions to be creative, but as we grew into our twenties so did our creative needs. Eventually it wasn’t to be denied and if we hadn’t found an outlet for our creativity we’d have exploded.

Anyway, the point I’m making is that, as Sari points out – we should never forget that the personal outcome of expressing our creativity is joyful and wonderful, and we should tell that story too.

The Good Life is Boring?

Of course, another reason for the suffering artist image is our choice of creative subject matter: happiness and joy, fulfilment, a life of deep contentment and peace… yeah right… as if.  All that stuff is awesome to experience but often stupifyingly uninteresting to an audience – and more often than not it’s uninteresting to the creative practitioner too.

Lynda’s sculptures from a few years back are a good example – quite disturbing, even though Lynda herself has a marvellously sunny outlook on life. What she felt driven to express at that time came from the darker nooks and crannies of her soul and were always a surprise to those who thought they knew her. Conversely, for Lynda herself the expression of such dark material was the source of much joy and fulfilment.

It’s a complex relationship – but I guess the message comes back to Sari’s alternative perspective and the question – why are creatives so unbelievably happy & joyful & sane & optimistic?

Are we?

Stop Press – Creativity and Joyfulness!

It’s just turned 7am and I have this moment heard that my daughter has given birth to our second grandchild and first granddaughter! Mother and baby are doing fine. The labour was so quick that our son-in-law, Andy, made the delivery. What a rare privilege.

So how about that for Creativity and Joyfulness? And now we are off to see our new granddaughter!

I’ve just read Chris Dunmire’s book review of The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression, by Eric Maisel. You’ll also find an excerpt from the book, which is certainly worth taking a moment to read.

Now I haven’t read the book yet – only Chris’s review and the excerpt. There’s clearly a lot of powerful stuff here about expressing ourselves and having a meaningful life plan – but the linking of creativity and depression has raised a fundamental question for me.

The question is this: is there really a link?

Eric Maisel talks of ‘the depression creative people experience’, but whether depression is a natural partner of creativity I’m not so sure.

I’ve experienced lots of negative feelings associated with my creativity: angst, anger, frustration, doubt, – and yes, there have been occasions when I’ve felt low and depressed in the small sense of the word. But actual depression is something else altogether.

Maybe I’m thinking like this because I’m a life coach – true depression is outside of my professional remit. Perhaps because of that I’ve never really considered the linkages between creativity and depression.

I’d really like to know what your thoughts and experience are on this subject, even if, like me you’ve not had a problem with it. Your comments will be really helpful to me and other Creative Instinct readers so please do take a moment to comment.

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I decided against putting an Amazon link to the book here. You can find a link to The Van Gogh Blues with Chris’s review. It seemed a bit cheeky me offering the book on the strength of someone else’s work.

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There’s an excellent list of Creativity and Depression Resources at The Creativity Portal.

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You may also like to read:

You Can’t Live Well With a Malnourished Soul
Stop Worrying About Talent And Be Your Best Creative Self

One of the things that gives we creative people endless anguish is the nagging worry about our own talent. Do we have enough of it? Have others been blessed with more? Is it fair?
Well – here’s a hard truth. It’s a near certainty that there are other creatives out there, artists, musicians, photographers, writers (you name it), with more talent than you and me. You know what? It doesn’t matter. If you are driven to be creative it just doesn’t matter at all.

Fact is – it’s not about how much or how little talent we have – it’s about what we do with it.

What’s at least as important as the amount of talent is your attitude to that talent, and the attitude you have about yourself.

Worrying about your own innate abilities can only ever be counter productive. You’ve got what you’ve got and there’s no point in wasting your precious psychic energy on comparisons or regrets. That’s especially true when you factor in that most of us underestimate our own abilities and overestimate the abilities of others.

Act as if you had talent – and act as if you hadn’t!

Yes you did read that right. To get the most out of your creative talent you need to act is if you had it and act as if you hadn’t. Not so difficult once you realise that there’s no difference whatsoever.

Here are some descriptions of the ways that ‘talented’ people might behave, followed by descriptions of the ‘less talented’ alternatives.

