Priorities

Somewhere along the way, I’ve managed to adapt this outlook that my time isn’t as valuable as other people’s time.

It starts with  a particular problem I have in saying no.  Someone asks for help, I say sure without thinking.  Then I spend my time helping them get their goals accomplished and at the end of the day mine remain unfinished.

Why do  I put myself in this situation?  Then I end up mentally beating myself up over my  inability to get my own projects completed.  I review my list of projects and my schedule. Right between editing and writing there was this black hole of time that I gave  to individuals requesting help.  I know friends have warned me about this.  They’ve pointed out to me that I need to learn to say no yet when the ‘friend in need’ shows up, I give in and say yes.

It’s my own fault, not theirs.  After all if you could get someone else to do your work for you, wouldn’t you give it a try?  I might try, but then again that perfectionist part of me would have to micromanage everything they did to a point that I may as well do it myself,  then it would be pointless.

Since I can’t convince my children to do their chores, and the household things I am willing to hand off to others,  the remaining items on my to-do list are things that I wouldn’t trust  in anyone Else’s hands. Which leaves me responsible to handle them. *sigh*

New rules are going into effect as of today.

REVELATION #1:  My time is valuable.

REVELATION #2:  If I don’t make myself a priority no one else will.

REVELATION #3:  Everyone has the same number of hours in a day.

From this point on, I am going offline  for my designated writing/editing/rewriting time.  After all if I worked in an office environment, then I would not be online during my work day.

A couple weeks ago in  a marriage counseling session, the counselor asked me if I felt valued.  I was stumped.  I thought about that, and felt backed into a corner when he asked.  In my mind I had a replay of  the scene from Blade runner.  Yes, it’s complicated. I didn’t respond that way however, even though I felt suddenly panicked to give an answer.  After several minutes he decided to move on – thank God!

But it made me think.  Why is it that I value what other people do and other people for that matter over myself and my  goals?  What is it that makes me feel less valuable?

So here I am still pondering this point.  Value is a  tricky little word.  for me it’s loaded down with a ton of baggage. Baggage that is stamped with ‘worthless’, ‘less valuable’.  I’d like to say that  it’s not the case but it is.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have the issues I do.  Actions speak louder than words, and my actions are those of a people pleaser that feels less valuable. Value speaks of dollar amounts and self esteem.  It speaks of moral and spiritual significance, and how we fall short of the mark.

In thinking about it  over these past few weeks, I am   just as valuable as anyone else.  The difference is in my own perspective.  Sure things I went through as a kid, life experiences colored my perspective but the bottom line is we are all in the same human condition.

Who I am has value. Who you are has value. What we do has value. Our work has value.  One of the  projects that I was involved in for some time was  Storytime Trysts. I still believe that the premise of the blog was a great idea, and a great vehicle for gaining an audience for new and inexperienced authors.  However, some of the authors didn’t feel the need to  raise their bar to work with others.  some of the authors on the blog are exceptional.

There is a point though, when giving away your work for free cheapens what you do.  You wouldn’t go to your job and work for free for even one week, would you?  No, you expect to be payed for services rendered especially when it is the hard physical labor of your own sweat.

Coming to terms with my false misconceptions about my own value was eye opening, and shed light on why I’ve done certain things.   I hated the counselor that night, but now . . . I  get it.  I’m glad he  made me confront my demons. I’m sure  we’ll get to  the dysfunction of my mother/daughter relationship eventually.  I’ll just see if I can’t divert the focus on something else for as long as possible. After all,  self examination is a painful experience and I don’t get any anesthesia.

I am valuable.  My work is valuable. I matter to at least 3 people – my husband and daughters.  It’s high time that I gave myself the same respect I give others.

What about you? Do you value yourself?  Do you feel inferior to others?  Are you always saying ‘sorry’?  Are you always doing things for other people and running yourself ragged?  How do you handle it?  If you don’t have any issue or struggle with low self esteem, can you tell me how you handle the  barrage of requests?

