Wednesday 15 July 2020

'We spend much of our lives not being who we really are....'

rod judkins | On Cultivating A Creative Mindset

A lovely inspirational line on a ‘creative mindset’, I got or rather caught for myself ;-) while reading through the famed 2015 rod judkin read titled, The Art of Creative Thinking.


rod judkin, Professor of creativity at the world-famous St Martin's College of Art says here,

A creative mindset can be applied to everything you do and enrich every aspect of your life. Creativity isn't a switch that's flicked on or off; it's a way of seeing, engaging with and responding to the world around you. The creative are creative when filing documents, cooking, arranging timetables or doing housework. Try to develop an alternative way of thinking that can be applied to any challenge or project, no matter how far out of your comfort zone.

rod judkin starts off by penning down his inspirational thoughts on art's first super star, Michelangelo -

Undoubtedly one of the world's great geniuses, Michelangelo had not so much a divine gift as an intensely nurtured talent. Brought up by quarrymen, he could chisel and cut blocks of stone from the age of six. By the age of twelve he had been carving stone for thousands of hours. At fourteen he was apprenticed to an artist's studio. That level of skilled training is not possible today. In fact, it's illegal.

The old masters are a great source of inspiration, but we cannot ever emulate their level of skill. We have to discover our own strengths. Creative thinking is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened through exercise. I often set exercises that each last five or ten minutes, rather as an athlete might do a series of short workouts to get fit.

says rod judkins.

How lovelyyy! How bubblyyy!! How trueyyy!!!

Some of his thoughts are real inspirational stuff! –

Sample this –

Everyone is searching for originality. Ironically, it is right there within them, but most people are too busy being someone else.

Creative people are prepared to be themselves. They make the most of their own experiences whether good or bad. The advantage of being themselves is that they are original. There is no one like them. This makes whatever they do unique.

We spend much of our lives not being who we really are. There are huge pressures on everyone to be someone else; to live up to others' expectations - to be a perfect parent, obedient employee, selfless partner or high-achieving son or daughter.

We lose the ability to be good at being ourselves, and we forget who we are.

The world is pushing constantly to submerge you in orthodoxy, to make you indistinguishable from everybody else. To fight against it is to be involved in a lifelong struggle.

To be successfully creative you have to realise it's OK to be yourself.

We all have weaknesses and strengths; the creative accept them and use them both.

The biggest benefit you can be to your company, school, business or family is to accentuate what is special and unique about yourself.

That's difficult in a society that puts huge emphasis on conformity.

True, ain’t it???

And finally, to end with the snippeting part, ;-) the info that he gives us all on one of our favvys, Paulo Coelho – and Coelho’s creative vibes, is the real icing on the cake –

The incredible struggle of Paulo Coelho is an extraordinary example of sheer determination. As a teenager he passionately wanted to become a writer, but his parents considered this madness.

They wanted him to become a lawyer, a secure, respectable profession. To 'save' him from his writing ambitions, his parents had him committed to a mental institution three times. He was subjected to electric shock treatment.

He refused to compromise. He instinctively knew he was meant to be a writer, and he went on to become an author with a unique vision.

His book The Alchemist was translated into eighty languages, sold sixty-five million copies worldwide and provided Coelho with unequivocal, lasting financial security.

To all ye literati of the loveliest order out there - For the next few days, I would gently recommend that you go on ‘Digital Minimalism’ mode for a full twelve hours a day, and pull out a kindle version of this rod judkin read to get some real inspiration for our literary souls from this rod judkin-ian delight! ;-)