Episode 81: Expanding Your Creativity with Poet David Chislett
We often think of creativity in terms of the thing that we’re creating, but in this episode with poet and creativity activator David Chislett, you might have your understanding of creativity deepened and even turned inside out and upside down. As David says, what the thing becomes is irrelevant. The idea is to just start, see where it goes because creativity is a quantum phenomena.”
This episode will hopefully not only open you up to some new ways to think about creativity and your own creative gifts, but David also shares some practical, research-based ways to both access those aha moments that we love and to support your own efforts in bringing your creative ideas to life in whatever format that might be.
Two of my favorite quotes from this episode:
“Poetry is the art of saying very much with very few words.”
“The ability to be creative is not dependent on skills, but your execution of an art form is. So it’s not so much that your ideas suck, it’s that your execution sucks.” I love this because so often we doubt ourselves and our ideas when it’s not our ideas at all. We just need a bit more practice in the medium in which we’re executing our work.
In this episode, we discussed:
- The importance of opening up to the process over becoming attached to the pre-conceived end result
- The concept that creativity is not a spiral but a quantum phenomena; it’s about potentiality
- Allowing space for your unconscious mind to process and develop ideas because this is how we’re designed
- The power of aha moments and how when we’re busy in our heads does not allow for aha moments
- How structure and repetition can allow for creative moments and ideas to happen
- A few ways to quiet the monkey mind so you can hear your creative ideas and aha’s
During the episode he read the following poem:
The Resistance
We were not nice, we were not good, we were not particularly pleasant
But we were keen, we were thirsty
We went out exploring
Snuck out the back door
Ventured down backroads
Found things disturbing
We turned left instead of right
Learned to prefer the night
Selected lesser known roads
Explored lands without maps
We got lost
We never returned
Where we washed up is where we stand
It wasn’t good
It isn’t much better
But we refuse to believe
We cannot see
We were young, we were free, we were not very smart
We were restless, we were disturbed
We ran away
Let’s be honest
We fled the coop
Took a chance on the outside
That’s all
Didn’t have epic journeys
Discovered no new theories
Brought back no gold
Went nowhere at all
We grew up where we fell
That’s all
—
David Chislett
david@davidchislett.com
David’s Books
- You can find all of David’s books and short stories on his website.
- His latest book, With All of You, is available here.
- This page acknowledges all of the multi-media collaborations in the collecction, With All of You.
Meet David Chislett
Born in Britain, raised in South Africa, resident in The Netherlands. Nowhere and Everywhere are home. I am a published author, poet, musician and artist. I have also been an entrepreneur for over 25 years. The link that joins everything in my life together is creativity… I am interested in the human condition: what it means, what it looks like and how to get the most out of it.
Connect with David Chislett
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