— Click and enjoy this entertaining and educating 20-minute TED talk:
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.
I’ve never considered myself to be particularly creative. For many years I have looked on in awe of those that are so wonderfully talented.
But I keep turning up and doing my best. There’s always a bvs.
This whole issue of expectation and limitations has been a huge part of my life and the realization that, as an artist, I had these things to overcome in order to claim my birthright, of ‘why I came here’ and thus go forward in creating. It took me many many years to come to the self knowledge that I am who I intended to be and what other’s think is their issue.
I could not disagree more with the assertion that creativity might not be amenable to self generation. One form of creative outcome is the state of flow that the author describes, a state of being lost in the moment…this state of flow is generated in our mind when the task is challenging but just within our abilities, when we get direct feedback for minor tweaking, when we focus our attention (initially) on the task. Such understanding of the principles behind “flow” or “being in the zone” suggests that with practice, we can enter the state of flow more and more. We can successfully practice being creative. Rather than resorting to the sense of relief one can get by believing that a “genie” or “force” aperiodically enters us with the fruits of creativity, we can instead (using the principles that neuroscience offers us regarding our understanding of “being in the zone”) choose to believe that our creativity is in our hands, and hence amenable to enhancement. Perhaps, this enhancement of being in the zone could be evidenced in meditating monks, wherein continual practice enhances the times they enter “flow”.