Our media business involves a zillion layers of invention, including every craft and art seen credited on those end-title crawls. Each credit connotes an innovator and creative problem-solver bringing his or her talent to bear in the creation of movie magic.
Across the spectrum of vocations—whether you’re an actor, writer, director, inventor, chef, computer programmer, research scientist or, God help us, a weapons creator—we struggle with the process of bringing forth what has never existed through the mysterious process called creativity. For many, this exploration toward the ultimate joy of accomplishment has a cost: anxiety!
First Rule: Ignore All Rules
I share these thoughts, aware of how ignorant I am of the true spectrum of your inspiration process. Which I consider pretty close to sacred. I want to dialogue “with” you and not at you. Please ignore everything here that goes against your instincts. They are usually right!
My observations come from the privilege of a longish career. A few wild, giant successes and many rejections (many!) Experiences that have given me the one thing I didn’t have when younger - “perspective”. I have discovered the scripts I’ve written from the heart have gotten them made more frequently than the projects the studios paid me to write. But, as an artist and businessman I have never been far from the pain of uncertainty, when attempting to make concrete what has flitted around inside my head.
As a curious young documentary filmmaker I explored some amazing game-changers in various fields. Like revolutionary Media Guru – Marshall McLuhan, Master Magician and Psychic debunker, The “Amazing” James Randi. Brilliant Canadian Architect Raymond Moriyama. Malcolm Bricklin the car entrepreneur who built a gull-wing sports car before Delorean. Toller Cranston the first international figure skater to perform his sport as Ballet on ice and not just muscular gymnastics – and my own mentor Norman Jewison who’s list of amazing films is humbling. People who have the habit of pushing beyond the limits in their fields.
What did I learn? They have a universal sense to think freely and uniquely outside their current boxes, but it didn’t prevent stress and outside criticism. They cared so much about their goals that despite the negatives they headed where their guts told them. It was infectious. I don’t think of myself as particularly gifted… More a dreamer and not a great employee, but they made me feel that pursuing my own dreams was possible.
I have never escaped stress
It comes from our imaginations trying to help us define the future – but without any compass for that untrod path. Stress is normal, it evolved alongside the imagination as a protective problem solving mechanism, igniting our body’s fight or flight system. A kind of psychic radar, bouncing negative things out and reflecting on how we might defend against them. But, when it is not attached to solving a real issue, it can bounce all over the place unnerving us in the process.
I saw the world’s most renowned stress pioneer speak. The late Dr. Hans Selye. He stated that being mugged or experiencing a surprise birthday party can create an identical adrenalin rush. Heart rate increases. Tension tightens. Breathing speeds up. But, in the mugging, the effect is felt as fear and the birthday surprise, as joy. – “Anxiety”, when it is in the service of something we value is embraced as “Excitement”.
Selye said, our adrenalin glands disturb us less when we are impassioned, pursuing goals that fascinate us. Even more strongly if we feel those goals benefit others!
Alternately, working on projects that are against my nature. (Maybe I sold out a little?) – Trying to cash in on someone else’s goal can be painful. I have done it as a writer. And it was like trying to pluck words out of my flesh. I didn’t like the end result and failed to have the incentive to fight for it.
When I am going in the direction my instincts support, the fear of failure is still there – but mitigated with the magical excitement of discovery.
We should have come with a manual
Most schools are teaching from the past, or worse, teaching to the test, ugh! Production line thinking. They don’t usually do a great job of discovering ugly ducklings and inspiring us to become swans.
Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped. Many educational institutions forget that the root word of “education” is EDUCE – Greek for to bring forth.
The man with the most watched of all TED talks is Sir Ken Robinson. A natty British author, with an amazing sense of humor. (TED is a brilliant source of inspiring videos by a myriad of passionate experts.)
With subjects such as “Schools kill Creativity,” Sir Ken challenges the education system to find our strengths and skills as children. To help us to understand ourselves and strengthen who we are naturally supposed to be — musician, painter, engineer.
He says it is vital we relate with others who share our path. He calls this finding our “Tribe”. Nerds need to hang with each other and gain from their mutual unique perspectives. Within our tribes we no longer feel like crazed loners. It is like coming home, leading us to more fulfilling lives.
The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.
-Edwin H. Land
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