How To Unlock Creativity In All Parts of Work and Life

Jonathan Fields: [00:00:10] So have you ever felt like creativity is a gift meant for others? Like you just weren't born a part of that illustrious and somewhat mysterious creative class? Turns out that's total bunk. Creativity lives inside all of us, and uncovering it could unlock meaning and joy in every aspect of your life. Joining me this week from the SPARKED Brain Trust to help tease out what really matters and share insights and ideas, is the founder of the original Impulse Creative studio and atelier and coaching program for writers. She's also an author, workshop facilitator, trusted advisor, and coach Cynthia Morris. So Cynthia believes that the question isn't who is creative, but rather how are you creative? And how can we unleash creativity in our work or relationships and beyond? And Cynthia and I explored the myths holding us back from full creative living. She talks about three brutally hard truths of innovation, why the creative life isn't about chasing comfort, and we discuss how to awaken your senses, see with new eyes, and understand your unique blend of creativity. We also talk about how to move past the quick and obvious ideas to uncover true insight. How turning our judgment and trusting your vision lays a foundation for originality. And why not? Seeking approval unlocks freedom, and Cynthia really invites you to see life itself as your art, to bring creativity, presence, and play to your work, your relationships and self-expression. Let's dive in. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is SPARKED. Welcome back to the SPARKED podcast here today with our Brain Trust member, Cynthia Morris. Hello, Cynthia.

Cynthia Morris: [00:02:03] Hello, Jonathan.

Jonathan Fields: [00:02:05] So good to be hanging out. So we are going into a specific topic today. And that topic is one that actually bridges the gap between work, between life, between personal relationships, between personal expression and the topic. Is creative living or fostering innovation in all aspects of life? How do we cultivate creativity? Not just in artistic pursuits, which is so often where people sort of like center the conversation, but in problem solving and communication and relationships and personal expression, how do we transfer those creative skills, the creative lens, the creative state of being out of the narrow domain of artistic pursuits and into our all aspects of work and also life? So that's what we're diving into today. Now, you may be hearing this and thinking to yourself, but I'm not a quote, creative capital C creative when people say something like that to you, Cynthia, what goes through your mind?

Cynthia Morris: [00:03:12] Well then the you know, the classic response is we're all creative. I think if you're alive, you're creative. But the problem is people bundle the word creative and artist or writer together. So thinking that creative just means some kind of artistic output. But how we live and how we express our nature is ultimately creative. Everybody. Do you think of yourself as creative?

Jonathan Fields: [00:03:39] I do, I do. Um. And I've never not thought of myself as creative, even when I'm doing things that aren't sort of like traditionally, quote, creative. You know, creativity has been a core driver of my life from my earliest memories, and also because in no small part, I did identify very much as an artist as a kid, you know, um, as a painter, as somebody who really worked with my hands and built things. So it was never something that I had to work to connect with or to consider myself a part of. That said, I have had to work to sort of like, remind myself that if I am working on a spreadsheet or building out an editorial calendar, or doing a complex instructional design for a course, or outlining my next book before I'm even writing the next book, just doing the really hard work that doesn't come naturally to me, that generally I like. I don't feel like I'm doing my creative work or anywhere near my best. Very often when I'm doing that, that there is still, you know, that creativity is more of like how you bring yourself to that work, rather than what the sort of objective job is. I mean, do you agree with that?

Cynthia Morris: [00:04:49] I do, and I'm curious. So let me ask you this question. How do you know when you're being creative? If we were looking at you, peeking in on your life and we saw you doing your spreadsheet or something like that, that doesn't look creative, how would we know that you're being creative? Or how do you know from the inside that you're being quote unquote creative?

