In general we perceive frustration as the enemy of creativity . But could the messy, limited, or disappointing situations we find ourselves in help us create our best work?
Thought leader Tim Harford has some inspiring ideas for how we can embrace – even encourage – these moments of frustration and use them as a springboard for a successful creative leap.
Let’s start by saying a cold, hard truth: Things aren’t always going to go as planned . You may be wrong, find yourself with the wrong tools, be forced to slow down, work much harder, or confuse your routines.
But in the end, you may surprise yourself. There may be an astonishing wonder in these perceived “messy” events that can reveal something totally unexpected.
Adding this dash of clutter to a situation can bring out our most creative work.
Embracing clutter
Just because you don’t like it does NOT mean it will NOT serve you – Tim HardfordCLICK TO TWEET
Tim Harford is an economist, journalist, and broadcaster who has quite a few ideas about how we can find our creativity and bring out our best work. And you’re probably not going to enjoy the main thing you have to do: create a mess.
Whatever you do, you’ve probably worked hard to be good at it. You have developed systems, you have your routines down, you know the result you are looking for, and perhaps you have spent years of your life studying it.
As it is, the last thing you want to do is change course . But what do you do when you get stuck? Frustrate you? Throw the project in the trash? Declaring yourself a failure?
What Tim is suggesting is that we accept these unfavorable situations and use them to try new things. Because when we are forced to think differently, new, and possibly better, results emerge as our creativity and ideas take different paths than usual.
In this TED talk, Tim tells some amazing stories of how it all works. How an expected disaster of a performance turned into a record-breaking success, one unlikely team outclassed the others, and how an ugly typeface ended up saving the day.
conclusion
“If you are always starting in the same place, your talents, your skills and your habits become a cliché. If you want to go to a different place, suddenly your ability will find a new way of expressing itself and you will reach new heights. What is the best way to end up in a different place? The best way to finish in a different place is to start in a different place . – Tim Harford
So if we ever wonder where creativity comes from , reality shows us that it comes from the most uncertain places and often even from hated frustrations.