Please leave  a comment – I’d like to get other people’s input here!

Write on my friends and know your worth!

 

Time Bandits

 

Quotidiandose does not own copyrights to this image. All rights reserved to the artist.

Ah speaking of – they came and stole a good portion of my time this week so my post was delayed. Demands of the paying gig always come first. I’m at that point of weighing whether the additional time required to do the job are worth the pay or if it’s time to look for a different job. It’s a fine line at the moment.

If you’ve missed the first two installments of my mini-series, you can find them here:

1. The Creative Mind

2. A Mentalist

Now that you are caught up, onto the topic at hand – time bandits. Being a creative does not give license to waste time but I know several creatives that have taken time-wasting to a near art form in and of itself. It seems a shame when you see a very talented person goofing off playing video games, but then again Pewdiepie makes a good living playing video games.

The following characteristics I’ve grouped into this category because they all involve time management or the lack of.
I’ve often been accused of living on a Bohemian time schedule. I often misjudge the amount of time it will take to do a task, and when you are waist deep in your inspired work it’s hard to just stop. Go find a stream and wade out to where you are waist deep. In order to get back to the bank of that stream, it takes a concerted effort. First of all, you want to make it worth your while of getting soaking wet and fighting the current and the c old water temperatures so you want to make the most of your time in that stream. After reaching a point where you are satisfied or your teeth are chattering and lips are blue, whichever comes first you make your way to the bank.

There isn’t a crane with a hoist that just lifts you from the center and plants your feet on the terra firma. You have to step carefully keeping your balance because the current of the flowing water could easily take you under if you aren’t paying attention. Inspiration is like that – and if you don’t pay attention to it, it will knock you over in the water and flow downstream to the next victim – I mean creative in its path.

NO, you don’t want inspiration to leave you and bless the next guy – we are a greedy bunch – we want it for ourselves so we wade out there – waist deep – letting it flow through us, letting it affect our bodies, our minds until nothing else matters but the rush of creation!

Then someone is yelling waving hands on the bank demanding you get out of the river because there are dangers or they want to leave or whatever their demands are. It’s almost a drugged state – a euphoric rush of creative juices that affects your entire being.
Slowly their words begin to register and we make our way to their dry location. ( NO pun intended – honestly!) After leaving the “ rush” of those waters – we are left cold, shivering, our fingers may even prune, but our minds are still on the thrill of that rushing water.

OK, so now that I went into that whole little diatribe trying to convey what it’s like and why time is irrelevant for a creative mind, let’s move onto the characteristics.

1.  Creatives work the hours that work for them. Frank Lloyd Wright rose at 4 am to work on his projects. It was when he felt the most creative. No matter when it is, individuals with high creative output will often figure out what time it is that their minds are in “the zone”, and structure their days accordingly.

This is an area that I have difficulty with because the logical minded persons in my household believe that everyone should function on the day shift schedule. My mind usually doesn’t even approach the zone till 7 pm. I always have my notebook handy, but it causes conflicts when I stay up till 2 am.

Having said that I will counter by adding – I can adapt. My marriage and family are worth more to me than getting my way about when I write. Besides, most of the world operates around day shift. I will adapt, overcome, and improvise!

2.  They lose track of time. See the allegory of the stream above. Yes, we lose track of time. There is a multiplicity of factors that contribute to this.
Creative types may find that when they’re writing, dancing, painting or expressing themselves in whatever way they choose, they get “in the zone,” or what’s known as a “flow state”, which can help them to create at their highest level. Flow is a mental state when an individual transcends conscious thought,  reaching a heightened state of effortless concentration and calmness. ( Try that Zen garden on for size!) When someone is in this state, they’re practically immune to any internal or external pressures and distractions that could hinder their performance.
When they are creating they get lost in time and space.  They can forget to eat, to drink and even to sleep. When words, colors or ideas start to flow out of their mind there’s nothing else that really matters to them.

You get into the flow state when you’re performing an activity you enjoy that you’re good at, but that also challenges you — as any good creative project does.

