Computer Says No uh huh. You know what I have been doing lately? Not creating. Not writing, not pumping out content. Instead, I have been … hibernating.
While this may seem defeatist or weak, I learned a long time ago that my creativity is cyclical. It consists of bursts (sometimes impressively long ones spanning 3-5 years) and plateaus (from 6-12 months.)
The last 5 years I have been on a creative rampage! I started a new business for myself, launched the Playful Creative summit with business partner Alyea Sandovar, ran a Patreon page for 3 years, published a book of poems, created a digital training course to help people write better and delivered keynotes, workshops and webinars left right and centre.
Unfortunately, what I did not do enough of during this purple patch, was stop and smell the roses, contemplate, assimilate or observe. Which means that now that the fires have cooled, that is what I must do.
And while this is a personal story, it is a simple alarm bell for any business that relies on creativity (however obscurely) for their revenue. Continuous, ongoing growth is simply not possible. If an organisation is only ever focused on output, it will sooner or later run out of metaphorical fuel … and sputter to a halt.
The mistake I made was not taking any breathes between projects, not debriefing, enjoying, reflecting … I simply moved onto the next thing in line. Sound familiar? It’s exactly how many businesses feel like they must work.
And you know, in the short term it works, in the short term it delivers returns. But as a human being who has no intention of dying in the short erm, I have a longer-term view, and so should companies.
While it is in theory possible to turn creativity on with a flick of a certain switch, if you do so too often without maintaining the vehicle and keeping its tank filled, eventually it will stop working.
I am going on holiday … quite a long one too. And if your business depends on creativity, you also need to figure out how to build creative down time into your production schedule to allow your creatives time to refuel, recharge and get re-inspired.
If you don’t, they might not come back from holiday.
