Daily Creativity: Part 2 - A Slow Experiment
“This is what slow is. It’s about diving deep. It’s about asking questions, if even the answers that we find out about ourselves aren’t ones that we love.”
Welcome to the second episode of this month's slow experiment, where Ben and I are aiming to do something creative every day throughout May.The last week has been really interesting for both of us and in today's poggie we dive in to the patterns we've seen emerging in our own creative efforts and the changes we've each experienced, even in such a short period of time.So far the experiment has had a bigger impact on my headspace than I expected, as it's begun opening me up to see more creative opportunities in my days - problem-solving, parenting, the perspective with which I view the world.We also dig deep in to the question of who, exactly, we're creating for. I guess another way of saying that is we're trying to figure out our Why of creativity. Because as people who both, at least in part, work creatively in their day-to-day jobs, we've discovered that it's hard to remove the idea of creating for an audience from our efforts. Thinking about the end result or the output is ingrained in our thinking, and the frustration I've come up against every day is that this results-oriented approach stops me from creating with complete, playful abandon.Ben talks a lot about the value of slowing down our creative efforts, which flies in the face of today's hustling, deadline-driven world. Very rarely are we allowed to let creativity take time. Very rarely are we encourage to let go of our need to reach a deadline, and simply allow a solution take shape over days, weeks or even years. Again, the lesson here is learning to focus more on the process and less on the output.So in the spirit of our discoveries this week, we're going to try and mix it up and would love you to try too. If you’ve been creating just for you, try sharing your work - it doesn’t have to be online, you can just show a loved one. Or, if you’ve been creating with an audience in mind, this week try doing something just for you. Notice if and how this impacts the process and let us know!Don’t forget to use the hashtag #slowexperiment on Instagram if you’d like to share, and stay tuned for next week’s episode all about analog vs digital in creativity.
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Things to Check Out After Today’s Episode:
- The article Ben reads from on the Creativity Post
- Some creativity resources for you to check out:
- Ben’s Instagram, open for criticism
- Brooke’s Instagram, currently not taking criticism
- Download this month's PDF, full of ideas to keep you creating and keep you accountable