Project Mayhem

Before I begin, you have to remember that my partner in crime, Jeremy, is a lot older than me.  A LOT.  Jeremy was alive when the Dead Sea was just sick.  I’ve seen younger faces on money.  And me?  Well, I’m a spry late-thirty-ish kid – albeit with the body of a 55-year-old and the sexual maturity of a Bar Mitzvah boy.  OK, now that the stage is set, let’s get to the heart of the matter, shall we…?

As I age – and in this industry, its blatantly obvious with all the whipper-snappers roaming the halls – I’ve begun to wonder how my lifestage will impact my creativity.  There are two sides to the argument (well, more than two, I’m sure, but hey – we’ve got bandwidth issues):

We Get Less Creative As We Age.  Someone much smarter than me once said that every kid gets a box of crayons, and slowly loses them over time.  The older we get, the more cynical we become.  As the realities of the “real world” descend upon us, our imagination shrinks.  Our ability to suspend disbelief is diminished.  Every “no,” every “can’t,” every “impossible” contributes to casting a longer, darker shadow over our creativity.  And it doesn’t stop there.   Too often, our clients construct a bubble of “never-woulds” from which we constantly try to escape.  As David Byrne once said, “I can feel my lifetime piling up.”  How could we NOT become less creative?

We Get More Creative As We Age.  Oliver Wendal Holmes said, “A mind, stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” The key to creativity is inspiration, and the older we get, the more inspiration sources become available to us.  Exposure to travel, art, literature, science, communities – these can each inspire creativity.  New landscapes, new horizons.  Every interaction, every engagement.  Each challenge, each accomplishment.  They’re all opportunities to be inspired, and to inspire others.  And hey – let’s not forget the failures (in my case, it would be nearly impossible, but try to stay with me).  The more we learn, the more we’re exposed to the new, the more we embrace the unexpected – the more creative we become.  Nothing’s better than a well of inspiration filled to the brim.

So, the answer:  Well, I believe we get more creative as we age.  I understand, of course, that this conclusion may seem self-serving.  But personally, I’m a lot more creative than I was last year.  Or last month.  Or yesterday.  But the secret is ALWAYS striving for better creative work.  Because you DO have to fight cynicism and negativity.  You DO have to battle mediocrity and complacency.  And you don’t have to journey far – but you DO have to constantly view the world through new eyes.  And that, my friends, is the heart and soul of creativity.

xoxo

Marc