Dangerous Creativity: Tackling "Too Difficult" Ideas.

Last night I cracked open another of Eric Maisel’s books (this time, Fearless Creating) and surprise! I related. His books are aimed at artists of all types: writers, painters, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, but his insights into creative psychology is applicable to everyone - everyone creates, at some level.

Randomly, I opened the book to a section about choosing creative projects; specifically those projects we may try to dismiss as “too difficult” to approach.

You know the ones: An idea pops into your head, with a lot of vigor, motion and excitement. It’s raw, its powerful, its energizing, you love it — and then you immediately pull back the reins. It’s too difficult, too dangerous, too something.

“Deep creativity often means dangerous creativity” says Maisel, and in my case he’s certainly right. The more of my emotional blood I spill onto the paper, the more risks I take, the deeper my words and images become. But that doesn’t keep me from dismissing difficult and dangerous projects out of hand.

Maisel asks creatives to stop the dismissing, and look more deeply at the ideas we think are “too difficult”, and examine how we handle them. It may be “too difficult” to do.. but it’s probably not too difficult to think about.

What is our immediate response when faced with a “difficult” potential project. Do we quickly trash the idea with a sigh of relief? Do we rationalize why it’s something we can’t tackle? Do we water down the idea, take out the scary (and powerful) parts?

Do we even know what we mean by “It’s too difficult?” Is the idea beyond our technical ability? Is there no ready market for the work? Is there too much financial risk? Are we scared of what it will require of us, personally?

Sometimes “too difficult” means too intense for us emotionally - too much of a risk, too much of ourselves exposed, too much to be judged on. These are the ideas we’re most likely to dismiss — but they’re also the ideas that we most need to consider.

If a concept has the power to move us as creators, it probably has the power to move our audience. And if it’s powerful and important enough to feel dangerous, powerful and important enough to frighten us off, it definitely has meaning.

That meaning may or may not be worth pursuing. The risks may be too great. The pay off may be too small. But we won’t know if we don’t at least consider the idea on a deeper level.

MindTWEAK: Live intensely and dangerously.
The world may not depend on your efforts, but you do.
- Eric Maisel