Talented People Behave Like This:

• Talented, but with Bad Inner Critic –
  • Doesn’t believe in themselves or their talent
  • Focuses on the negatives
  • Sees every fault and flaw as further evidence of failure and lack of ability
  • Suffers huge internal resistance and tension to starting their art
  • Doesn’t enjoy their creative process or output
  • Will often give up and do something else

• Talented but deluded –
  • Believes that their supreme talent is flawless and complete
  • Enjoys the process and output but can’t understand why other people don’t
  • Is blind to the possibility of faults or flaws and so can never address them
  • Will often give up and do something else

• Talented and with a Good Inner Critic –
  • Understands the need for courage and practice to make the most of what they have
  • Picks out areas for development and works on them
  • Maintains a conviction that intelligence and focus will enhance the talent they have
  • Views mistakes as opportunities for learning
  • Finds long term enjoyment in the creative process and output
  • Achieves fantastically well

Less Talented People Behave Like This:

I can’t see any point in reprinting what’s above. Please re-read the bullet points again but replace ‘talented’ with ‘less talented’.

Remember – It’s not about what talent you’ve got – it’s about what you do with it.

That being the case, you owe it to yourself to do the best you can. And the best way to do that is by making friends with your Good Inner Critic and by embracing healthy self criticism as a path towards satisfaction, improvement and success.
You have all the talent you need.

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Other relevant posts

Do You Have the Creative X Factor?
Achievement Envy – Be Inspired or Be Crushed by the Creative Success of Others. ]]> http://www.thecreativeinstinct.com/2007/12/04/stop-worrying-about-talent/feed/ 4 http://www.thecreativeinstinct.com/2007/11/15/if-nothing-changes/ http://www.thecreativeinstinct.com/2007/11/15/if-nothing-changes/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:35:56 +0000 Andrew Leigh http://www.thecreativeinstinct.com/2007/11/15/if-nothing-changes/ Creative Development for Artists, Writers and all Artistic Creativity

Don’t you just love inner dialogues:

Oh, I really do love this saying.

What? How can you say that? This saying is so far wrong it’s coming round the other side and taking a crafty peak at being right.

It is right! It’s one of the great personal development aphorisms. It’s a fantastic motivator for helping people get moving when they’re stuck. We love this saying. We use it all the time don’t we?

Well… that’s true, I suppose. But on the other hand it’s based on a total and fundamental lie. There is no such thing as no change!

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O-o-o-okay then. You may notice that once again I’m in two minds about a wonderful/rubbish Sideways Saying. It’s a category that’s pretty good for that. I hope you’ll stay with me long enough to explain why this saying can be so very powerful for all we creative types – and why, when we explore the fundamentally flawed assumption at it’s core, we may find something far more powerful and perhaps, even a little terrifying.

How This Saying Can Work Brilliantly

There’s a single narrow scenario where this saying is fantastic – you are stuck in a bad situation, especially a repetitive, unproductive and negative cycle of events where your only response is to is to keep on doing the same old stuff. You hope that what didn’t work before will miraculously begin to give you better results.

For instance, you desperately want to spend more time on your artwork, but your other life activities seem too important or difficult to change. So you keep struggling by on the scraps of time that come your way.

Here’s the harsh reality – if you don’t find new solutions, new attitudes, you will not gain the creative time you desire. Simple as that. So here is your stark choice – do nothing and get used to it – or do something to knock you out of your uncomfortable status quo.

A Call To Bravery

In this scenario if nothing changes, nothing changes is a call to bravery. Ideally – you gather your courage and do something different. It’s in this sense that this saying is a superb personal development catalyst for your creative projects, and for all the other parts of your life. Here are two similar adages that augment it.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

If what you are doing isn’t working – do something different

All three sayings are fabulously useful in jolting you out of the horrible incapaciting effect of inaction and repetition.

Why It’s Also Fundamentally Wrong

So on the level I’ve described above it works – in fact it works exceptionally well. But here’s the killer: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NO CHANGE. If you haven’t already, you’d better get used to this: nothing stands still. Sure, things can endure for a very long time, but never for ever.

I’d like to offer a modified version that takes this into account. Here goes:

If nothing changes, expect things to get worse.

