Chapter 4 Additional Support for Your Creative Talents

In addition to identifying your creative talents, taking the time to consider the environment that brings out your creative best is an important next step. You may feel more comfortable with an unstructured day or, on the other hand, you may prefer a disciplined schedule. You might prefer a particular atmosphere, perhaps with candles or music, to optimize your creativity. You may need a totally organized office or a special room or chair. You may need people and noise around you, or you may prefer to be alone.
To be most creative, you need to find time to rejuvenate, play, rest, relax, incubate ideas, and celebrate accomplishments. Exercise - swimming, gardening, taking walks - and eating and sleeping well contribute not only to a longer life but to a more creative one as well. Chronic illness, depression, poor nutrition, or fatigue can all limit your ability to be creative. Figuring out how to deal with stress and to stay healthy, both emotionally and physically, will allow your creativity to flourish.
In addition to the right conditions, the right attitude about learning, particularly learning from mistakes, is also critical to bring out your creative best. Mistakes are a necessary byproduct of venturing into the new. Being creative involves learning from these mistakes, experimenting, and refining your thinking to find an answer that better meets the situation. Examining, understanding and altering your attitude toward risk and making mistakes can open up new and creative opportunities to learn.
To be comfortable taking these risks and making mistakes, you may need to deal with messages of the past. A chaotic childhood may have led you to seek stability and to structure a lifestyle where change and taking risks are not acceptable. In the past you may have only been rewarded for ’coloring within the lines.’ You may have given up on your particular creative gifts because they were not appreciated in your family, in school, or at work where other behavior received greater rewards. Since your decisions may not always work right the first time, you will want to get past these messages that keep you from exploring something new.
Ego issues and personal fears can also interfere with the exercise of your creative talents. Creative endeavors may have no place in your life if they conflict with a strong need to control. Some of the biggest obstacles to creativity can be unconscious and unnecessary personal limitations. One successful business owner admitted,
I would say that if anything were ever an obstacle for my creativity, the biggest obstacle would be myself. It’s all where I set my boundaries and where I put my walls, and if I refuse to move them, then I’ve become the problem, as opposed to the solution.

With the right attitude you can overcome these personal blocks. One way is to find friends who will challenge you to think differently. Another way is to recognize and talk back to that meddlesome inner critic. You need to surface your emotional barriers and identify those that are preventing you from trying new approaches. At the same time you need to be patient with yourself as you learn to make changes and accept some of the imperfect outcomes that inevitably happen.
To allow your creativity to flourish, you may need to let go of old habits and to stop treasuring well-worn and comfortable beliefs when they are no longer useful. You may need to take the time to clean house, literarily and figuratively, mentally and physically, to let go of old memories and expectations that are holding you back, to make psychological room for new ventures and activities. Midlife can be a time to let go of unnecessary possessions, an outgrown career, and unsatisfactory relationships. By freeing yourself up, you can move on and open up space for more creative decision-making.
Tapping your creative talents supports unusual choices after 50. It fosters the development of new attitudes and the breaking of old mindsets. It allows you to think more expansively. It can result in a new direction or at least a new interest in life.
The work to define and develop your creative talents leads not only to more creative choices, but it also builds confidence enabling you to handle the challenges life throws your way. Your creativity gives you a deeper level of resilience to cope with constant change. Developing creativity strengthens your capacity to be more open, flexible, and buoyant; to bend and bounce back; and to adapt. You develop a positive attitude where you can deal with any of life’s uncertainties and complexities as you change, grow, and age. Seeing yourself as creative is vital for making decisions for a healthy and productive life in the years ahead.
Before moving on, take some time to complete the following“My Creative Environment” exercise.
Steps to find your creative environment.
1. Identify your preferences:
a. Place – inside, outside, other
b. Activity – quiet, sports, walking, other
c. Sensors – music, candles, pictures, objects
d. Time of day
2. Identify the process you use to ignite creative ideas
3. Identify any catalysts that start creative thinking: writing, drawing, listening, meditating
4. Get rid of any distractions
5. Jot down ideas, questions
6. Share and act on new ideas to strengthen them with new input.
7. Approach creativity with discipline until it becomes a habit
[What do you think about this discussion about finding support for your creative talents? Are there any insights that you would like to share?]