According to Pablo Picasso, every act of creation is, first of all, an act of destruction.
His thinking was this – before we can create, we must break down the barriers of limitations and restrictive thoughts to destroy old habits that serve to strangle our creativity.
I was thinking about this recently when I finally realised after a few weeks that the crisis we find ourselves in now was causing me such confusion because it is not normal.
When I came to accept that, I also understood that I would need an outlet to channel some of the energy I would in usual circumstances, give to other activities.
I have mentioned on this blog several times how I would spend many hours every week coaching youngsters, but without that outlet – the hours every week at training and games – everything else seemed to just get knocked off kilter for me.
It took a combination of physical activity in the garden (and I know how fortunate I am to have such a luxury at a time like this when many don’t) and setting small goals, for me to find equilibrium again.
To practice discipline I began to follow and complete the daily poetry prompts from Poetry Ireland.
Then, without realising it necessarily, I also began to put creative-thinking and innovation into practice in several small ways by re-purposing things that were lying around the garden or at the back of the shed.
I say without realising, because it was only after I had spent a morning last week listening to tremendous pitches from students on the current Post-Grad course on Innovation, Creative-Thinking and Entrepreneurship at Tangent, that it hit me that – what I had been doing was both creative and innovative.
First of all, an old bar that had been broken up and set aside for dumping, was combined with part of an old garden seat destined for the same fate and a couple of leftover tiles.
A garden umbrella that had seen better days and was set to be replaced because of broken arms, was with some patience, oil, wire and a few other bits and bobs, fixed and brought back to use again.
Two parts of long decommissioned garden heater found new purpose as excellent flower stands, badly broken wooden crates were patched up and even some old garden solar lights came together to form a flagpole.
Now I’m not saying I’ll be planning a trip to Bloom or the Chelsea flower show with this any time in the future, but for me, these small personal creative wins were a reminder that no matter what the circumstances, we can always be on the lookout for new ideas.
I also realised that because I was just doing this for fun and to keep busy, I had not let any barriers get in the way. No imposter syndrome, no fear of making mistakes or being criticised.
I just tried things and if they worked well and good and if they didn’t, I’d just see if I could find another way.
And there’s a lesson in that because when we are unafraid to let our imagination soar and apply the engineering and the action to make it happen, I think we really can recreate and rearrange the present by finding novel ways to approach specific problems.
I for one, am certainly looking forward to trying that.
- The poem below is one of the many I have written from the daily poetry prompts from Poetry Ireland.
Secret sauce
More often than not,
calamity has proven itself,
to be the catalyst
for success.
That, is the secret sauce
each and every achiever
keeps in their cupboard.
For them, obstacles are there,
to be overcome.
Driven by determination,
they understand that failure,
only ever comes from trying.
And they would rather
always, be a fool who had
tried and failed.
Than to spend their days
in a constant spiral. Wondering.
What if?
(Liam Porter 2020)
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