Be More Creative: Personalizing the Creative Process
Author: Franklin C. Baer

I've always had a fascination with creativity. I think I inherited a creative bent from my mother who is an amateur thespian and calligraphist. I'm also a believer that creative pursuits can help prevent professional burnout. My twenty-five years of "survival" in managing public health programs in Africa attest to this fact.

Over the years I have explored various aspects of creativity, and began collecting quotations related to the creative process. My collection currently includes more than 100 bound volumes of quotations and databases with approximately 150,000 quotes. Along the way I discovered that people have differing views about creativity.

Eugene Raudsepp, the editor of "The World's Best Thoughts on Success & Failure," said that creativity is a matter of governing work habits:

"If you want to develop your creativity, establish regular work habits. Allow time for the incubation of ideas, and adhere to your individual rhythm. Violations of this rhythm can retard your creative efficiency."

On the other hand, Marc Chagall, the famous artist, felt that creativity it is an affair of the heart:

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing."

And to Kimon Nicoliades creativity was simply an ungovernable process:

"You cannot govern the creative impulse; all you can do is to eliminate obstacles and smooth the way for it."

Other creative thinkers have described a conceptual framework of steps or components of the creative process. For example, in her book "Pathfinders," Gail Sheehy described the creative process as consisting of four phases:

1) Preparation - gathering impressions and images;
2) Incubation - letting go of certainties;
3) Immersion & Illumination-creative intervention/risk; and
4) Revision - conscious structuring and editing of creative material.

Somewhat similarly, Roger von Oech, in "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants" explains that the creative process consists of adopting four roles:

"The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility . . . Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they're playful and off-the-wall. At still other times, they're critical and faultfinding. And finally they're doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals. From this I've concluded that the creative process consists of our adopting four main roles, each which embodies a different type of thinking . . . These roles are: Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior."

On the other hand, some people, like Raoul Dufy, feel that creativity doesn't follow any system at all:

"I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives."

I have also found that compilers of quotation books have their own ideas about creativity. I usually find quotations related to creativity indexed under such diverse topics as aptitude, success, talent, genius, inspiration, questioning, discovery, imagination, idea, innovation, invention, simplification, courage, common sense, determination, perseverance, persistence, failure, knowledge, education, patience, accomplishment, proficiency, and originality.

Because I am basically a "left-brained right-brainer," I felt the need to organize my collection of quotations into some sort of classification system. I finally settled on combining the "phases" of Sheehy and the "roles" of von Oech to describe five components for the creative process: Foraging, Reflecting, Adopting, Nurturing and Knuckling Down.

FORAGING is collecting information. Foraging is being on the outlook for information and exploring your environment (including work and school) for new ideas. I especially like A. A. Milne's approach to exploring, "One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."

REFLECTING is generating lots of ideas. Reflecting is questioning the information that you have collected and using your imagination in brainstorming and "what-if-ing." Albert Szent-Gyorgyi said it well, "Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different."

ADOPTING is embracing an idea. Adopting is deciding to move forward with a particular idea or plan. As Auguste Rodin once said, "I invent nothing. I rediscover." This process often involves connecting two or more ideas, or, as William Plommer described the process, "It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected."

NURTURING is improving your idea. Nurturing requires working hard, failing occasionally, and critically evaluating and improving your ideas. Henry Moore said it well, "There is a right physical size for every idea." Charles Mingus said it even better, "Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."

Finally, KNUCKLING DOWN is never giving up. Knuckling Down means marketing your idea or product with courage and patience. Konrad Adenauer appropriately said, "A thick skin is a gift from God." Dale Carnegie described knuckling down when he said, "Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success."

As you may have already noticed, the first letter of these five creative components spells FRANK. This was my way to personalize the creative process and to create a personal acronym that has become my daily reminder to always be on my best creative behavior. If you would like to create your own personalized creative process acronym, just visit http://bemorecreative.com/personalize.shtml. And while you are there, please feel free to search and browse through my online collection of 25,000 Creative Quotations.

Have a great, and creative, day!
FRANK
Creator/Webmaster of bemorecreative.com









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Dr. Franklin Baer is a doctor of public health who specializes in the design, implementation and evaluation of primary health care programs for developing countries, especially in rural areas. Since 1972 he has worked in more than twenty countries in Africa and the Caribbean, including fifteen years in the Congo (formerly Zaire). Along the way he became hooked on quotes, especially quotes related to the creative process.

When Dr. Baer isn't traveling in Africa, he is the webmaster for http://bemorecreative.com , a cluster of websites to encourage "thinking, working and living more creatively." His websites include http://creativequotations.com (25,000 quotations linked to creativity), http://creativeproverbs.com (12,000 proverbs from 3000 countries & cultures) and http://creative-links.com (1,000 links to websites that promote thinking, working and living more creatively.

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