rules of creativity /05
RULE 05: PLAY.
“A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.” -Roald Dahl
Not that I would take advice from a cartoon dog, but look how Bandit plays with Bluey and Bingo (IYKYK). every game they play is an act of creation. Building, improvising, iterating, and living within a little world they conjured up. This is not just playing, this is a mental and emotional exercise. This uninterrupted, free, idiosyncratic play is so important. Doing something that has no purpose other than the act of doing it teaches us to be in the moment. It teaches us to enjoy the action and the process, not the outcome. It also teaches us about how we see the world and exposes connections or conflicts that are not obvious. Serious people do not like this style of play, so can we all just be a little less serious?
I started playing Pickleball last week. I was totally thrown off by the soft bounce of the ball. Almost every time it bounced before coming to me, I expected it to bounce higher than it did - more like a ping-pong ball or a tennis ball. After a while, I got used to it. I had to think about it a lot at the beginning, then after an hour or so of practice, I was reacting without thinking about it. There is so much practice and repetition in sports because we need to build that intuition and muscle memory. This is the same with creativity. We practice and practice so that when we’re in the act of creating, we can leave some decisions to instinct and spend energy on big decisions. What do you need to practice?
But even if it isn’t a sport, just pushing your body to the limit physically helps with creativity too. Focusing on your muscles, your inner drive, the rhythm of your feet - these all help clear your mind in an almost meditative way. This drops your mental barriers to allow creative thoughts to float in. Very similar to taking your mind off a problem to find the answer. Often our brains feel exhausted, but sometimes we need to exhaust our bodies to give our minds a rest.
When I was a kid, I was way too competitive with board games and card games. Luckily, I’ve become a bit more moderate about it, but I still really enjoy winning, of course. The best feeling is when a game clicks and you see the strategy, you start thinking 3 or 4 steps ahead, you the patterns, and start building connections between actions and events. Seeing connections, patterns, and thinking ahead are skills and habits that are so important to a creative life. Find the connections and expose them. Find the patterns and break them. Look ahead and zig instead of zagging.
This is so difficult for many of us. We feel unproductive like we’re wasting time. Our to-do lists are already too long, spending even a few precious minutes on a game is just ridiculous, right? So no, please don’t spend all night playing Zelda, but do notice when you need to feed your mind some ping-pong or Pickleball.
