Excerpts from the manual:
~ from the PREFACE pps 5-6
… “Children arrive here with an easy understanding of how this works. We’ve all enjoyed that effortless invention that children bring to every experience they have. Because it is such an internal, organic process, they don’t need words for it, they just do it.
Unfortunately, too many adults think it is no longer accessible. Yet this isn’t accurate.
In 1968, George Land gave a creativity test to 1,600 5-year old children. Developed by NASA and usually given to adults, this test was meant to identify engineers and scientists most like to innovate and create. Land tested his group of children again at 10 years old, and then at 15 years. Results: among the 5 year old group, 98% scored at NASA’s desired level. At 10 years old, 30% did. At 15 years old, 12% did. When the same test was given to 280,000 adults, 2% of them scored high enough to be of interest to NASA.
Land’s conclusion was “non-creative behaviour is learned.”
We know this in our gut, but scientific data gives us a chance to look at the implications. When I combined Land’s information with my own experience as an artist and a teacher of artists, I realized that ‘learned non-creative behaviour’ is a blanket that can be thrown off when we realize it is daylight and time to wake up.
Learned behaviour can be unlearned.
We are innately creative, remember. Creativity is our default setting. We can never really become non-creative.”
~from SET YOUR INTENTION pps 23-25,
including one of the 65 exercises woven into the manual to help you focus and integrate the ideas-
…”ATTACK OF THE VAGUES
Good solid intentions are the key to getting unstuck. You decide where you’re going, put the key in the ignition, and drive to your destination. Make things without having a clear intention is like driving with no destination. You won’t know where to turn, or when to stop driving. With no destination, you don’t have rules to use for choice. And you risk getting run over by people who do.
With no clear intention, we’re flattened by our inability to take direct action on our goals. Worse, when we feel this indecisive we usually end up feeling inadequate or incompetent too. We aren’t incompetent, but we behave in ways that make us feel we must be. Unfortunately the very people and ideas that could help you in your goal aren’t able to figure your out goal either, so they can’t help you. It’s like going around and around on a roundabout, unable to exit.
The good news is that all we need is a clear goal, and we can get moving again. Once we do, we make choices. Things happen. If we watch the results of our choices, we’ll make even better ones next time. That sense of inadequacy decreases each time we choose, take action, and learn from what happens.
PAUSE HERE: TO DO AND NOTICE
What creaky old beliefs are scaring you away from your own creativity?
- On a couple sheets of paper – hopefully shaggy-edged and torn from an old notebook, write a short ghost story. Illustrate it with crayons and markers.
- Make it as campy and descriptively creepy as possible. Confront your real fears, face them, and call them by name: The Eyeball-Eating Creativity Vampire from Hell, The Ten-Headed Acid-Breathing Monster of Criticism, The Evil Toxic Guilt-Poisoning Death-Rays of Jealous Relatives from Planet Evil. Etc.
- You are the hero, of course. Go on a quest, searching for your own treasures.
- When the demons show up, deal with them as appropriate. Wear magical gear. (What does it look like? Draw it. ) Use your powers against them. (Remember what these are and get new ones as needed.) Laugh in their faces, they really hate that. Get marshmallows. See what happens next.”
Want to feel like yourself again?
Your creative core is where you live.
Isn’t it finally time to get back there?
Click the big yellow button below. Embark on a journey into your own unique creative territory. See what you really want, and what you have. This can be your best year ever!
