Our internal tug-of-war battle with success really doesn’t exist, regardless if we are an athlete or a business person. In fact it is not even a battle. We just make it one and spend way too much mental time worrying rather than doing something about it.
Here’s an example; I know it, I just procrastinate on anything associated with improving. In fact, this bad habit is keeping me from ever solving everything. It certainly prevents me from ever being creative! Heck, why waste energy, if I procrastinate long enough someone else will help me solve my problem.
That was even tough to write, but with each keystroke I can see why we have the tendency to want to quit while we are behind. So instead of ‘wallowing in pity’ as my mother would tell me, let’s apply a little computer science ‘divide and conquer algorithm’ by recursively breaking a problem into two or more sub problems; Basically helping Creativity survive its own success. Let’s talk about Creativity and a Bad Habit.
First, we must realize creativity is not an innate talent.
Art Markman, PhD Psychology and Marketing stated “[we] need to believe …an activity really is a skill [we] can learn.” To prove it, he provided these 3 Ways to Train Yourself to Be More Creative.
- Become an ‘Explainer’ – When we learn something, explain it back to our self
- Practice Openness – Become motivated to consider new ideas, concepts and experiences
- Keep Asking New Questions – When we have a problem, think of multiple questions viewing the problem from a different light. This allows our memory to seek more information to help resolve it
You see there are no bad or good habits, just habits. So to change, researchers from University College London examined the new habits of 96 people over the space of 12 weeks and found that the average time it takes for a new habit to stick is actually 66 days; furthermore, individual times varied from 18 to a whopping 254 days. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of ‘Eat. Pray, Love’ defines her simple recipe to defeat those fictitious tug-of-war battles and gain the creativity we are seeking is,
“[Put] your head down and perform with diligence, and devotion, and respect, and reverence to whatever the task is love is calling forth from you next.”
Now about that procrastination bad habit, keep it simple. Quit procrastinating and make ourselves do it until it becomes a new habit.
Until next blog,
“…never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” ~ Winston Churchill
Al McCormick