Jonathan Fields: [00:05:09] This is such a good question, and I don't know the answer to it. You know, the immediate thing that popped into my my head as you were asking and I thought about writing because writing I still see like these days, I think writing is sort of like my primary creative outlet. And the thing that popped into my head when you asked the question is, I know that I'm being creative when I'm writing with a hot hand. And for those who've never heard that phrase before, generally that means it's almost like you're trying to your hands are trying to keep up with what's pouring out of your brain, like you're going as fast as you can because there's a there's a sensation inside of you that says, this is the stuff that I've been working for, that I've been hoping for, and it's tumbling out. It's pouring out sometimes trying to like, claw and kick and scream its way out. But it's it's finally time and it needs to get out. And and if my hands don't move as fast as my brain is moving at that moment in time, I'm terrified that I might lose some of the juiciness of it. So when I'm when I'm writing, I often think about like when I feel like I'm writing with a hot hand. That's when I feel like I'm at my most creative. But that was the initial impulse. But then there was a secondary impulse that followed it immediately, which is that I'm a weird writer in that when I write often what comes out of me is not fully formed, but it's way closer to the end product than the beginning product.

Jonathan Fields: [00:06:29] The reason for that is because I do a lot of the quote writing in my head long before it comes out of me, so by the time it comes out of me, oftentimes it's closer to transcription than creation. And that's, I've learned, is a little bit weird for a lot of people. Some people create that way, others don't. So for me, the secondary impulse, when you ask me that question, how do I know when I'm when I'm being creative is when I'm allowing myself to get lost in the world of ideas and seeing how they dance with each other and noticing how a third thing is being created from 1 or 2 other things with no obvious connection before. And there's a sense of, ooh, this is juicy and new and different. And that happens when I'm thinking, that happens when I'm hiking, that happens when I'm in conversation, that happens when I'm meditating, that happens. You know, basically any time I create space in my day, that creative mechanism in me tends to get activated. So that that's probably more the more I wouldn't say different answer, but it's a complementary sense. Um, how about you? Like, how do you know? Like, what are your towels when you sense like, okay, I'm in that creative zone.

Cynthia Morris: [00:07:51] Well, you touched on a few things that come to me, and I don't want to sound too woo woo, but it is, uh, an energy. And you talked about it in a sense of something juicy and different. So there's a feeling that we get it's a, it's an energy that raises our energy. And I think that's connected to our vitality and our own personal expression. But also you mentioned two other things, this idea of bringing two different things together. And I do think that's part of innovation, being able to bring two things together, whether it's two ideas or two ingredients in a meal or even two people, and sparking creativity by introducing two people together that I think is a standard kind of I wouldn't say formula for creativity, but a way to generate that. Spark. No pun intended. But then you mentioned something I think is kind of a requirement for creativity. Is that space when we're not occupying ourselves with someone else's ideas or with our work or something else we're outside, or exercising or resting or meditating, whatever, giving ourselves that space. And that is where I think we feel that creativity coming. And here's the super woo woo thing that I have, this feeling that we feel most creative and most alive when we're not in control. It's not coming from us, per se. You described the hot hand. When your ideas are coming faster than you can keep up with them. That sense feels to me like a sense of that otherness, something else beyond us, bigger than us, that's playing a role in our creativity. So that's when I feel it is. When ideas come to me, connections are made. I'm like, oh, let's try this with this or oh, that idea is not something that came out of my my cognitive knowing.

Jonathan Fields: [00:09:46] Yeah. I mean, it's so interesting that last part years back when I was working on a book, I was out in LA and I sat down and interviewed Steve Pressfield, and I asked him, I said, like, where's the muse come from for you? And and because he's kind of written about the fact and his experience, it comes from the outside. And part of the work is, you know, to create the rituals, to prepare it to like drop down into and, you know, Elizabeth Gilbert famously in her Ted talk, you know, described it as this thing that comes tumbling like rumbling, racing down a mountain. And, and if you don't, you know, if you don't see it and grab on to it, then it just keeps going. It lives in the ether until somebody else pulls it down and it becomes theirs. It's almost like these ideas exist as their own entities, and it's it's our work to recognize them and sort of like ground them inside of us and then like, let them come through us. Whereas I've talked to other people who have the exact opposite experience, they're like, nope, this comes from me. Um, which, uh, which I think is interesting also because it can make it harder because it's easier to pile on shame and judgment when you think that you are entirely the source of everything creative and it stops coming, even for a moment.

