Embarrassment and Creativity

For the final milestone of our Atomic Habits section of PGP 11, we were tasked with looking deeper into the habits of a successful person, specifically one habit of a successful person that interests us the most. We were to choose from a wide range of articles at jamesclear.com.

 

Our holy grail of habit knowledge

 I naturally gravitated towards the creativity section of the blog, wondering what Clear had to say. I was so interested because I always thought of creativity as something that is innate. You either have it, or you don’t. Of course you can become more creative over time if you practice consistently but true creative genius is pretty black and white, isn’t it? Well, Clear says it’s not. He references many studies in his article, proving that from a young age we are all creative, it’s just that over time our creativity is taken away and trained out of us from the institution that shall not be named. 

 

I have always enjoyed the thought that I am a creative person. Wether it’s true or not, it’s something I have always told myself and it has definitely guided my interests through time. Even right now it probably has something to do with why I clicked on the creativity link in Clears blog. As I went further down the rabbit hole of link I soon discovered a topic that stuck with me. Embarrassment and creativity. These two words are polarizing in meaning. Creativity makes way for new thought and new ideas. Embarrassment on the other hand stops these ideas, hides them and obscures an honest view.

 

A light bulb. The most common representation of the eureka moment

Coming back to the reason this really stuck with me is because often in my creative endeavours, I am stuck with embarrassment, doubt and worry that when I share my machinations with the world, people will think down on my ideas. People will look at what I have poured my emotions and soul into, what I am so excited about and think, that’s it? To me at least, it’s a scary thought. If I make something, let’s say a song and it needs louder bass, I’ll add louder bass, or I’ll pull back the hats and the snares to make the bass more pronounced. But if someone on the internet simply says “I don’t like it” how am I supposed to fix that? I think embarrassment is definitely something that has stopped me before but hopefully now it’s something I can think about reasonably, with something to keep in mind.

The growth mindset is focused more on the process than the outcome.

– James Clear

It was honestly by chance that I fell upon this article. I didn’t come into this final milestone thinking i would create a blog post about this but by some good fortune I found an article that could have a real impact on my personal life. Clear says to focus on the process instead of the goal, have you learned from this process? Will you be better for it even if the final product wasn’t amazing? Yes. Many things are easier said than done but keeping a statement that steers you in the right direction is very important and after thinking about this, something that I find interesting.

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