The Value Of Creativity
Were you ever informed in your youth to "stop daydreaming"? Many have heard this sentiment spoken aloud and then were subsequently redirected to focus on doing something deemed, not by you, more worthy of your time.
When you are a child, this message is often internalized to the extent that, as an adult, your primary drive is to be focused, productive, fit-in, docile, and squander the creative self any time it emerges. What's been communicated that is supposedly worthy of your time is not always valuable to you.
Many struggle with intense guilt when it comes to being anything other than agreeable. Being highly agreeable has everything to do with what others value and less to do with what you value.
However, I assure you that when you allow the mind to wander, you often stumble into territory that feels internally authentic to your true self—the unconscious converts into consciousness. Individual truth emerges, which can be euphorically rewarding and simultaneously alienating—rewarding in the sense that inner truth becomes manifest—alienating in the sense that this truth is perhaps pluralistic, intimidating, or not deemed important by others.
Being creative involves being disagreeable. It can be a rebellion against yourself and others.
Why is it that others tell you to stop daydreaming? Why is it that you are advised not to be creative? The threat of creativity is genuine for many people.
Newton's third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So if one is to create something, then they are likely to be concurrently destroying something else.
Perhaps what you create causes you to destroy a preconceived notion of yourself or has a direct impact on an idea held by another. Possibly what you create is the end to an era of thought or expression that gains entryway to a new epoch in a grander scheme.
Creativity is so threatening because it is representative of a widely held fear of the masses: change. When things change, there is little certainty surrounding the outcome. On the one hand, change is a representation of the unknown, which provokes anxiety.
On the other hand, change is expansive and allows you to grow in capacities, both imaginable and unimaginable. Change dictates a shift in what you find valuable now and does not promise what you will find valuable in the future. Translation: creativity means ending a part of yourself to allow something else to emerge.
To create something is to bring a design, previously existing in one's head, into formation. It does not always involve doing something that has never been achieved in the history of human existence, only something you have never done. This is worth repeating; what's new and original to you may not be what's new and original to others.
However, a willingness to discover what is valuable to you and adopting this into your being is the genesis of creativity. This is the spark that ignites the flame. The only way to create is to take a moment to suspend whatever it is you believe you should focus on to imagine and manifest something beyond your locus of recognition.
In many ways, it is taking the reference book, that is, the mind, to construct a unique sum of parts. It is an attempt to be both bold and novel so that you may communicate this in a medium that you've assigned worthiness. In the most successful cases, it is to actualize who you imagine yourself to be.
Don't be afraid to daydream, don't fear being disagreeable with yourself or others, dare to be creative. In doing so, you will open a portal of ever-expansive splendor and bemusement. You will puzzle yourself and potentially baffle others. You will experience ambiguity beyond your level of comfort.
Encountering malaise, undesirable as it sounds, is the process of authentication. This is the value of creativity, being who you want to be as opposed to what others demand of you. Contentious? Most likely. Rewarding? Who am I to say, that is up to you to decide.
References
Botelho, E. L., Powell, K. R., & Raz, T. (2018). Adapt boldly: ride the discomfort of the unknown. The CEO next door: The 4 behaviours that transform ordinary people into world-class leaders (pp 85-102). London: Virgin Books.
Emerson, R. W. (2011). Circles. W. H. Gilman (Ed.), Selected writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York: Signet Classic.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). Toward a theory of creativity. On becoming a person: A therapists view of psychotherapy (pp 347-359). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.