Cynthia Morris: [00:10:57] Well, I think here's a problem is that we think that there's some way to be creative, even if it's just about being productive. Sit down at the same time every day, or all of the the advice or rules around creativity that we try on and then they don't necessarily fit. And you said the word recognition. I think it's really about recognizing our own blend of creativity. That's why I asked you, well, what does it feel like for you to be creative? What does that mean for you? And it could be completely bizarre. I was coaching some clients this morning and listening to their process. I'm like, this sounds like nothing I've ever heard or none of the advice that everybody says, and even something that I might have coached them away from. But I didn't feel any of that Spidey sense of like, uh oh. I was more like, this is really wackadoodle and wackadoodle in all the best ways. So I think that's a part of creativity is when someone's like, this might be kind of weird or I don't know if this is okay or I don't feel really normal. That, to me is a sign that we're in touch with our own creativity. And really, it's not so much found from reading rules about how to do it.

Speaker4: [00:12:08] Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:12:08] What's your sense of the relationship between creativity and point of view? Because I feel like the creative process, you know, that's one thing, but the point of view that is associated with whatever it is that gets created is another how do those dance together?

Cynthia Morris: [00:12:29] I think that's a great question. You mentioned right away, at the beginning of our conversation about a lens and a way we look at the world, and of course, our beliefs influence every single thing we do and think in our days. So for me, the point of view, it's largely in this realm. I would think about possibility and the sense of anything's possible. Like what? What if, what if? And I had the great fortune in my mid-twenties of having a long terme relationship with a yo yo pro. He he still has a yo yo pro and he had a job as a yo yo professional. He made more money than I did. Super successful. Really. Um, having a blast traveled around the world and that completely broke my notion of the word reality or realistic. Like, oh, like if I told you that, you'd be like, how is that realistic? How would how would anybody contrive such a career? So right away that gave me this point of view. Like, well, anything's possible. I don't really even use the word realistic with clients when they want to say, what's a realistic goal? It's like, who knows? Making it up all the time. Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:13:40] So when we think about creativity and then applying it more broadly to the different contexts of our lives, let's say, you know, we we try, we're trying to say, okay, so we're all creative. We all have this ability to access our version of the hot hand to see how disparate things come together in a way that creates a third thing that, like either nobody else saw before or unique to our lens, to our take. Um, we're generating something new. I think fundamentally, for me, the process of creation is about like, are you generating something new at the back end of it? Um, so when we think about this again, for most people, we think about it in the process of making art. But when we start to think about taking that process out into the domain of work, the domain of how we communicate, uh, personal expression, personal relationships, how do you see us beginning to translate this? Because I think we all would probably say yes. If you ask the typical person the question, like, do you want to live a life that feels creative in all aspects, that feels innovative and fun, and there's constantly new and interesting things? They would probably say yes, but they would have no idea. Like how? So? What are some thoughts around how we expand the notion of, quote, being creative to different domains of life, where often we don't even think that that's sort of like where they might unfold?

Cynthia Morris: [00:15:02] Yeah, I think challenging our knowing, challenging what we know and letting ourselves be surprised is a big one. And in terms of work and relationships, I think we're in life in general. We are capable of so much more than we think or our mind wants us to know. So when an opportunity comes up, oh, you could go for that job. Oh, it's a little bit out of my my wheelhouse. It's not quite what I'm good at, but something rises up in me that feels energized by that. To go for it, to really question our own understanding of what we're capable of and letting ourselves be surprised. I think that would be a really big way. Just what's possible. Who knows? Let's try it.

Jonathan Fields: [00:15:48] Yeah, so it's sort of like constantly being in a what if mode asking that question. Yes, that makes a lot of sense to me. You know, another thing that comes to my mind around this is the ability to see things with new eyes that you've seen a thousand times before. And we live in a world where we think that we're seeing everything that's all around us and hearing it and smelling it and tasting it. And yet, you know, what we know through research, through social sciences, is that for the most part, we're actually we are surrounded by novelty, by like new moments, new experiences, new things all the time. Yet our experience of them is sort of like actually just assuming that it was the same as it was last time. And it's like we're we're constantly taking in an old representation of something that's new and not allowing ourselves to actually be present in the reality of what's in front of us. You know, an example that comes to mind for me is, you know, I live in Boulder, Colorado. I hike on a regular basis. I hike the same trail all the time. I go out, I know it takes me an hour and 15 minutes from my front door to go there, to be up in the mountains, to be back. And, you know, you could say, well, like, wouldn't it get boring? Like you're literally just like, I mean, you live in a place where you have zillions of trails and mountains that you could go to, and you keep doing the same thing over and over, like, aren't you bored? And I've been asked that.

