Creativity blockers
If a time traveler from the 1900s appeared in our modern times, he would be overwhelmed by how much technology changed the world. But if we took him to school — would he feel the same way? Most likely not.
The school model has changed very little over time — I know I am generalizing here, but for the majority it stands true. We see a teacher up front writing stuff on a board, while we see tiny humans in the back, copying whatever the teacher writes on the board.
Our early educational process is one of the most important phases in our lives. We are being prepared to understand the world — its rules and standards — but something weird happens. What was supposed to be a process to build individuals, becomes a process to standardize individuals.
We are born creative and we unlearn to be creative. Creative blockages are ideas, teachings and concepts that we internalize, dimming our capacity to think outside the box. Now it is time to unlearn them.
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn", Alvin Toffler.
If you have not read the previous articles on the creative process and the creative myths, make sure to check them out!
The right answer blockage
During our school years we are taught to look for the right answer — and there is only one! We learn to find it as quickly as possible and then move on to next problem.
As I mentioned, we have a teacher up front and students in the back. Students copy stuff to memorize it and then take a test to see if they really memorized it. Then students check their answers against a template — that has all the answers predefined, from what the teacher expects them to give in the first place.
This creates an incessant search to find the same exact answers as everyone else, an answer that we should accept, and stop searching as soon as we reach it. We often don't realize the effect this has over our adult lives. How often do we settle for the first solution we find, or get from others?
We should not be content with the first solution, we should be open-minded, question it and keep digging. The real creative solution will only appear if we push further.
Blockage: Every problem has only one solution and it is already defined.
Unblocking: Do not settle for the first solution you find. Keep digging.
The success blockage
As we spend time in school we learn to solve problems using the scientific method, which is a trial and error feedback loop to get to a solution.
With the search for the only right answer — we learn that getting a wrong answer is bad, and it should be avoided.
We associate the idea of trial and error to failure, and we learn to eliminate it. We are afraid to show others we have failed, we were once born brave and unlearned how to be brave.
After 10, 15, 20 years, we were conditioned to only accept success, losing the desire to explore and experiment. We fear failure and avoid it, but forget that failure is part of the path towards success.
"Failures are like gifts in life. If you do the forensics, you will learn how to tackle the problems better next time", David Goggins.
Every time we fail — and learn from it — we get closer to success. We need to embrace and accept failure as part of the process.
Blockage: Failure is bad. We should only do what works and has already been tried.
Unblocking: Fail more and fail faster so you can get to success.
The pleasure blockage
Have you ever heard of the weekend syndrome? Work 5 sad days a week, relax 2 happy days — 30% of our life is happy, 70% not so cool.
As kids we have dreams, as adults we give up on them — chasing dreams involves risk. Because of the failure aversion, we try to eliminate risk, reducing our chances to experiment something different.
School forces us to choose a career very early in life — one of our most important life decisions. As most of us are not ready, we usually choose the safe path, which also tends to reduce the chance of finding something we really like to do.
I am not saying we should be happy all the time, but it is crazy to think that we will only be happy 30% of our lives. The takeaway here is, whatever we do, we need to find things within the things we do, that gets us in the flow state.
In the 1975 book — Beyond Boredom and Anxiety — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduces the concept of the flow state. If we tackle a big challenge with little ability, we become very anxious. If we tackle a low level challenge with high skill, we feel bored.
When we are in the flow state, time flies. As kids we are constantly in the flow. We are born in the flow and as adults we unlearn to live in the flow. We need to find balance once again.
Blockage: Work and pleasure can't coexist. Weekdays sucks, weekends are great.
Unblocking: Find things to do that get you in the flow state.
Creating a better world
There is no right answer or defined path, we are free to experiment. Failure should not scare us from trying new things, and when we try new things, we should try to enjoy and do the best we can.
Some of you reading are parents, and some of us will be in the future. I am 32 now as I write this article, so I can say that my generation will probably be the one responsible for the next one.
Our future depends on our kids, so maybe some of the ideas here can help us create a better and happier society — and hopefully with time — the schools will be less focused on teaching, and more focused on learning.
Next article we will address some of the work blockages! How our job is blocking our creativity? Read the next article to find out!
