Creativity Versus Productivity

I really enjoy making up stories, but I’m a professional writer who writes about real-life, grown-up things for a living, and this makes telling fictional tales very difficult to do.

I’ve been having a case of writer’s block lately. I’ve been trying to figure out how I can get on the storytelling horse again and just churn out one good short story. I’ve made mind maps, subject lists, I’ve scheduled a regular time each day to sit and write, and I’m reading books about the craft. I’ve been coming up with all kinds of different methods to try and get the show on the road, but nothing’s been happening.

Today, it dawned on me that I was approaching it all wrong. I realised that the conditions required for synthesising information and producing clear, effective articles of communication as a journalist are antithetical to the conditions needed for facilitating the flow of imagination, and generating the eureka moments that fuel good storytelling.

I attended a design and architecture conference this afternoon and had lunch with one of my publishers and a friend of hers who organizes visual art events and tradeshows. All of us are self-employed business owners, and the conversation turned to work and how to avoid taking on more jobs than we really want to.

The publisher, an architect by training, dreams of one day designing and building her own house on a beach, but she can’t because she has twelve employees and clients on her tail constantly. The art event organiser can't find the time to work on her own oil paintings, because she has too many meetings scheduled on any given day. I had a book and two short stories published too many years ago, but can’t seem to write fiction anymore because I’ve got too many paid assignments and copywriting projects to complete.

“Saying no is very difficult to do, especially if you have overheads and staff to pay,” said the publisher.

“Every deal you clinch feels like a win. The adrenalin of getting a new client is addictive. And who can resist the thought of expanding one’s portfolio.” I added.

“I sometimes feel bad about saying no, because I think that will stop them from ever coming back to me,” said the art event organiser.

“The problem with getting the big projects or having a good fiscal year, is that you have to keep it up, and you feel compelled to exceed your numbers from the previous year. So every year, the anxiety mounts because once you get used to making big money, it’s hard to go back to making small bucks,” said the publisher.

“But we have to learn to say no. What’s important to ask ourselves is: do we want to be productive or do we want to be creative?” said the art event organiser.

We only have so many hours in a day, should we spend most of our time being productive, or should we allow ourselves the pleasure of being creative more often?

Most of the time, being productive feels right; it feels more appropriate than being creative. Productivity seems like the responsible, mature approach to life, because it helps to remove unwanted circumstances (like poverty, homelessness, hunger or lack of perceived social value) and propels us upward in the world (earn an MBA or PhD, buy a home, become a CEO, buy stocks, have everyone kiss your ass).

When I think of creativity in its purest form, I often see images of Van Gogh slicing his ears off, doped out street buskers writing killer songs that never get heard, or drooling children building sandcastles on the beach. So it’s not surprising that I’ve ended up taking the productivity route.

Being busy, efficient and prosperous makes me feel like I am doing the best I can to get my basic needs taken care of, which in turn makes me feel righteous, superior to, and fit to sit in judgment of those who are less busy, efficient and prosperous than myself. It makes me feel as if I have earned my place in the world, and that I am indispensible to those whom I like to believe (often falsely so) depend on me. Being productive improves my self-esteem, it helps me feel a little more in control and a little less afraid of how unpredictable life can be. But it also leaves me with a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction.

I walk around like I have really important things to do and lament how there’s never enough time, but there’s this big question hanging over my head. Why the heck am I doing so much boring, tedious, meaningless and unoriginal crap? Probably because it’s a lot safer than the alternative.

Because of the nature of my profession, I’ve always assumed that I was being creative every time I produced decent copy. But my new friend’s remark got me thinking more about how productivity and creativity are really very different beasts.

The Oxford dictionary defines productive as “producing or able to produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities; or achieving a significant amount or result”. It defines creative as “having good imagination or original ideas”, while Webster defines creative as “using the ability to make or think of new things: involving the process by which new ideas, stories, etc., are created”.

The productive person is one who is goal oriented, result-driven and concerned with dolling out quantity, and generating benefits, while the creative person is one who has the ability to think up new things. Though both productivity and creativity clearly have their merits, I find that the later is a much rarer condition of mind, and the place where great things happen.

Just before lunch, we had attended a talk by architect Rem Koolhaas about the coexistence of chaos and order in the workplace of the 21^st century. In the world of start-ups and design, innovation is an absolute necessity, and according to Koolhaas’s presentation, it is the chaotic and unstructured environments that inspire improvisation – the seed of all new creations; while ordered or highly structured spaces (like the traditional office cubicle and boardroom) can stifle improvisation and thus creativity.