Jonathan Fields: [00:17:12] And I thought about it. My answer is, um, on occasion, but mostly not because the thing that would be boring about it wouldn't be hiking the same trail every time. It would be assuming that you know everything about the trail and then just zoning out and not really being present in the experience of it. So I try and be really intentionally present in the experience of it every time I do it. And I'm constantly noticing, you know, like, oh, like last week, the wildflowers were slightly bigger and like a different shade, and the ground was a little less crunchy. And this week it's a little snowier and I need my spikes on my shoes. And so the exact same thing, if you live in the assumed representation of what it's always been, um, in the past. Yeah. Like the novelty is gone, the excitement is gone, the surprise is gone. The potential for creativity often diminishes. But it doesn't have to be that way. That's just the mode that we default to. And I feel like, you know, one of the keys to being creative, not just in artistry, but in all aspects of life, is practicing being present and having a beginner's mind. No matter how many times you said the same, you've been in the conversation with the same person, in the same setting, or done the same activity. What's your take on that?

Cynthia Morris: [00:18:28] I think you're right. And I think it's about cultivating our senses and keeping our senses tuned and not being dulled by what? Were what we think we know about what we're around. And your example is a great one. Nature is always changing from day to day, and even being able to notice the light, oh, the light is different. The light, it's hotter now. It's winter. It's it's lower, the sun is lower. So things like that, that nature gives us the opportunity to really pay attention to. If that's not something that you have access to or into as much, I really think you can tune your senses, even closing your eyes for a minute or two and going through each sense one at a time. What do I hear? What do I smell, what do I taste, what do I feel? And then opening your eyes, you're going to see everything differently. Things are going to be turned on. That's a meditation that I do in almost all of my classes. And it's astonishing how a three minute process can completely light up our awareness and change. So that's a really simple way to bring that sort of presence, even in a room, even when you haven't changed your environment, you can turn things up a little.

Jonathan Fields: [00:19:40] I love that. So you're basically what you're saying is make the journey from your cognitive mind to your sensory experience. Like, like, don't just sit there and say, like, I'm here, I've been here. You know, I know this literally. Just like wherever you are, whatever you're doing, whoever you're with, drop into your senses and say, what do I see? What do I smell, what do I taste, what do I hear? Yeah, what do I feel?

Cynthia Morris: [00:20:03] And it's kind of literally turning up the the knobs, turning up the volume on each of those. And I think we can't really go around all the time that attuned that sensitive. Because when we're going through life walking down the street or wherever, we have to shut things down in order to just make it through. We can't be so like on all the time, uh, we have to be able to focus on different senses, like hearing when we're crossing the street. So yeah, I find that process just mind blowing, simple and really transformative in terms of awakening yourself to what's around you and also what's inside you. So when I do that process, I'm doing it in a creativity context. So I'm always asking, what do you hear? How would you describe that? And then at the end, before we open our eyes, I have us look at the sixth sense. So what's what's your feeling? What's the vibe, what's your energy like? What do you notice about this space. And that I think is a really creative add on to say, oh okay. Like and now what's my interpretation or my intuition about what's going on around me and in me.

Jonathan Fields: [00:21:11] I love that. And if you like, building on that is something that I learned years back. I did some work in learning design thinking, which is an approach to ideation and creating, which I thought was really cool. And as part of that, you know, there's they walk you through a bit of a brainstorming process, and they talk about the way that brainstorming traditionally happens. And, and I learned that there are often these three phases of brainstorming. A lot of people could use the word brainstorming as like, you know, one way of being creative when you're trying to come up with a new idea or new ideas for a particular problem or design or outcome, whatever it may be. And they said, you know, there's the first phase where everyone's sitting around a table, or maybe it's just you and it's like, okay, so just list out every idea that you have here, you know, like, let's get creative. Like, give me your ideas. And everyone's just kind of like, you know, spitting out ideas. Well, what about this? What about this? What about this? What about this? Awesome. They all go up on a whiteboard. Those are the easy ones. Those are the obvious ones. And they're rarely ever the good ones. Every once in a while they are, but rarely ever. And then you kind of say, well, okay, so let's build on these. Like what? Like let's go deeper. Like think a little bit more like, let's what would be more nuanced or what would be more original? What would be different? Um, and you get a second round of ideas and again, you can do this with other people.

