Flexing YOUR Creative Muscle

Transcribed from the episode audio by AI, so it may contain mistakes.

Ravi0:19Welcome to the Motivated Life podcast. I'm Ravi Raman, your host. And it's been a while. Well over a year since I've last been on this podcast. I hope you're doing well and staying healthy. I sure am. You know, a lot's happened in the past year or two since I've last spoken to you. But I wanted to reboot the podcast. And there will be a few differences with it going forward. I'll be having some interviews lined up, but also I'll be sharing more thoughts about whatever topic I believe is really relevant for you.

As you may know, I'm an executive coach, and through my coaching sessions, a variety of things come up that seem to be relevant for many people. Some of these ideas make it onto my blog, so I'll be using this podcast to share those ideas. In some cases, I'll share ideas I'm blogging about. In others, it will be new, fresh ideas. But in any case, you can expect a mix of interviews with people, I think have interesting things to say, as well as sharing some of my ideas that you may read on my blog in a bit more depth.

So I'm looking forward to having some more frequent episodes coming out over the near future. and today I'll be sharing a topic that's been on my mind quite a bit recently relating to creativity and flexing your creative muscle. So thanks again for tuning in and let's dive in. When was the last time you created something from scratch? Really think about it. When was the last time you created something from scratch. If you need to think more than a few seconds about it, chances are you're missing a key ingredient to a satisfying and successful day.

We worry about not getting enough water, sleep, fresh air, sunshine, or protein, and all of these things that go into a good physical body. And there are lots of books and podcasts dedicated to filling up your physical wellness tank with all that good stuff. Yet very few people talk about the value of being generative and creative. I argue it's as important as sleep. The feeling of satisfaction that comes from creating something from scratch is truly remarkable. It trumps a runner's high, and I've done a lot of running.

It's just as good as a strong cup of coffin. You've got to trust me on that. It really is. Humans are wired to be creative, after all. Unlike other species, we're not living in the same habitat we evolved into. We didn't settle as a human race. We created solutions to improve things. The capacity to see a circumstance, think expansively, and create something new, does appear to be unique to our species, or at least largely unique to our species. It's apparently hardwired in. And what this means is it's also very frustrating when we have to stop or ignore that innate generative impulse that's coursing through our physical and metaphysical veins, though most of us are doing exactly that.

Let me give you an example. You remember those days before Wi-Fi and smartphones? Well, I absolutely do. I vividly remember all those hours sitting in an airport lounge or riding in a car or just waiting for someone or something bored out of my mind. And I remember how during these moments I would often pick up a notebook or a piece of scrap paper and I would start writing. And if I could, I'd start writing and brainstorming or thinking or if I couldn't write, I would just sit back and think and observe, of whatever was going on.

I would daydream, and inevitably, the creative tap in my mind would start to open. Quite often, I'd get really helpful ideas out of the blue, and these ideas would be helpful for a problem I was working on in my work, or perhaps a life-related thing I was trying to figure out. Inevitably, from that relaxed boredom, if you will, where I wasn't distracted, I was would get insights. That would be very helpful for my life and work. And in those less distracted, less tech-centric days, those creative impulses, well, to me, they seemed to seep through the slack time of my life, like a sort of cool artesian spring with its water cracking the surface of the earth.

And that was a pretty common occurrence. I had plenty of time to be bored and plenty of time for creative fresh thoughts to arise. Now today, the creative tap stays firmly shut for most of us. It's easier to consume news than it is to sit quietly. It's very rare when we're willing to sit with boredom. And that's something I used to experience a lot growing up, boredom. And boredom has a creativity. And if we can just sit with the boredom and be patient with it, it morphs into something generative, powerful, and very helpful.

So why am I talking about all this? I'm talking about it because there are important implications for anyone who is looking to do great work or looking to be a leader. Well, on the flip side, if we don't do something about this, there are actually some devastating implications for anyone who's a knowledge worker. So let me talk about some of these implications or the downside if we don't actually address our own creativity and the fact that we're not actually utilizing it as we could and should.

Well, first, there's the atrophy of the creative muscle that seems to happen. And here's a great way of experimenting with this. It's something that's come up quite a bit in several of my coaching sessions recently with leaders who are trying to spend more time on strategic work, really creative strategic thinking, as opposed to just being caught up in the never-ending tactics and reactive nature of their businesses. Now, in these coaching sessions, what seems to happen is there's a difficulty with being able to just sit down and focus the mind without distraction.

And you can try it for yourself. Just sit down and try to write for 60 minutes on a work-related topic without distraction. And when I say this, don't use bullet points, just write. Take a blank sheet of paper and just start working on articulating your thinking around a topic that's strategically important for your work. And I guarantee you're probably going to struggle unless you're used to doing this. In fact, most people I know would struggle. I struggle with this sometimes. And it seems that some students that I know, college students or even high school students, would have an easier time with this.