Now I know that’s a tad paradoxical, and maybe it’s a bit… well – heavy. But doesn’t it have a ring of truth to it?

If, using that example above, you aren’t making enough time for your creative expression, and do nothing about it, the likelihood is that the situation will gradually deteriorate. What time you do have will feel less and less satisfying and will probably get eaten away by other concerns. And continued lack of improvement and quality output will almost certainly cripple what little motivation you manage to maintain.

Unfortunately this tends to be true for most negative situations: left unchanged things get worse.

• Your theatre group has one bad member who disrupts everything. Eventually your good members drift away.
• You keep making do with faulty equipment. Eventually you’ll end up with no equipment at all.
• You suspect your agent is screwing you and not working in your best interest, but you don’t like to rock the boat and so you say nothing. Either: s/he will keep screwing you until it really hurts – or if s/he’s being straight, your relationship will fail because you let your unjustified thoughts fester rather than finding out what the truth is.

And guess what? Even success withers away if you do nothing more than repeat the same formula over and over again.

That’s why successful genre fiction constantly challenges its own genre.

It’s the reason that rock music has been able to keep alive and kicking for so long – it is constantly developing and changing. When it stops it will become a dead art form, like rock and roll.

And it’s how Picasso maintained his stature – by movement, development and evolution of his art. What would Picasso’s influence on art have been if he’d stayed firmly in his Blue Period?

Of course, there’s always a risk that the changes you make either won’t work or will make things worse. That’s inescapably true and I’m not suggesting you make change just for change’s sake. Another saying: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it comes to mind here.

But if it is broke or you can see it’s going to break sometime soon – then you need to do something about it.

Whether we like it or not – unless we are proactive with our life, unless we strive to make positive change happen, negative change will eventually happen all by itself.

Does that sound bleak? I prefer to think of it as exciting. Life is like a plane – take the controls and fly.

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Other articles:

You Can’t Live Well With a Malnourished Soul
7 Tips to Shock You Out of Your Creative Rut

When it comes to your creative output, if you want to be loved, learn to be loathed.

I had a bit of a revelation the other day, courtesy of the Daily Mail (and I don’t say that often). My dear mum-in-law handed me one of their give-away CDs, full of rock anthems which she ‘knew I’d love’ because I like rock music. It was kind of her and I thanked her, checked the tracks and then, soon as it was safe chucked it in the bin.

So what was the revelation? It was this – I don’t like rock music.

Actually I’ve been a big fan of rock for well over 30 years, but it suddenly dawned on me that there’s a lot more rock I don’t like than rock I do like. I have to say it felt a bit weird.

I turned my attention to another musical passion – the blues – and among all those early giants that I love, the one who towers above them all, Robert Johnson, leaves me cold. It took some courage to admit that. As far as I can tell it’s actually not permitted to say you don’t like him. Well, I don’t.

What this made me realise is that if I or anyone else is going to put their work out to be liked and appreciated, we have to accept there’ll be an awful lot of otherwise well balanced folk who don’t give a toss about our stuff. And there’ll be plenty more who absolutely hate it.

Trying to Please Everyone

One method I know very well that’s guaranteed to fail – trying to please everyone. Oh yes, I’ve certainly suffered from this in my time. It’s a wonderful strategy that’s based on fear and that’s sure to keep you safe and unnoticed in the middle of the pack.

Did I say safe?

Safe in a prison of your own making perhaps. Safe from the exhilaration of risk and reward. Safe from the joy of discovery and the wisdom that grows out of the occasional embarrassing cock-ups and errors of judgement.

Most of all though, safe from any real chance of success.

And by success I don’t just mean the recognition and applause of others. I also mean that simple, gorgeous success of creating something you are proud of for yourself. Something that when you revisit it gives you on of those delicious wow!-did-I-do-that? moments.

You could, perhaps, achieve success by choosing to please a few people. You could maybe achieve it by aiming to please only yourself. And many have achieved it by targeting an audience who they want to annoy, or even distress.

But you can’t do it by trying to please everyone.

If you want to be loved, learn to be loathed. I dare you to be disliked.

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You may also wish to read:
Do You Have the Creative X Factor?
Where’s the Quality? A Creative Conundrum