So here are some reasons why we lose track of time:

• Inspiration hits when inspiration decides to hit
• under- estimating how long things will take
• hitting the flow state, or your groove, or the zone and you don’t want to stop
• the persistent nagging that you can’t stop until you reach a point that only you know what it is
• schedules are more like guidelines

3.  They get inspired at the least expected moment. Nobody can control when they are inspired. NOBODY! Here are just a few instances of inspiration:

• on the same stretch of highway, I drive nearly daily as a coyote runs across the road in front of me
• while my daughter is complaining because daddy didn’t see her point of view.
• At the gym while pleading for the clock to tick faster
• In a church service
• at the movie theater between trailers
• in the shower
• on the toilet
• laying on the floor curled into a ball shaking from dehydration and heat exhaustion
• on the Dr’s table with my legs in stirrups – what? You don’t think I’m laying there anxious for the exam do you?

Just a few places. I’m sure as creatives, we all have interesting tales of an odd time that inspiration has struck.

4.  Often told to get a real job. I can’t tell you how much this one infuriates me. I have worked full-time in the private sector. I’ve worked full-time in government employ. I’ve worked full-time in numerous jobs. It’s not a lack of work ethic – I have a great work ethic. I quit working with the DOD to be a stay at home mom and raise my kids. I didn’t want them to be raised by daycare staff. I have issues – let’s leave it there.

My point is, I didn’t quit that very well paying job to live a life of leisure eating bonbons and getting mani-pedis. Raising children is hard work. It’s a 24/7 job! Talk about demanding? Stress on the job? This is the reason most men WANT to go to work to flee the screaming crying babies, the stinky diapers, the screaming toddlers, the preteen angst and the teenage drama.

Oh sure, they say they want to provide for their family but there is a part of them that is terrified of these small creatures that have invaded their homes and seem to siphon adult energy like a backwoods thief siphoning gas out of your car in the moonlight.

I have a job, and the paycheck to prove it. ( Granted it isn’t as much as I’d like for the time invested but that’s a different matter) Then you add in the parenting, the wife, the occasional teaching gig, the occasional public speaking gig, the – am I making my point yet?

WE are not slackers! I often think it’s not really that the people who tell us “get a real job” are thinking we don’t work – but that we haven’t given up on our childhood dreams and on some level we make them feel bad because they can’t muster their strength to chase their own. But maybe that’s just me.

5.  Creatives Procrastinate. I have indeed mastered the art of procrastination, yet I still can’t hold a candle to the king! Long may he reign and hopefully I will break these bad habits soon.I will start on that tomorrow.

Just a sample of potential procrastination techniques:

• workspace rearrangement
• pre-writing rituals (everything has to be in its proper place and collected within arms reach)
• stationary choices ( what do you mean it’s all digital? What does that have to do with anything?)
• waiting for inspiration ( ah! And here’s the rub of stopping the flow – we have to wait for it to return)
• snacks and beverages ( coffee is mandatory, so is the sacrificial offering of chocolate to the great gods of writing that be)
• selecting the perfect font – because Times new roman looks old and worn out.
• Workspace re- rearrangement ( after a session involving the snacks and beverages it is necessary to tidy up and by that time there are at least 2 dozen stickies, and . . . )
• utilizing social media ( Facebook black hole of death)
• pauses, tea breaks, naps, interruptions, getting back in the zone after interruptions
• advanced workspace rearrangement

You get the idea! This doesn’t even include YouTube, checking email, or bathroom breaks.

Give a creative a deadline and they will comply, but you can be absolutely certain they will do 90% of the work the night before that deadline.

6.  Do It all over again! No matter how far a creative has come with their last creation, if at a given point they don’t like it, they won’t think twice and will trash it just to start all over again. And again. And again.