Jonathan Fields: [00:22:31] This can just be like your own individual process. Those those ideas are generally they're a little harder to get because you got to dig deeper into them and you have to like, really think and feel into them and like, see things like try and see things that you didn't see before and, and those ideas come. And then you have a whiteboard filled with those ideas and people are like, yes, this is it. Like we've got like of these ten ideas, three are amazing. And most people stop there. And then for those who push through to the third phase, this is a brutally hard phase. This is where you essentially have to like the first two phases. You realize we're just set up to get you to a place where you can go into the third phase, and you largely throw out everything that you've done and basically say, okay, so now let's try and figure out the real, the real creative ideas here, the real innovation, like what is next generation? What's not on anybody's radar? What what can we come up with that has never existed before? This is really, really, really hard and often requires you stepping away before you can step back into it like you described, creating that pause for your brain to work on this without you trying to sort of like force your way to it. You need to often pull away and step back and pull away and step back. And it's a little bit fitful and a little bit grueling. These are the ideas that usually come in that phase three where they're they are what would be considered insight based, not analytical based.

Jonathan Fields: [00:23:49] Like right. If somebody asked you like, where did that come from? You have no idea. It literally sort of like it arrived out of the ether based on like your years of experience, like a mountain of data and input that has been loaded into your brain over the years you weren't even conscious of and your brain was putting together in novel ways, and it just kind of emerges. And those are the ideas that generally are stunningly good and make, you know, they change relationships, they change businesses, they change lives, they change society. But we rarely ever push through to them because we don't realize there's a phase three. And even if we do, it generally is it takes so much more effort and also withdrawal from effort. And so like understanding how to pulse between the two that we never get to those, um, and we rob ourselves of the feeling of having those ideas drop. And also anyone else who might be exposed to or benefiting from those. And again, this is like I learned the this whole idea and this model, not in the business of or in the world of art, but in the world of business, where it was all about trying to come up with better solutions to problems in a work context. Yet this is absolutely, you know, one take on the creative process. What's so when I offer sort of like that that out, what comes up for you?

Cynthia Morris: [00:25:09] I really want to underline something that you said, because it might be a big key to being creative. You said it's brutally hard. You really emphasized how hard it is to get to this. Being in that third phase and making those connections at that point requires obviously, patience, but I think that we have been groomed to seek comfort all the time and to not let ourselves feel the pain of incompetence or uncertainty or not knowing. So we want to give up before it gets brutally hard. I know with with projects and things, we'll often give up because we think we're not good at it. Whereas if we just stayed with it, fiddled with it a little, and went through some of the processes you just described, we would come to that place. I think this this willingness to endure the humbling nature of innovation, of staying with something when it's difficult, like a marriage or a job that that you know isn't quite right. But if you can. Stay with it and work it a little. It will get better. I think that's the key is being able to withstand difficulty. I'm working on a novel and it's it's so hard to write a book. It's so difficult. But I love it because I'm learning. I'm seeing it getting better every, every day. And I like being challenged. I like that feeling of humility that I get every time I show up. So I think this this could be a key factor. What do you think being able to be in brutally hard.

Jonathan Fields: [00:26:46] Yeah, I think that's so true. You know, we don't as a general rule we're never and a lot of people ask, well, is this just, you know, is this a state or a trait? Like are some people just wired so they can go to that place and be okay, or is it trainable? And we were an entire book on on this exact thing. In fact, some people are wired that way, but it's the vast majority of people are not. And many of the greatest creators and innovators of, like many generations, are not that person. They have developed skills and practices that allow them to go there, and those are entirely trainable.

Cynthia Morris: [00:27:19] I think it's.

