A networking guru recently asked me to identify the thing that made me “different,” and articulate that in my introductions. So I thought about what that thing might be..
I realized it might be the very desire to want to be different. Think differently. Express myself differently. I’ve spent my life and career hunting for brilliantly unique patterns, because, among other reasons, it’s just satisfying.
Question norms, because norms are boring; they are repetitive. They lose their uniqueness, their novelty, their sheen quickly. The restless creative mind wants newness.
Creativity is about seeing connections that others miss or perhaps aren’t equipped and positioned to see—their unique blend of life circumstances and experiences doesn’t offer them the lens.
I don’t believe that creativity is magic. It is a learnable skill—the art of seeing connections others overlook and finding ideas in unexpected places.
Creativity could be helping others (or yourself) find new inspiration—something I’ve set out to try and do. This could be accomplished through what I create (write, for instance, this piece) or by sharing/teaching the methods, patterns, and thinking that have worked for me.
Rick Rubin says that creativity is how you see the world versus how others see the world. An exposition of incongruity. Shining a spotlight on gaps in perception. Finding contrast and variation. Which is to say, something only you can uncover. A sacred act.
Creativity is you.
It is me.
It is what we each uniquely imagine and will into existence. It is everything on earth we are connected to, which is everything living or inert.
Proliferating minds
Recent reflections on the way I work revealed that conquering distraction may be my most urgent need. Our modern environment is saturated with distractions that reshape how we work in strange and subtle ways, and I’m a victim, it would seem.
Papañca is an ancient Buddhist concept that refers to “mental proliferation,” the emotional and discursive expansion that redirects and complicates direct experience.
Often described as the mind’s tendency to create endless chatter, it is considered a major obstacle to mindfulness. Translation: We let our minds wander too much and lose the focus needed for real work.
Today, distraction is not an accident, but the ambient condition of our lives. We are surrounded by too much stimuli. From the number of open tabs on our computers at any given moment, to emails and endless social media scrolling, sources of distraction are infinitely more than during the time of Buddha. Our vulnerable human mind cannot help but wander.
Our tools are engineered to keep us hooked with endless dopamine hits. There is something very unnatural about it. We did not evolve to handle this.
The wise folks defining papañca wouldn’t have imagined the breathtaking volume and ubiquity of synthetic stimuli our generation is having to deal with on a daily basis in this very digitally-calibrated existence of ours. If papañca was once a spiritual dilemma, it has now become a technological one.
The end result is obviously anxiety, and scattered focus impacting productivity and creativity. The remedy is mindful meditation. But I believe it starts with identifying and acknowledging the problem and giving it a name. Only then can a solution be sought.
We’re suffering from a new form of papañca that requires immediate self-intervention. When distraction is inextricably built into your working systems, it is up to you to deliberately break out. It’s not enlightenment you’re after, but mere reclamation—the simple right to think a thought or complete a task without interference.
