Creative Advertisements: the Psychology of Flow - Sources of Problems
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At the beginning of this article, I hinted that the wide range of possibilities sometimes intimidate and prohibit the creative artist in question from unleashing his or her creativity. Oh, and by the way, I’m going to use the term creative artist because each one of us is an artist and we all contribute to the world by creating something, be it a product, service, etc.
Creative blocks can act exactly like a writer’s block. It is a barrier when, despite all of your struggles, you can’t seem to come up with something that looks at least half-decent to you. This is where frustration springs up. You then try harder, pushing and forcing yourself to think creatively. Let me tell you something that you already know: it won’t work. In fact, consciously forcing bursts of creativity is hindering their free flow.
Since our aim in this section is to recognize the possible sources of creative blocks, we won’t talk about how to fix them or what to do in order to avoid them. But don’t worry; that’s what you’re going to find on the next page (you don’t need to check, trust me). Right now all we want is to find which of the problems apply in your case. Try to find the similarities in yourself.
Okay, so let’s continue. One of the main causes that inhibits the free flow of creativity and innovative ideas is pressure and stress. You see, deadlines are basically killing creativity and doing much more harm than good. Sure, none of us could live without deadlines and companies can't run without deadlines – but something must be done to increase the flexibility of schedules.
(Image Courtesy of ABC News – link.)
Also, keep in mind that everybody needs creativity – not just people working in marketing, research and development, or design. Each one of us needs creativity in our daily lives. But this shouldn’t cause problems, because all of us have the ability to become more creative than we've ever been.
There has been a popular myth that money is the best stimuli and it can act as a general motivator. This kind of stimulus involves analytical, left-brained thinking and as soon as you start to analyze the situation ("I’d better become creative, since I’m going to be paid more"), you are shifting away from the right-brained creative thinking hemisphere. It does not work.
Another so-called source of motivation as a follow-up to this is fear. But this can be linked with stress, which comes due to feeling and being pressured (the first cause mentioned here). And yet again, fear can be associated with overly high expectations and social status. Fear of failure is one of the basic fears that we are born with and it is necessary for survival. However, most of the time it’s akin to fear of the unknown.
Creativity, by definition, requires stepping into the world of the unknown, where there are no limitations and anything is possible. Being too analytical stops the flow of creativity because of the left-brain thinking that’s required. Being too hard on yourself can affect your self-image and you may lose your ability to be creative in the long term.
Striving for a higher position on the company ladder, earning more recognition, and basically trying to earn “social value” can slow you down because the other half of this coin deals with failure. Success co-exists with failure; they contrast each other. Without one, the other cannot exist. Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times, but he didn’t quit.
Approaching creativity from the perspective of success involves the potential of looking silly and being ashamed. Associate this with all of the previous sources of problems and you can really see the whole picture and how each small piece of the puzzle fits accordingly.
Next: Unleashing the Flow of Creativity >>
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