They're more used to writing papers and more used to sitting and actually articulating a thought in an extended way. And the capacity for creativity that we have, it's very natural, but what's also true is nature abhors wasted energy. And if there isn't an obvious need for something, you can expect it to diminish. And that seems to be what happens in the workplace, and for many leaders, because that creative muscle, if you will, hasn't been flexed. When we sit down and actually try to put our creative thoughts on paper, or if it's code, creative code into whatever coding experience you're using, it can feel like there's a weakness there.

It can feel like nothing's going to come out. But really what's happened is for most of us, our creative muscle has atrophied to the point where we have to really kickstart it to get it going again. So the implications for all of us is that if we're not using our creative muscle, it can atrophy. But there's a second implication that's also worth talking about. It seems to be that there can be a feeling of angst that emerges when something that is innate and useful is not used.

when a talent is gone to waste or when an innate capacity is not actually utilized, it seems that it can create a kind of discontent. I'll just share an example. You know, I really love to run. It's something I've done for most of my adult life. And I remember getting injured a few years ago, and I actually couldn't run. And I vividly remember how when I wasn't able to run, it was like a part of the of me was dying inside. I was lacking a sense of full aliveness, full engagement with my life.

And in some ways, it was almost like I lost one of my senses. You know, imagine not being able to smell for a day or losing your sense of taste. That's a bit of what it felt like. And likewise, many people have acclimated to a life in which the natural flow of creativity has slowed to a trickle. And they wonder why something feels off. Okay? And those are two things that are really important to keep in mind. First is, if we're not using that creative faculty, which we all have, by the way, it can seem to atrophy.

It can be a bit rusty when we're getting going. Second, there can be a feeling of discontent or malaise or angst that happens when something that's innately part of us, like our creative spark, is not actually getting used. And so those are two very important things to understand. And the implications from a research perspective are also very clear. There's been research done extensively in the world of organizational psychology and executive coaching. One particular work that I've read about is by organizational coaches, Bob Anderson, and and William Adams.

And they have a book called Mastering Leadership that is a book that's quite popular in the coaching community. Now, what it shows, it goes into a lot of the aspects that are key for excelling as a leader and building a leading organization. But what it does show is that creative tendencies are paramount to success as a leader. And that applies to leadership teams and also the organizations. Creative tendencies are paramount to success. And yet, through extensive research by the authors, they found only about 20% of leaders are able to make the leap to operating with firmly rooted creative tendencies.

Now, you might ask, well, make the leap from what? Well, what they found is the vast majority of leaders flounder in highly reactive modes of operating. A reactive mode of operating is one in which leaders and their businesses are so focused on protecting, controlling, and responding to urgency that they're not actually putting their attention and energy on proactively achieving, applying systems-based thinking, building strong relationships, and cultivating self-awareness. So if you're not being creative, by definition, you're reacting to your environment. And the jury's not out. It's in.

Leaders and teams that can spend more of their time and energy on creative tendencies win over the long term. It also turns out that people who are flexing their creative muscles tend to be more satisfied and fulfilled as well. And you can experiment with that yourself. And that's actually what I encourage you to do. Develop your own creativity habit because direct experience is the best way to learn and convince yourself at a deep level that having a creative outlook, mindset, and basis for how you operate is very important.

Here's a way to get started. Simply make it a point to create more from scratch. Here's an example of something you might want to try. Start the day with 20 minutes of writing. take out a blank sheet of paper and think strategically about a problem related to your work. Instead of using bullet points, use fully formed sentences to explore the problem you're working on and explore potential solutions in rich detail. You'll notice I said 20 minutes, not 20 hours. Bite-sized chunks help. Now repeat this process daily and start expanding the length of time, perhaps to an hour or so each day, where it's you, a blank sheet of paper, opening that creative tap and seeing what comes out.

Now, for an even bigger boost, I encourage you to share your work. In the same way I'm sharing this podcast, I'm sharing various blog posts and articles I write, I encourage you to share what comes out when you're doing some deep creative work. If this work is confidential, share and discuss it internally with mentors, bosses, and supported peers. If your thoughts are relevant to your field or industry, share the non-confidential aspects of your fresh creative thinking publicly. There are plenty of blogs and various social media networks you can use.

I'm a fan of LinkedIn articles. You can also do tweet storms. But the whole point is to come back to this understanding that being creative is a natural. state of the human mind. I know that's hard to believe, I know, but like any muscle that is ignored, thinking in this way can atrophy if we don't actually flex our creative muscle. So when you first get going, it can feel awkward at first. With any new habit, tackle it by biting off frequent and bite-sized chunks, staying focused for short periods of time on a daily basis if you can, and keep working on developing that creative habit.

What you will start finding is that the natural creative flow will flow more freely. You'll feel more satisfied. And you can trust, based on all the research that has been done on success in the workplace, that it will also support you and your business in moving forward. So give it a shot. Let me know how it's going for you. And have a wonderful week.