The Path(s) To Inspiration
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Just do it. The
famous motto from a series of commercials is absurdly simple. But the action
is both direct and elusive at the same time. Just do it? Just do what? Run…or
run faster? Just compete…or just win?
Ironically, this is an example of creativity meets creativity. The answer
is Yes...and yes. Or, No…and no, or no and yes or any other combination
thereof. The creativity that leads to the ad agency copywriter goes from
the specific to the general. It must appeal to the widest mass appeal and
inspire through association some belief in the product. So…Just Do
It. It is like a bright swath of red on a white canvas…or a Jackson
Pollack painting. It evokes something…but what? Is it the same in
each of us or is it different?
So you want to be creative? Just do it! Just do it? Do what? Well, let’s
look at the copywriter again. We can’t define why someone is able
to generate a catchy phrase (or a catchy tune, incredible painting, or a
solution to a difficult political negotiation), but we can see some steps.
The copywriter reads, absorbs, thinks, then…Aha!, or something like
it. This sounds remarkably like Hemholtz’s theory discussed earlier:
Saturation, Incubation, Inspiration. Now, what if it doesn’t
come upon you, this “aha!” moment of creativity? The deadline’s
looming and you can’t think of anything, or at least anything very
good. Now somebody in this situation, assuming one has been in the job for
a while and makes a decent living at it, has invariably been in this situation
before and will be again. If this person has been successful, he or she
knows what to do—whether consciously or unconsciously. That is, “just
do it!”
Interestingly, the important thing about the Nike ad isn’t about running
or running faster, it’s about trying. It’s about putting the
shoes on and giving it a try. It’s about the possibility and potential
of “doing it,” whatever “it” is. Whether you’ve
been creative in the past, or only in a particular area, or feel you have
never been creative at all…there are things one can do to
begin to unlock creativity. These “things” are many. They may
not all work for you. Some that work for you may not work all the time.
The important thing is to “just do it,” because creativity is
a way of thinking and a way of seeing. All that happens when we “aren’t”
creative is that we are stuck in a particular perspective, point of view,
and mindset. “There is no more certain sign of insanity than to do
the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different.”
Einstein. We can’t see a solution because we have a mental wall in
front of ourselves, yet there are many possible solutions.
There are basic principles that you can learn that help enable you to be
more creative in both everyday things and in new expressions. These fundamentals
are where you turn when you realize when you are stuck. Can’t play
that A minor scale? Practice. Keep grinding the clutch in the car? Rehearse
it in your head. Children driving you over the edge? Take a deep breath,
step back and try something new. But what? Well, that’s where creativity
comes in. An inspired moment of insight that leads to action. Getting to
that creative moment takes practice. Free up creativity by allowing the
spirit/subconscious/unconscious/right brain to do its thing—to see,
think, taste, hear, smell, cognize, reason, and perceive in a new way.
Obviously, from the aforementioned and the previous explanations within
this paper, there is no consensual agreement on exactly what or where creativity
is or is coming from. Truly, there is no need to determine this universally,
or to define it as a “Truth.” For the purposes of this paper,
we will settle on calling the realm which we are attempting to access the
“creative consciousness.” When a particular author or writer
has a specific term that deals specifically with something that cannot be
referred to as the creative consciousness, then the writer’s language
will be used.