Learn, Share, Grow – Your Elusive Creative Genius

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

Below is a video from TED Talks on where creativity comes from as well as key learnings.

https://ted.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=07487d1456302a286cf9c4ccc&id=68c1e9e2c4&e=ae199548a3

Key Learnings:

• Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, talks about her fear that her greatest creative work is now behind her.  The fear is that all her future creative work will be known as the what came after her biggest success.  How she deals with this thought and possible reality is the radical idea that the creative genius doesn’t come from people, but comes to people.
• Ancient Greece/Ancient Rome – believed creativity was a divine attendant spirit that came to humans from a distant, unknown source for unknown reasons.
  • Greek called it daemons
  • Romans called it genius
• Renaissance brought about the thinking that creativity came from self – a person IS the genius, not HAS a genius – this can distort egos and create high, sometimes unrealistic, expectations for performance
• Poet Ruth Stone – she could feel and hear a poem coming at her – she had to quickly get to paper and pencil to capture the poem on paper.  If she missed it, it would continue on in search of another poet.
• Musician Tom Waits – one day while driving down the freeway, started hearing a tune but had no way of capturing it.  He looked into the sky and said he was driving, if you want to exist then come back at a more opportune moment – otherwise go bother someone else.  This set the tone for HOW he did his work – not for his work itself.
• The idea that our work/ideas come through us from an unknown source can free us from the unnecessary anxiety and stress and allows creativity and ideas to flow through us freely.
• If this creative genius isn’t there or doesn’t come to us, keep doing your job anyway.  Keep showing up for your piece of it; keep doing your part.  Be stubborn and never give up.
• The most creative aspects of your life never came from you but came to you.