Regardless of the amount of work, that has already gone into the scrapped project. There is never a “close enough”, it has to be dead on target or it gets scrapped. Hence, the amount of time many will spend on getting their projects, their babies to their point of satisfaction to present to the world, and thusly expect the world to appreciate their genius!  ( And this is the point when the ” flow” is leaving, the sense of satisfaction is  having those last-minute tingles throughout their bodies, soon to be left with an emptiness where we become super sensitive wanting praise, recognition, something – just throw us a bone at least!

Time is a limited commodity, but creatives tend not to be clock watchers. Night and day really mean little when they are in the zone. In fact, everything fades into the background when they are focused on their creation. Yes, we have a sort of godlike creationist neurosis thing going on, a chameleonic personality disorder that alternates between master wizard/ minor deity. We determine in our worlds, “Let there be light” and BAM there is light. Writing, painting, singing, sculpting – is the art of creation. And if it isn’t right, we tear it down and start over. We are the masters of our universe, the  puppet master of our characters. We hold life and death in the palm of our hands snuffing one while lifting up another. BWAHAHAHA!

Do any of these traits ring true with you? My personal examples may not click with you and that’s fine. What are your experiences? What’s the strangest time inspiration has struck you?

Write on my friends! Or paint, draw, dance, sing – however, you express that creative bent! Do it with passion!

A Mentalist

Quotidiandose does not own the copyrights to this image.

In part I, (The Creative Mind) on the creatives series, I mentioned that there are some commonalities in a creative’s makeup and personality. I’ve broken down these common traits into six categories.

1. Mentalists
2. Time Bandits
3. Expressions
4. Head Games
5. Entrepreneurial Spirit
6. Passions

Whether you consider this an insight to a creative’s mind or an observation, the following are common traits of creatives.

1. Daydreamers – most creatives are prone to daydreaming. Despite what mom and the primary school teachers may have said, daydreaming is anything but a waste of time. Letting your mind wander can assist the birthing of new ideas. Although our best ideas seemingly come out of the blue, allowing your mind to ponder the what ifs, the why, the hows, whens, whos, or just imagining an exciting new location can in fact plant seeds of ideas in that mental garden. Then ‘suddenly’ an idea will burst forth.
Neuroscientists have studied brain activity during daydreaming sessions of patients and have determined that it is a highly involved brain activity.
The observer sees someone staring off into space, on a focal point somewhere out there, somewhere they can’t see. The daydreamer knows that their mind is anything but idle during this time. I’ve had people ask me how do I shut my mind off like that. Excuse me? They really don’t get it. Part of the reason a daydreaming student is so distracted from the current lesson in a classroom is because of the video playing out inside their head of whatever topic sparked the daydream.
If you’ve never experienced this, this may be a scary process for you. I’ll attempt to verbalize a daydreaming session. I was sitting in a mortgage originator’s class where the instructor was talking about the most recent changes to the Frank-Dodd law. Dry material even for a mortgage originator.

Instructor: As you are probably well aware by now, the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted into law in response to the abuse that was present in the mortgage loan market that was largely responsible for the collapse of the financial system in 2008.

My Mind: “ Someone has to go to jail Ben.” ( line from the movie, National Treasure.) Yeah, that’s about right, someone has to take the fall. Someone has to be responsible for the economic collapse of the nation here – and the mortgage loan officer is, of course, responsible for all the people that defaulted on their loans or bought more house than they could afford never mind the fact that the real estate broker is always pushing their clients to buy up. (Hey, don’t judge me – I’m just telling you my train of thought here. You can argue with my logic some other time.)

Instructor: Our new rule will protect consumers from irresponsible mortgage lending by requiring lenders to ensure prospective buyers have the ability to repay their mortgage. The rules also protect borrowers from risky lending practices such as “no docs” and “interest only” features. . . .

My mind: But it doesn’t protect them against the media that tells them they need a bigger house, nor fix their credit issues. You can’t protect idiots from their own idiocy. We already have in place means to get QMs ( quality mortgages). Our compensation is only 3% while the realtor’s take is 6% – why are they using us as the scapegoat?
Think* think* think* Hmmmmm, well broker X was rather underhanded in some of his dealings.