Now take Koolhaas’s proposition and apply it to the human mind at work. Like a built environment, the programme that a mind is accustomed to can determine if it becomes a place that encourages productivity or a place that inspires creativity. Making “do to” lists, work flow charts, doing research or performing routine activities on a daily basis can perhaps be likened to the highly structured office. To work productively, one usually follows templates, guidelines, modus operandi and processes that allow for the efficient deliverance of a tangible commodity. Productivity often stipulates benefits or profits, either in the form of a purchase order, pay cheque, certificate, positive appraisal, social approval or a promotion and a raise. To be prolific as productivity requires, the mind needs to move within the framework of an assembly line. It has to approach its tasks step by step: Take a brief, meet the client’s requirements, deliver the work, wait for feedback, rework the concept, send to client for approval. Clean things ups so the work looks professional and perfect, get paid.

To work creatively, the mind needs to be in a state that is well, a little uncoordinated and messy. More like an artist’s studio – lofty and spacious, with cluttered corners. It needs to be in a state of play – an energetic, emotionally charged, frisky state where random thoughts, ideas, images, sounds, feelings or impressions vibrate with sufficient intensity and verve that they can actually be captured by the worker and transferred into their medium of choice.

The key phenomenon in creative thinking is randomness. When there are too many rules in place, there is a lower chance for psychic happenstance – that magical lightning bolt of the gods. Hence, a mind in a state of leisure, a mind free to entertain all sorts of emotions and notions, both good and bad, is probably more conducive to receiving random thoughts and observing previously unnoticed patterns than a mind that is too singularly focused on achieving a particular goal. Therefore, to arrive at a state of mind that encourages creativity, all structures (deadlines, word counts, client briefs, client expectations, industry standards, budgets, fees, hourly rates, formatting etc. etc.) ought to be obliterated.

If productivity is a fashionably and formally dressed lady ready to dazzle at the ball, creativity is the orphan with no shoes, but the face of an angel. Productivity clings to the trappings of the material, the tried and true formulas for corporeal success, whereas creativity is undoubtedly guided by the spiritual and seeks only to find solutions to the whys, hows and what ifs. Agenda can only be an afterthought of creativity, whereas it is the driving force of productivity.

All that said, we should not abandon productivity altogether. Pablo Picasso once said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist”. I think the problem with becoming a producer is that the rewards of quantity and worldly achievement become so seductive, that we forget about discovery, novelty, authenticity, higher purpose, and the joy of play.

I know I must try to say “no” to doing what feel I ought to, and say “yes” to doing what I want to more often. So perhaps getting on a horse and attempting to churn is not the way to get through this block. I can see now that the creative mind is not a farm where ideas can be reined in and stories harvested, it is an open field that sees drought, pestilence, rain and fire.

But as long as this field is left undomesticated, unfenced and unfettered, the sunlight will continue to shine upon it, and the grass will grow. I do not know what plant or flower or fruit will blossom there this season. Maybe there will be nothing for a while. But I take the wild field over the farm today.

Rechannel Sex for Success

Why are peak performers and high-achievers more prone to promiscuity and infidelity? Because sex is energy, it's a self-igniting fuel that when not used to power up the engine, ends up burning the car. And Type As tend to have a whole lot more of it! There’s been much scientific research linking ambitiousness to a high sex drive, and the marital indiscretions of charismatic celebrities such as Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, Elizabeth Taylor and Madonna serve as reminders of the sex-power connection. It would seem that individuals who are highly motivated, are more often than not, hornier than most too. So what can those with big appetites do to stay out of trouble yet continue climbing the ladder of success?

In Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”, he talks about the mastery of sex transmutation. Hill writes: “Sex mutation is simple and easily explained. It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expression, to thoughts of some other nature. Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men develop keenness of imagination, courage, willpower, persistence, and creative ability unknown to them at other times. So strong and impelling is the desire for sexual contact that men freely run the risk of life and reputation to indulge it. When harnessed and redirected along other lines, this motivating force maintains all of it’s attributes of keenness of imagination, courage, etc., which may be used as powerful creative forces in literature, art of any other professional calling, including, the accumulation of riches.”

Taoist practitioners have long understood this philosophy of sex transmutation and have employed the sexual instinct for the purpose of self-development and well-being. They understood that sexual energy could be a depletive force, as well as a creative one. Like fire, it can be destructive or productive depending on how it is used. According to Taoist master Mantak Chia, sex, when reigned and used properly, becomes an aid in the spiritual pursuit of enlightenment. Chia even went as far as to encourage men to have sex without ejaculating to intensify the experience without expending precious “qi” or life force. In the Taoist text “The Sexual Teachings of the White Tigress”, author Hsi Lai teaches women how use sex to enhance their health and vitality, and maintain their youth.

Call it Eros, qi, life force, mojo, lust or a crazy mad crush, that irrational instinct that rouses your loins is the very thing that you should thank for all your big breaks in life. But, often people with high sex-drives can become enslaved by the very thing that propels them towards success, much to the detriment of their careers and reputations. But there is a way to master that monkey!

