Cracking the Code on Creativity

[Music]

people often wonder if they’re creative

so here’s a quick test what do you see

this one’s pretty hard so i’ll make it a

bit easier

now what do you see

how many of you saw this

and how many of you saw this

ladies and gentlemen you have just

experienced a mental shift

creativity is now here and that little

shift is

evidence that you can access your

creativity

so to set the stage let’s look at a new

definition of creativity

creativity is problem solving plus

passion

creativity is the force that propels and

elevates our lives

anytime you passionately go over under

around her through an obstacle to create

something new

that’s creativity funnily the evidence

of creativity is all around us

yet it often slips through our fingers

the

problem is that we’ve never properly

been taught how to access our creativity

that’s why so many people throw up their

hands and give up on trying to find

or maximize their creativity trust me

i seriously doubted my creativity in my

youth

and today i teach creativity at yale

university

and have the privilege of coaching

musicians

artists and leaders on how to find their

creative flow

and spread it through the world the big

shift in my thinking on creativity

occurred on march 16 2007

i’ll never forget that day because i

woke up

in a stark white windowless room hooked

up

to 17 tubes the icu

of new york’s wild cornell hospital i

looked up and there was my mother

holding a chocolate cake happy birthday

sweetheart she whispered to me with

tears in her eyes

you’ve come back to us you see eleven

days earlier

after a five minute procedure at a

doctor’s office

i contracted sepsis a nearly fatal blood

infection

i was rushed to the hospital and i had

four emergency surgeries

in three days my life hung in balance

and i almost died

laying in a coma for nearly 10 days

until i woke up

on my birthday at this point in my life

i was stuck

not only physically but also mentally

creativity was something that i longed

for from my teenage years

as the daughter of holocaust survivors

who came to this country seeking a

better life

i fully bought into the idea that

education was the key to success

and i dove into my studies i dutifully

became a lawyer

and led a busy and productive life but

as the years passed

i had the nagging feeling that i was

living my life in black and white

and that the creatives were the ones

living in color

before landing in the hospital i began

to explore my creativity

through playing the piano and

volunteering in the arts

and i even found the courage to leave

the law

but i was enormously frustrated because

i could not figure out how to properly

channel

my creativity so when i woke up

in the hospital on my birthday there was

no doubt that i had come back for a

reason

and that reason had something to do with

creativity

a few months later after another major

surgery

it finally came to me i had been given

a second chance in life to help people

find their creativity

and spread it through the world so if

you think you’re not creative

or if you’re a creative who thinks

you’ve plateaued

i’m here to tell you that nothing is

further from the truth

today we’re going to crack the code on

creativity

and unveil the secret to living your

life full blast

to get us started we need to debunk the

common myths

that typically block people from

accessing or maximizing their creativity

here’s myth number one creativity is

just for artists

actually it’s for everyone when you’re

at work

developing a new app or launching a new

product

that’s creativity or when you’re at home

inventing new recipes or woodworking

or redecorating a room that’s creativity

too and you don’t have to be an

artist to do any of those things so on

to myth number two

the myth that creativity is the flash in

the pan eureka genius moment

nope creativity is a complex process

of problem solving do you remember the

start of the covet pandemic

when we had a terrible shortage of

personal protective equipment

well teenagers in high school robotics

clubs

tapped into their creativity to solve

this problem

and they used their 3d printers to make

face shields

it took many weeks to come up with the

process and many hours to manufacture

the face shields

and in the end these young people were

cranking out thousands of face shields

for our essential workers take

artists they solve the problem of how to

fill the empty page or the empty stage

and creative problem solving comes up in

places you might not suspect

like when you replant a garden or

reorganize your closets to maximize your

space

that’s creativity along with a big dash

of passion

because passion is the spark that keeps

you going

and that feeling from passion leads us

to myth number three

the myth of the mad miserable creative

think vincent van gogh the world famous

artist who cut off his ear

and languished in an asylum in the south

of france

but to the contrary research from

positive psychology tells us

that creativity is associated with many

aspects of psychological happiness

including that burst of positive

emotions you experience

when you’re being creative and

creativity

is full blast living in the words of

psychologist mikhaichik sent me high

and that feeling of fulfillment that you

derive from being creative

is another indicator of your happiness

now the good folks at nassau our space

agency

further debunked the myth of the

miserable creative in an experiment

where they tested the creative capacity

of

children nasa developed a test

to measure the creative potential of

their engineers

and their ability to come up with

innovative solutions

the test involved a type of creativity

known as divergent thinking

that’s when you come up with as many

ways as possible to solve a problem

no matter how wild or crazy like how

many ways

can you use a paperclip the test was

given to 1600

curious little four and five-year-olds

children

who find pure joy in coming up with new

and creative ideas

and the result of this experiment 98

of those children scored as creative

geniuses

sadly by the time we’re adults just two

percent of a score

in the creative genius category so

here’s the thing