OH! Hey, I could write a story about a fraud ring and a broker that’s in on it. Yeah, the realtor, the mortgage broker, the inspector all working together in a ring. Yeah, one of them could be the straw buyer, they could run a money laundering operation while they worked their house flipping, disguise the source, use offshore accounts. I think I need to write this down!

(Hence, why my license recertification manual has numerous notes in the margins with stars by them.)

Instructor: Ms. Mack, would you care to give an example of a breach of ethics in mortgage lending?

Really, he had no idea what he was getting into when he asked that question. I’m quite certain that he asked because he thought I was zoned out.

To him, it seemed that I wasn’t paying attention, but in fact, I was. It’s just that my mind was 10 steps ahead of him exploring nooks and crannies while he walked slowly down the corridor behind me. Holding my automatic assault rifle at the ready, checking every doorway- clear! Oh wait, that was the next daydream.

2. Creatives observe everything: the clothes the instructor is wearing, whether he has a t-shirt beneath his Van Heusen, the holes on the heel of his socks, the wear pattern on the sole of his shoes, a hint of Nautica classic as he paces in front of the room, the overpowering scent of Obsession from the lady sitting across the aisle from me, the nervous flicking of the pen back and forth from the guy at the back of the room, the guy on the other side of the room that keeps checking his phone for messages, (later found out his wife was admitted and going into labor with their third child). I could go on but I think you probably get the point.
All of the individuals attending this class were business professionals. I’d be willing to bet that the most detail any of them could give you was that the instructor wore a purple tie with his white shirt and suit. They were there to learn a subject, pass the class and get the credit towards renewing their license.

Creatives take in every aspect of their surroundings and taking notice of those things often lead to daydreaming. Daydreaming engages your brain, it’s not a zoned out state. The world is a creative person’s oyster — they see possibilities everywhere and are constantly taking in information that becomes fodder for creative expression. As Henry James is widely quoted, “a writer is someone on whom nothing is lost”.
For anyone that decides to peak at my notebooks, it’s a confusing jumble of thoughts, observations, comments, quotes, bits of information. It has meaning for me, it wasn’t intended for any other audience. My notebooks are a collection of raw materials just as a sculptor has a bin of clay, or a hunk of marble, or whatever medium he is using.

3. People watchers
OK, for the noncreative this can be a bit freaky. Relax, we aren’t stalking you. In fact, if a creative has taken notice of you, it means they find you interesting. Again, nothing escapes a creative.
Nervous fidgeting, sniffles, subtle gestures, an awkward gate, the telltale signs of insecurity in someone trying to project confidence, clothing, jewelry, hairstyles, complexion.
Yeah, I see where it could freak people out if they realize they are being observed. Most of the time it’s just a passing glance or the brief time in an elevator, but it’s enough time for the creative to give a full report to a police officer in infinite detail. Not that anything is going to happen to the observee, just saying.

We notice manners and the lack of them. We notice speech patterns, voice inflections, colloquial dialects, slang expressions, enunciation and even volume.

4. They observe the world as a child.
They observe the world with the eyes of a child, still seeing wonder and awe in their surroundings. They see the majesty in the mountains, the magnificence of the ocean, the diversity that surrounds us each and every day. There’s a part of them that never grows up, with a sometimes naive take on things. It makes sense, of course, you have to see the beauty that surrounds you in order to convey that beauty in their own creations. Who but a creative can convey a mood on canvas? Can paint a picture with their words? Who else can transform a lump of clay into a masterpiece? They feel, deeply. They see beyond what the common observer sees. They process a tragedy, their minds working to make sense of the senseless and in so doing produce a work that brings their constituents to tears.
I believe this is one of the key secrets to being creative. Allowing their inner child free reign and time to play.

Would you call yourself a mentalist creative?
Stay tuned for the next part, Time Bandits.
Write on my friends, write on!