Jonathan Fields: [00:27:19] Trainable. So I agree with you. And you're writing a book is you know, it's one example. Um, you know, I was just reflecting on a friend of mine who took seven years to write a book, and so she went to that place, you know, and she kept stepping away, and she kept coming back saying, not it yet, not it yet, not it yet. But there was a voice inside of her that said, but I know it can be where I want it to be. So she kept coming back to it, and she kept going, and she kept going. It took seven years. That book has sold millions and millions and millions of copies at this point. And because it just kept, kept, kept going. And until she realized, like, this is the place that it was capable of landing. Um, and I think many of us have a sense of that, but, um, we give up before we get there or we it becomes it takes so much out of us that we just assume it's really not possible.

Cynthia Morris: [00:28:15] So the difference between her and somebody who doesn't achieve that final result is she trusted that voice inside her. She trusted herself or whatever she felt that was. And I do think this is a huge factor in creativity in work or life or art making. Being able to trust yourself, you trusting your idea even if it doesn't make sense to the world. That's what innovation is, right? We have to. Okay, here's this crazy idea no one else even understands what I'm saying, but I believe in it.

Jonathan Fields: [00:28:49] So agree.

Cynthia Morris: [00:28:50] That trust is is.

Speaker4: [00:28:52] Pivotal. Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:28:53] And I think, you know, I've learned to to believe that. Or I tell myself the story that if it's obvious to everybody else, it's not worth doing. So that's great. And a lot of us but but it's interesting because it's counterintuitive, because most of the stuff that we seek to do, we're looking for something that's obvious to everybody else because we want to remove the uncertainty and the stakes, and the only way to actually make it obvious to everyone else is if either, you know, it's it's been done before, in which case it's not really creative. You know, it's not creativity. There's nothing new that's being created. And also in terms of your use of your life, your time, your energy, your abilities, why would you devote it to that to simply replicating rather than creating? Well, other than just wanting to feel like you're you're you always feel comfortable and there's no risk associated with it?

Speaker4: [00:29:45] Well, I.

Cynthia Morris: [00:29:46] Think it's a matter of are you seeking approval or are you seeking to innovate? And you're not going to necessarily get approval at the beginning. Your idea might not get adopted right away.

Jonathan Fields: [00:29:59] Yeah. I think the greatest ideas never do, um, because they're so different that they scare people, like world peace.

Speaker4: [00:30:06] Stuff like that. Um.

Jonathan Fields: [00:30:09] So I think we share a lot of different ideas here. And I think as we come full circle, like the big idea is really that creativity is not in like the domain of a rarefied few people who are, quote, capital C creative and those others are just, you know, model by and do their best. It is something it is available to everybody in everything that they do. And it's also not just in the domain of art, you know, that or actually like, let's even rephrase that. You know, like, what if we looked at all aspects of life as art, you know, as like how do we create a beautiful relationship? How do we create a beautiful work experience, how do we create, you know, a beautiful product or a solution, like how do we create a beautiful business or brand? You know, if we expand and basically just say, like the the world, like everything that we do is, is our art form, um, the way we open our eyes in the morning, the way we brush our teeth, um, how do we have fun with it? How do we make it more playful? How do we how? We bring creativity to the process.

Cynthia Morris: [00:31:16] I have a I have a.

Speaker4: [00:31:17] Great quote for.

Cynthia Morris: [00:31:17] That. This this quote has guided me in my life and my work, my art for for decades now. It's by a potter and author named M.C. Richards, who wrote a book called centering. And she said, all the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.

Speaker4: [00:31:36] Hmm.

Jonathan Fields: [00:31:37] I love that, and that feels like a good place for us to wrap up today as well. Cynthia, thank you as always and to our fabulous listening community. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you all here next week. Take care. Hey, so I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Learned a little something about your own quest to come alive and work in life, and maybe feel a little bit less alone along this journey to find and do what sparks you. And remember, if you're at a moment of exploration, looking to find and do or even create work that makes you come more fully alive, that brings more meaning and purpose and joy into your life, take the time to discover your own personal Sparketype for free at sparketype.com. It'll open your eyes to a deeper understanding of yourself and open the door to possibility like never before. And hey, if you're finding value in these conversations, please just take an extra second right now to follow and rate SPARKED in your favorite podcast app. This is so helpful in helping others find the show and growing our community so that we can all come alive and work in life together. Until next time. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is SPARKED. This episode of SPARKED was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and Me, Jonathan Fields. Production and editing by Sarah Harney. On this episode.