creativity is not something new to you

you were born with it

it may be laying dormant but it’s still

there

so now that you know that creativity is

available to everyone

that it takes many different forms and

that it can lead to your happiness

the question is how can you find it i’m

going to show you right now

prepare to take a journey inside

yourself

so please take a look at this relaxing

beach scene

sit back in your chairs take a nice deep

breath

and close your eyes and go back to a

time

when you were doing something that you

love

something that you’re good at something

you’re passionate about

you’re focused and clear on what you’re

doing

you’re challenged and you’re up to the

challenge and time is going by

and you don’t even notice because you’re

so enraptured

by what you’re doing and how you’re

feeling in the zone

in the flow so keeping your eyes closed

zero in on that experience what do you

see

what are the colors and shapes that

surround you

what do you hear what are the sounds

that envelope you

what are you touching in this space of

joy and

flow what are you touching

and what do you smell and what are some

tastes that you associate

so keeping your eyes closed embrace that

feeling one more time

as you take another deep breath and now

please open your eyes

that feeling of happiness you just

experienced

that’s flow flow is when you’re fully

engaged

and performing at your best when you’re

at flow you lose all track of time

because you’re lost in the love of your

pursuit

and when you’re at flow you’re at the

peak of your creativity

and your happiness so remember

i did not invent that flow moment for

you

it comes from your true experience so

you can trust it

i just pointed you in the right

direction

tapping into flow is one way to access

your creativity

let’s explore a second way

those good thoughts and feelings you

just experienced in that short flow

meditation

double your intensity and increase your

frequency

maybe you find your flow in the kitchen

dancing to music

take a dance class maybe you love coming

up with new ways to hike up a mountain

get out your hiking boots and hit the

trails

maybe you can’t forget the memories of

your high school rock band

dig out that guitar and start playing

again

this is the secret to accessing your

creativity

on demand it’s why david

a theater major in college rekindled his

creative spark at the peak of his legal

career

and began writing plays or holly a

successful entrepreneur

tapped into her creative flow to replant

her garden

and make it more ecologically

sustainable

or steve stuck in midlife who recalled

his experience

as president of the high school movie

club and took a few filmmaking classes

to get back

into the flow there’s yet a third way

that you can bring more creativity into

your life

through life experiments a life

experiment

is a process where you actively go out

into the world

and explore areas that make you feel

happy and joyful

it may take time and commitment and

trial and error

to conduct those life experiments but

it’s worth it

because it’s a direct pathway to your

happiness and fulfillment

in my case it took decades of

exploration

to go from stuck teenager to someone who

lives and breathes curiosity and

creativity

my entry point was the piano which i

played as the child

in which i dropped when i went to law

school years later i returned to the

piano to rekindle my creative spark

and i realized how important music and

the arts were to me

so i embarked on a series of life

experiments

first i volunteered in the arts and

found out how much i loved being in that

space

and then i began to take on leadership

roles in the arts organizations

first as a volunteer and then as a

professional

where i honed my creative thinking

skills

within a few years and a near-death

experience

my feet were firmly planted on the

career path that i enjoyed today

yes life experiments take commitment the

good news is that it provides

a process for you to bring more

creativity into your life

the process goes like this first

select one to three areas that pique

your curiosity and spark your joy

next explore and get out into the world

the key is to take action remain open to

new possibilities

and make course corrections as you bring

more creative flow into your life

and third reflect on your experience

do more of what you love and discard

anything that does not resonate

in essence conducting life experiments

is the creative act

to solve the problem of how to live a

better life

so the power is now in your hands you

can either lose energy

by worrying about what to do with your

life or you can get busy experimenting

and discover a more fulfilling version

of yourself

you now have an entirely new way of

thinking about creativity

you’ve experienced the wonders of flow

you know how to bring more creativity

into your life

you’ve discovered that creativity is

your pathway

to self-mastery and fulfillment and you

don’t have to stop there

consider the creative ripple when you

release your creativity out into the

world

the chili contest in our small new

england town

is a perfect example our town had a

problem

our local charities needed to raise more

money so we started

the chile contest in the first year the

professional chefs offered up their

chili

and we got to sample the usual suspects

turkey

beef vegetarian hot medium and mild

it was fun and tasty and the contest

generated so much buzz that the home

cooks wanted in on the action

so there became two contests one for the

professionals

and one for the amateurs and as more

people participated in the chili contest

the participants in the chili’s grew

more and more creative

with entries like beer in chipotle chile

sasquatch chile texas red insanity

and as creativity flowed from the

professionals to the amateurs

donations to our local charities grew as

well

so consider your creative ripple as you

activate your creativity

and tap into your flow and share your

creativity with the world

with more creative ideas and circulation

there will

be more creative ideas and solutions and

the pathway to a better world

becomes clearer together we can make the

world

a better place and it all starts with

you