Mythos and Theory

skellig rock

First let me apologize – I can’t access my spell-check. I’m not sure what the problem is. Please just bear with me. It won’t be the first time you find spelling errors and sadly it won’t be the last either.

Fiction writers take great liberties at times with bending the truth, creating truths, twisting the truths, or more often just making up stuff as we go along.

One of the more fascinating things to me is in science fiction where the start of the story, or premise is based on fact, then add on or play what if, or toss the known science out the door and put something else in its place. Actually it’s not just in science fiction. This method is used in romance, in westerns, in drama, in whodunnits, it’s even in classic literature.

Whether we start with the norms of proper society and delve into the life of miscreants and street urchins, or we ride along on Captain Nemo’s fabulous Nautilus, the magic of fiction is that it can transport our minds out of our circumstances into a magical dimension that we find stimulating, calming, exhilarating, or even terrifying.

There is a long-standing heritage as bards and storytellers of this. Each culture has their mythos, stories that are told about the aspects of our world that mortal man didn’t comprehend. Are they made up? Often, there is an element of truth in cultural mythology. This is why the different mythologies across the cultures have parallel stories, have numerous similarities, and why most have gone by the wayside.

Ancient cultures attributed everything to acts of the Gods. Modern Science has replaced a cultural heritage with factual data. I’m all for science, but don’t you find it rather dull at times? Instead of meteorological phenomenon, we would be running to the temple to make offering to Hera, Zuess, Horus, or Quetzalcoatl. Of course the sacrificial offerings might be a problem nowadays.

When studying mythos it’s easy to slip over into theory. Theory is defined as:
n. – A doctrine, or scheme of things, which terminates in speculation or contemplation, without a view to practice; hypothesis; speculation.
n. – An exposition of the general or abstract principles of any science; as, the theory of music.
n. – The science, as distinguished from the art; as, the theory and practice of medicine.
n. – The philosophical explanation of phenomena, either physical or moral; as, Lavoisier’s theory of combustion; Adam Smith’s theory of moral sentiments.

About now, you’re looking at the topics of my blog and wondering where the heck I’m going with this, aren’t you?

Mythos and theory are at the heart of my WIP. It’s about faeries. Not the wee winged creatures that Disney likes to portray like Tinkerbell. Not the wee folk that Darby O’Gill ran into. It’s about a legendary race, the Tuatha De Danaan. In Irish-Celtic mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danann (“People of the goddess Danu”) are the Irish race of gods, founded by the goddess Danu. These gods, who originally lived on ‘the islands in the west’, had perfected the use of magic. They traveled on a big cloud to the land that later would be called Ireland and settled there.
Shortly after their arrival they defeated the Firbolg at the first battle of Mag Tuireadh. In the second battle of Mag Tuireadh they fought and conquered the Fomorians, a race of giants who were the primordial inhabitants of Ireland. The Tuatha Dé dealt more subtly with the Fomorians than with the Firbolg, and gave them the province of Connacht. There was also some marrying between the two races.
The Tuatha Dé themselves were later driven to the underworld by the Milesians, the people of the fabulous spanish king Milesius. There they still live as invisible beings and are known as the Aes sidhe. In a just battle, they will fight beside mortals. When they fight, they go armed with lances of blue flame and shields of pure white.

The Epic of the Tuatha Dé Danann is the first Cycle of Irish storytelling.

Fascinating material for a history buff that has ancestral ties to Caldonia and Ireland, but Miracle Gro for a creative mind.

This is a jumping off place. A beginning spot to which I stripped down some things, added on other things, threw on new garbs, tore off that bit there, added a bit more over here and wha-la! My own personal bent on a legendary race of immortal beings. I tried not to clash too much with traditional theory but then again it is just theory after all? Isn’t it?

Wouldn’t you wonder why, such a superior race that defeated the Firbolg and the Fomorian giants would be content to be exiled to the underground while humans roamed free on the surface? Why would they fight alongside these same humans?

