Reactive vs Creative

Take a look at those words.  They are made of the same exact letters.  What a difference flipping a couple letters can be!

(This is a continuation of my last post – one based on a talk I gave at CEA in South Bend, IN recently.)

This is just a gut observation – not a scientific study or anything – but I feel like one of the larger shifts in society is that we are more reactive and less creative.

I am sure someone could build a case for the creative activities of the newer generations.  That said, let’s look at “kids these days.”   For one, kids are hyper-programmed.  Instead of some made-up game in the yard, they are carted around to organized soccer and the like.  They don’t need to creatively negotiate and collaborate and invent the rules of the game because there are adults present telling them their parameters.  Meanwhile, time that would have been spent (”when I was a kid”) creatively making up stories with clay characters or plastic figures in the sandbox is now spent reacting to a video game screen.

How about adults?  Here are some things I would consider creative: gardening, cooking, note writing, hospitality – not to mention the obvious areas of the arts.  Have all of the “time saving” devices removed a level of creativity from our day to day?

The other thing that seems to happen as we grow older is we develop a set of filters.  These filters tell us we aren’t creative.  Now it is true some of us come by our creativity more easily, but this is still strange to me.   In so many other areas of life there are clear differences in skill sets.  My awful golf swing doesn’t keep me from playing.  Bad driving doesn’t keep a whole lot of people off the streets!  And pretty much anyone and everyone seem ready to be experts in politics, education and sports refereeing.  Yet we don’t like putting ourselves out there creatively.  Something says, “don’t do it.”

Stay tuned for some thoughts on how to get past those filters. Joel