I was watching a documentary on ED shreeran , the guy who sang”Shape of you “ which created sensation across the globe. In it,he talks about his song writing process . And his method surprised me and fascinated me. Ed Shereen is known for giving blockbuster after blockbuster .The creative process he and many other world class creators follow is called “CREATIVE FAUCET “. Faucet means the mouth of the tap or the opening of the tap.
Now imagine our brains to be a pipeline of water .Lets say the length of the pipe is 2km and the 1st km of it having waste water. Now , we need to flush out all the waste water for the clean water to arrive.
Now lets apply this to creativity .Suppose you are given a task of writing or to come up with a solution for a problem .At the beginning of the writing session you must write down all the bad idea that comes to your mind . But what do we do . We write few points and give up because we self criticise ourself and resist these bad ideas . To get the desired best results, we need to to openly accept the bad ideas.
Once the bad ideas are emptied , the good ones comes to flow.Here is why ,once you have generated enough bad ideas ,the brain starts to identify the elements that causes the bad ideas, and it begins to avoid them.Then it searches patterns for novel or good ideas . Most of the creators don’t go past their waste water . They resist their bad ideas.
I am sure many of you have opened a blank document and scribbled a lot of drawings or writings and gave up because you didn’t get the golden idea. That is because you haven’t flushed out the waste water in the pipe
I have applied this in my personal life and i was surprised by its result
Thomas Edison failed 1000 times and got it right at 1001th time for the invention of lightbulb .Mozart has composed 600 symphonies and only few of them are considered world class. Had these legends stopped after few tries, they wouldn’t have been famous. And I am sure they would have their closed ones say” its ok. We know you tried your best. Its ok, try something new”.
What differs them from us is ,they were least bothered of when the clean water from the tap would come.Instead they we in love with the process and emptied all the waste water in their pipes. They are not superheroes , but they respect and accept the reality of human creativity .they are not worried about clear water coming. Because eventually they believe that the clean water will come . We get inspired by geniuses and we want to be like them. We want to get it right the first time and bring out a master piece in our first few efforts. There is nothing wrong in that. But when we fail, we stop and make ourself believe “I am not good at it” . We find excuses to support our self criticism .
So what we need to do is be patient and consistent in bringing out the desired result.Dont wait for the clear water to come. Just make sure the waste water is emptied.