Like I said, a jumping off place. As I sat on a high observation point, looking down over a valley of green lush spring grass, the Irish landscape came to my mind and the ideas began exploding like an internal fireworks display. Wish you could have been there it was magnificent! Then again, if you ask my daughter it’s a scary experience.

Soon, I will be on the final draft of this work and be ready to share it with everyone! In the meantime, you might want to invest in a little wrought ironwork around your home. Or a few pieces of galena might make an attractive investment.

Write on my friends, let the fireworks begin!

The Creative Mind

Quotidiandose does not own copyrights to this image, all rights reserved to dreamlifecreation.com

Creativity is a fascinating mental playground that eludes the analytical thinker. Logic and reason are first and foremost in the minds of most adults. The traditional job force embraces and encourages the analytical, mechanical, scientific, and non-thinking modes. My coach recently argued her point that there have always been creatives, although it has recently changed from being called creative thinkers to being a creative.

Yes, there has always been creatives in the workforce but we weren’t appreciated. I was encouraged to stay inside the guidelines, do the job, don’t think outside the box, stick to the status quo and produce widgets. My creative side was stifled by 200 pages or more manuals of standard operating procedures. I was sent to sensitivity training. I was sent to a procedures and protocol class. In other words, they tried their best to get me to conform. (You should be getting a visual of that 1927 Fritz Lang classic movie – Metropolis.)

There have always been the creative among us, but they are often ridiculed, called dreamers and told to get a real job. Many artists never profited from their work. It was only after their deaths that some of the greatest creatives were even recognized. Galileo was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy”. Do you think his theory of a heliocentric universe was received by the church? NOT A CHANCE!

The traditional workforce is diminishing. The traditional manual labor jobs are going overseas as well as the technology jobs. There is no better time to embrace your creative tendencies than now! Creatives can think outside the box. As Gunnery Sergent Highway stated in Heartbreak Ridge, “You’re Marines now. You adapt. You overcome. You improvise. Let’s move!” Only in our world we will substitute creative for marine unless you are both in which case – I want to be on your team.

Creativity works in sometimes what is considered mysterious and often paradoxical ways. Their thinking is a stable, defining characteristic in some personalities, but it may also change based on situation and context. Inspiration and ideas often arise seemingly out of nowhere and then fail to show up when we need them most. Creative thinking requires complex cognitive skills yet is completely distinct from the thinking process.

Neuroscience paints a complicated picture of creativity. Scientists now understand that creativity is far more complex than the right/left brain distinction would have us think. This being the theory that left brain thinkers are rational and analytical, and right brain thinkers are creative and emotional. Creativity is thought to involve a number of cognitive processes, neural pathways, and emotions, and we still don’t have the full picture of how the imaginative mind works.

And psychologically speaking, creative personality types are difficult to pin down, largely because they’re complex, paradoxical and tend to avoid habit or routine. And it’s not just a stereotype of the “tortured artist” — artists really may be more complicated people. Research has suggested that creativity involves the coming together of a multitude of traits, behaviors and social influences in a single person.

“It’s actually hard for creative people to know themselves because the creative self is more complex than the non-creative self,” states Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist at New York University who has spent years researching creativity, “The things that stand out the most are the paradoxes of the creative self … Imaginative people have messier minds.”

So when a creative person tells you it’s about to get a little messy you best believe them.
While a creative is difficult to pin down, there are some tell-tale characteristics and behaviors that are common.

Do not confuse these traits with any excuse for laziness or slothfulness. Most creative types do end up in the traditional workforce at some point because, well we get tired of eating peanut butter and living in bad neighborhoods. In fact, many creatives that I know work a traditional job while pursuing their artistic dreams on the side, or in their spare time often forgoing meals or sleep.

What are these traits? You’ll have to tune in next week to find out. I intend to make a whole series on this topic, because I myself am tired of the stereotype, of being called lazy, tired of being told to get a real job. Hello? I have a “real job” plus a side job, plus the parenting – which is a 24/7 job.

