Replacing Control With Observation
As creatives, training ourselves so we can get attuned to our inner flow, where ideas are born, is very important, and each of us has our hacks and tricks on how to get there. And personally, I don’t believe that creativity is a talent we’re born with, it’s trained. We learn at an early age on how to funnel inspiration to a specific medium, and sharpen that ability throughout the years that follow - we gain the feeling of control. But as it grows and develops, other abilities seem very much more difficult to attain, and with a lot of creatives, communication is the obstacle that is most difficult to overcome.
Working and listening to other people, which is the basis of collaboration, was a hurdle that was (and sometimes, still is) hardest to tackle for me. I’ve associated creativity with ego for most of my life, and thus, being attuned to my creative self meant being in control, or rather holding on tightly to a concept, an idea, a design… well, you get the picture. I held on to them for my dear life, and changing them could hurt. Unfortunately, I approached communication the same way - I believed in order to collaborate, control is paramount.
Knowing how to give up control opens new doors
The uncontrollable urge for control happens only when we feel the lack of it. We feel endangered, so we try to tighten the harness, and steer through. What I’ve learned through meditation, and have since applied it to most aspects of my life, is that the most successful rides happen only when we give up the need to drive, and offer our attention to observing instead. We can then act through observing, not solely react through feeling and thinking. And turns out, the ability to observe is the most helpful ability of them all. We can only truly communicate, when we hear others. And we can only be truly creative, when we hear ourselves.