The key to making your libido work to your advantage is to introduce discernment and restraint. Squander your mojo and you’ll be left with no more wild oats to sow in your career or creative pursuits. Nurture it, tease it and deprive it of junk food, and it will start working wonders for you. Sexual energy is most potent and influential when it exists in the mind. It is dissipated and weakened once it is physically expressed in the act of orgasm. So hold on to it, release occasionally, and redirect the bulk of it to your work and creative life.

The power of strategy

Consider the single and sexually frustrated man or women, who expends much mental energy plotting how to “target, trap, tap and tame” a desired mate. The same strategic thinking processes translate beautifully to career advancement. In order to be successful in the mating game, one needs to be, above all else, innovative. To keep a potential mate enthralled, one needs to be able to continually entertain, intrigue and most importantly remain a novelty. To stay on top of your game in the world of business requires pretty much the same skills: keep impressing your clients (entertain), make sure they think you know something they don't (intrigue), and always surprise them with something new (remain a novelty).

The power of conquest

I knew of a guy, let’s call him Jed. Jed was what some would call a player. In his early twenties, his made a list of all his sexual conquests: name, age, hair and eye colour and how well they rated in the sack. Today, Jed who is now an extremely successful Hollywood scriptwriter has shifted his focus. He now makes lists identifying possible projects he can work on, existing and potential clients he can approach, story ideas and areas where he can develop new business. He prioritizes this list according to how easily he can achieve each item, how lucrative they will be, and how much satisfaction he will derive from working on them. The amount of time Jed use to spend pursuing and romancing new paramours, he now spends writing brilliant stories. Sex allows us to gain more territory (we get access to a body or bodies that we previously did not have access to) and increase our influence (we mate and send out mini versions of ourself into the world), and by shifting our focus from the physical to the psychic, this expansion can take place in our work life too.

Keeness of Imagination

The “keenness of imagination” that Hill writes about is something that anyone in the grips of sexual obsession knows well. The smitten spend hours entertaining thrilling fantasy of past scenarios or construct encounters (complete with dialogue) that they hope to have with the object of their attention. Their imagination fires on all cylinders until it has exhausted itself with multiple scenes or perhaps multiple partners. Now take away the more obvious imagery and ideas associated with sex, and what’s left is an enquiring mind and a clear eye that causes one to delve deeper into the emotional states and existential quandaries that cause us to seek out sex with such a desperate and despairing urgency in the first place. What reveals itself is a fear of loneliness, of poverty and lack, the sorrow of loss, rage at and dependency on a parent, the urge to dominate or submit, the need for connection, the desire to win, the need for God or a resistance to pain or death. Remove the obvious and what comes to light are subjects that are the source of all the world’s most sublime art, and the impetus for all of humanity's advancements.

Courage

Watch the male praying mantis braving death in the arms of a female for a shag, or the male wasp spider, whose genitals get broken off inside his girl before she eats him after sex, and you won’t be able to deny that pursuing sex takes the type of “courage” that Hill might have had in mind. Now imagine how much better off that praying mantis and wasp spider might be if they hadn’t explored their women’s naughty bits? This courage and risky-taking proclivity when transmuted can lead to great success in terms of wealth acquisition. It is this kind of fearlessness that encourages the entrepreneur with only a hundred dollars in his pocket to turn his dream into a reality, or that nudges the investor eyeing a dark horse to make that leap when others daren’t.

Willpower

Defined as “the strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes or plans”, I interpret willpower in the context of sex as the ability to meet your goal at all costs and without consideration for others. Squids, too eager to get down to business, pierce holes into their mates before inserting sperm into their cuts (ouch!); elephant seals have been known to crush hordes of seal pups when they are in a mating frenzy. Another definition of willpower is “firmness of will; the ability to control oneself and determine one’s actions”. Once transmuted, the sex instinct can convert willful insistence to pure, directive intent, which has the power to manifest greatness and an ebullient existence.

Persistence

Watch male lobsters boxing over who gets the girl, or observe the bowerbird of Northern Australia slogging away to build their complex tunnel like nests to impress and entice a mate, and it becomes clear that sexual desire inspires almost trance-like persistence among those in its grip. Persistence, as you probably already know, is a key ingredient for success, and when rerouted from carnal pursuits towards intellectual or spiritual endeavours, can result in long-lasting and ever-increasing victories.

Creative ability

According to certain cultures and religious texts, the purpose of sex is procreation. If this notion is correct, sexual intentions are thoughts of pure creativity. In the physical expression of sex, the creative power of sexual thoughts is diminished or extinguished. But if they are withheld and not constantly given an outlet of flesh to tire themselves with, these thought-instincts enliven, adapt and are forced to find different modes of expression, for example art, music, writing, acting or the expansion of empires. When the libido is brought to submission, a person is thus able to tap more fully than ever into their creative abilities and manifest their dreams when previously they could not.