Staying In the Creative Zone
Your business needs to stay in the creative zone!
Too many people depend on you for you to get out of the creative zone. Your business needs you to be creative, your family needs you to stay creative, and you need yourself to remain creative.
I experienced this reality in a simple way just the other day. My example is artistic, but my application is business. The goal of the week was to start a new painting. In concept, that is a straightforward thing to do. I wanted to do a landscape painting, and in my mind, that was going to be the new painting. As I was preparing my canvases to work on that goal, I needed to let some of the glue dry, so I worked on a new abstract on a canvas I already had prepared. You can probably see where this is going. I worked on that abstract a day or two until I could get back to the "main" canvas I was working on and start my latest landscape painting. After all, that was my goal for this week.
But then it hit me
As I got to the end of the week, I realized that I was probably not going to reach my goal of starting that new painting of the landscape, which was sincerely bumming me out, and I found myself outside of the creative zone. I kept asking myself: Why couldn't I just do this one simple thing this week? And then the negative self-talk started. I was definitely out of the creative zone. But then it hit me. Technically, I did start a new painting. I started that abstract piece. No, it wasn't the landscape that I originally wanted, but it was a new painting.
When I changed my perspective, everything changed
I was settled again; I was back in the creative zone and not the negative zone. The negative zone keeps us out of the creative zone. When you talk negatively, you move away from innovative solutions and set up blocks to creativity around you. It is hard to see a way out.
These types of things happen in business all the time. Things are not going as planned; goals are not met. Tasks get delayed for one reason or another. We get frustrated in lots of ways because these delays are costing money—the more delays, the more money that is going out the window. We can start chewing out people like I was chewing out myself. But that is usually a downhill spiral. It doesn't mean a good chewing out won't help, but don't let that be your only solution.
Three other creative solutions to explore
I have three other creative solutions can you explore to help you stay in the creative zone when challenges come your way.
1. Keep away from the negative, especially the negative self-talk. When you beat yourself up and say, Why didn't I do this or why didn't I do that? Why am I this way, or why am I that way? Why is my team so bad? Why can't they just get the job done? You block your creativity. The "why can't we" keeps you from the "how can we." Do you need help with some of the negative self-talk? Elizabeth Scott will walk you through some practical steps to get rid of this in her article, “The Toxic Effects of Negative Self-Talk,” found at verywellmind.com
2. Reframe your viewpoint. Rather than concentrating on the "I can't," focus your energy on creative solutions by reexamining your viewpoint. It literally changes everything and puts you back in the creative zone where you can generate innovative solutions. Rather than seeing only a black cloud over the situation, you can see some light peeking through to a creative breakthrough. Does this mean you justify your actions and simply change the goal so you don't feel guilty? No, but don't camp there. You can look at the situation realistically and still focus your energy on reframing your perspective to develop innovative solutions. Carter McNamara, from managementhelp.org, has some great reframing tools that might help you do this.
3. Get an outside perspective. If you can't see or don't know if your assessment is realistic or not, ask someone. I had someone just last week over lunch who was going through a hard time ask me, "Am I wrong to think xyz?" Since I was not directly involved, I was able to offer an objective perspective on the situation. Similarly, it would be like someone telling me if I asked them, "I have a goal to start a new project. I expected it to be this. Am I wrong to think that xyz is a project?" Doing this may sound simple and easy to implement. But how many times do we find ourselves in that situation and need help defining our expectations and outcomes? Dr G.S.K. Velu talks about “How Important it is to have an ‘Objective Outsider’ in your business,” in this LinkedIn post.
Take it from an artist. We have the same challenges as any business, but we must realize that we have to stay in the creative zone to keep generating creative ideas.
Until next time, Keep the Creative Edge!
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