So many of us feel that we’re not particularly creative.  People always ask me at book events about where I get my ideas to write an entire book.  Actually, I think all of us are more capable of being creative.  It may not be an artistic product.  It could be building a new tech product, creating a better organization at work, building a charitable group, or creating better relationships in our lives.  But how does the creative process work?

I’m not an expert so I want to recommend a great book about being more creative called, The Path of Least Resistance, by Robert Fritz.  Here are three suggestions that Fritz gives:

1.  Start by creating the vision or picture of what you want.  This should come about as much from dreaming as from thinking.  Don’t base your vision on something you’ve already created because that will limit your creative abilities.  How could you know what you’re able to build unless your vision is almost a dream?  And if you don’t create 100% of what you want, at least you’ve come close.

2.  Then, you honestly analyze where you are now.  Part of being creative is to measure the gap between your vision and your present situation.  I’ve found this to be tough.  It’s difficult to be objective and honest about myself.  Sometimes, it even hurts and I feel like I’m about as creative as a cockroach.

The value of this step is that it leads to a plan for how you can get from where you are now to reach and build your vision.  You can build the steps (even small ones) that you take.  Can these steps change?  Of course and they probably will as you get closer to your vision and work-out the mistakes and wrong turns.

The other valuable part of this process creates a tension: you see the gap between where you are and what you want.  For me, I feel this as frustration, uneasiness, tension, or even fear!  Fear that I’ll fail miserably and all my family and neighbors will be anxious to laugh at me.  But Fritz says we can use this productively.

3.  Use the tension to motivate yourself to take each step forward toward your creative goal.  Recognize the unpleasant feelings and instead of trying to eliminate them, embrace and use them.

My experience has been that when I grab onto the tension, it energizes me.  As I slog through the first, sloppy steps suddenly something magical happens—the process become so pleasant the words almost write themselves.  It doesn’t always last long, but when I’m “in the zone” I feel as if all the writing gods are behind me and I’m no longer a mere cockroach.

Have you ever had this experience with anything you worked at?  How did it go?