Creativity killer No. 1

Several years ago my wife grew weary of celebrating every special occasion – birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, professional achievements – the same way: dinner out.

So we agreed that, from that day forward, we would do something new and different for each occasion. We celebrated the most recent of those occasions, our wedding anniversary, by taking a creativity class from Jim Woessner, founder and facilitator of the Threshold Workshops.

We joined Woessner (pronounced WAYS-nuhr) on his houseboat in Sausalito, California. One of the first lessons Woessner taught us and our fellow students is that the No. 1 killer of creativity is focusing on the final product rather than the process.

That shouldn’t be a big surprise to those practiced in the creative process. Yet, it is remarkably difficult for most of us to stay riveted to the process, to trust that by focusing on process we will maximize the quality of our final output.

Focus on the end product rather than the process and we become addled with performance anxiety. We fail to live and play in the moment. Tension rises and access to the riches of the unconscious mind diminishes.

Other factors also come into play. My recent reading of the book The Happiness Hypothesis alerted me to research on human happiness that showed people get more satisfaction out of completing the steps involved in advancing toward a goal than actually accomplishing the goal.

Another argument for focusing on process over product.

Woessner also warns about another major creativity killer: repetition.

Another argument for not going out to dinner to celebrate every special occasion.

Another reason to listen to your wife.

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