If you see something that grabs your attention leave a comment. If you want to contribute to some of my upcoming posts, contact me.

Write on my friends, never underestimate the creative “force” within you!

Daydreams

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Daydream Believer 

It’s been one of those days. You know the ones I mean, the days when nothing seems to go right, when even the smallest task seems to take forever because some little minor thing goes wrong.  I tried to write a blog post, nothing showed up in the text box. I had typed nearly 200 words before I looked at my blank white box and asked  ‘ What the heck?’

I tackled the dishes that were left from last night –  because last night I had other things to do besides housekeeping.  The  dishwasher hadn’t been emptied, therefore that had to be done first. The  dish drainer was full of those hand-washed items.  Would someone please tell me why those brownies boycott my house?   Where are they when you need them or do they only go to the cobbler’s house?  When I ran the water in the sink to rinse off the dishes, and soak a few because, well, I had let them sit overnight and marinara sauce forms a  sort of organic based BONDO.

The plug that fits down in the sink?  Yeah,  it broke and the sink won’t hold water now.

After running far more water than I had planned to, I had two baskets of clean laundry that needed to be sorted and put away.  Then, well  I’m sure that nearly  every one of you are familiar with the routine.  The domestic duties never cease.  The counter top remains clean until someone needs a drink, then a snack.  Before you know it that one glass has multiplied into 5 glasses,  3 coffee cups, 4 plates, a saucepan, a skillet, silverware,  a pitcher with tea residue in it, and who in the world got  out the muffin pan and why is it covered in some greasy slime?

This is when  the daydreaming begins:  The tropical beach calling our names, the palm trees swaying a rhythmic chant while  a lone sailboat drifts calmly across crystalline waters, some guy named Javier in a tropical shirt and pale blue shorts bearing fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas . . .

“MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM”  The record scratches across the mental vinyl as I glance at my daughter with her hands on her hips.  ” I’ve been talking to you for  the last ten minutes and you didn’t listen to a thing I said.”  The lip goes out, the arms cross over her chest, the furrow in her brow deepens as her teeth are now clenched.

“What?  I’m sorry I was just thinking.”  As I scrub harder on the greasy muffin pan, I turn angled  to where I can see her as she repeats  for me.  It’s never a life threatening matter.  It’s never  a real emergency, but when they want your attention they want it undivided.   I can be a very good listener, but when I am daydreaming about somewhere I’d rather go, . . . sorry what were we talking about again?

After tackling the chores that  needed the most attention, and hearing my daughter tell me about her latest dissection in biology class and the guy that sits at her table that she had to take over  dissecting because he was squeamish, and how he  acted like he was about to kiss her, she grabbed yet another glass because  apparently no one besides me reuses their glass when all they had in it was water.  Content now that I’d listened to the high and low point of her day, I had  approximately 45 minutes  of so-called free time.

I don’t know how the rest of the world views this free time but for me it’s the  small snippets of time that are  for writing, or writing related activities such as  reading and research.  I grabbed myself a glass of tea, and  went outside in the glorious sunshine with pens and notepad in hand.  Ahhhhhhhh!

The sun warming my skin reminded me that next time I should use some sunscreen.   I managed to jot down key points for 3 scenes,  with my wind chimes tinkling in the background before my daughter found me.  Oh well, it’s time to prepare dinner anyway.

Perhaps one night we can manage to  bring our glass of wine to the patio and maybe light a fire in the fire pit.  OOH!  I should buy some graham crackers, chocolate bars and marshmallows and maybe even some  hot dogs and we’ll have ourselves a wiener roast over the open fire for our dinner on the patio!

Right, tomorrow’s agenda includes a trip to the grocery store.  Where are those delivery boys when you need them Vicki?

What do you daydream about?  Do you enjoy being the domestic goddess or  are they chores to you?  I think y’all know quite well that if I had my way I’d be prosperous enough to hire a housekeeper!  Only problem is, I’d have to clean before they got here.  Ironic, I know!

Write on my friends,  and don’t forget to dream today!