Do you remember when you were a child and you were interested in exploring the world for its own sake, rather than to make a name for yourself, feed your ego or make money? Creativity, according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, says that the best way to begin enhancing your personal creativity is to cultivate interest and curiosity in the world that surrounds you. Csikszentmihalyi says that children focus their creativity on things around them merely because these things are mysterious to them—but as adults we lose the capability or desire to explore what is in our range of attention because so many demands are made on us to survive or attain the things we do need or think we need. Csikszentmihalyi says without the childlike awe that inspires exploring the world around us, life can get pretty boring. But how do you go about cultivating a life that does not kill off the wellspring of creativity? Here are Csikszentmihalyi’s suggestions:
• Pay attention to what is around you and try to be surprised by what you see, hear or experience each day. As you go through your day, try to recognize when things are surprising—then focus your energy on exploring those things. Notice why you are perceiving or experiencing something as being different. Explore the essence of what something is. This could be something you taste, read or see. It is very important to adopt the attitude that there is something to learn about what you are seeing or experiencing. If you think you already know everything about something, then you will not be able to enrich your life through deepening your experience.
• Make a point of surprising someone every day. Say or do something new or different. Veer away from your routine. See a movie or play you’ve never seen before. Voice your opinion about something you’ve kept quiet about before. Change your hairstyle or wear something that is out of the ordinary for you.
• Keep a journal of your surprising events. Make a record of when you surprised others and when you yourself were surprised. What you will hope to accomplish is to make your experiences less fleeting. When you write these experiences and thoughts down, you prevent them from being lost in just a few hours when you can’t remember them—and eventually you may see a pattern you had not noticed before—and from this you may find a path to explore that you had not previously noticed. And in this way, you may encourage the flow of creativity in your life.
