CREATIVE BALANCE: A DEFINITION

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Ideas that regulate or maintains Creative Balance...

One area needs to be viewed in the context of related areas:

1. If one area is balanced at the expense of other areas, then creative balance isn't achieved. eg: A balance is found between rest - energy but not Start - finish.
2. Creative balance is subjective and objective. Though it may appear to be mainly subjective.
3. Nothing can be considered from a seriously objective perspective if it has not FIRST seen to have a serious subjective value. You need to subjectively enjoy studying something objectively.
4. Avoiding extremes but not just being neutral. Move as required, not according to passing mood. And not just a little of each, just for a change.
5. Content out of context is a pretext.
6. Creative balance is not static (fixed, un-moved, immobile, inactivity). Things that prevent movement are obsolete knowledge (some published information), pre-conceptions, Uniform or general attitudes, Social or personal habits.
7. Confining or restricting your exposure to only one or two sources of knowledge or facts, Over specialisation in a field or skill.
8. Those with creative balance can be predominately specialised. Meaning that 80% of his knowledge and expertise can be in one area, but not exclusively to that area. 100% specialisation will confine your ability to be innovative.
9. It's about your creative heart, not just your thinking abilities.
10. Your creative heart includes your day-dreams, identity, interests, emotions, personal goals, motivating rewards, hopes, perceived needs, important learned skills, your values, your view of the world, the things you want to communicate, the focus of your curiosity, your desired journey or direction and what you find satisfying.
11. Creative balance is designed to explore, discover and support these things.
12. It is a tour of the interconnections that exist or can be created to encourage personal creative development.
13. It identifies the core components that are important for personal creativity. Then it connects them together so they can work as one. Connections are anything that unifies or merges parts together so an exchange of communication can begin. So all the interests, needs and hopes etc can work together, rather than competing for attention.
14. It help you find compatibility in the world around you. So the exchange of information and meaning is mutually beneficial.
15. It makes allowance for the fact that everyone wants to be happy. But for a creative person happiness comes from many sources. Some sources at one time and some at other times. Happiness is a real emotional response to emotionally determined needs.
16. It is like Chemistry. Two different substances combined will become a third and completely new substance. As you combine two average ideas, you could come up with a third, very useful idea that has no obvious appearance to the first two. With a creative person, he can combine two aspects of his life and create a new dimension to create from. For example, a creative person can combine two interests and come up with an idea for an innovative project or activity that suits him better than they could before. Or he could combine his skills with the values that are important to him and come up with a new way to communicate new meaning.
17. It isn't intellectual and it isn't emotional. It's a mixture. It it was one or the other, then creativity would be governed and limited by it.
18. A balance of creativity and curiosity comes about by personal feelings, valued experiences and the joy one can have find, develop and communicate meaning or personal observations.
19. Understanding and enjoying the relationship between opposites is encouraged, not just trying to understanding them in isolation.

(This is part of my Creative Balance series)

You can find Steve at: www.ineedtocreate.com

ineedtocreate. An Introduction

Welcome to "i need to create".

Hi, I'm Steve Supple, and it is my hope that the things I continue to learn about discovering, developing and sustaining personal creativity will be useful to you, as it has been for me.

Have you ever said to yourself: 'I need to create'!

Or: I need to make things, I need to write music, I need to be a designer, I need to invent something new.

Then this podcast is made just for you.

I believe we are all born creative. But for many of us, the urge to create is strong. That desire to create never goes away. It may sleep but it never dies.

Here are just a few of the subjects I will covering:

• Am I really a creative soul?

• Indentifying your create strengths.

• Working our your create goals.

• Having great ideas.

• Pursuing a creative career.

• Balancing your creative life.

• Understanding the creative process.

• Effective creative communication.

• Becoming an innovator.

• and a lot more!

I will be talking about many of these things from my personal experiences, observations, thoughts and research. I have collected hundreds of quotes from creative professionals from artists, musicians, designers, scientists, movie directors and media people.

My motivation for making these podcasts is because I have seen so much creative potential go to waste, for a number of reasons. So many people I have known that loved to draw or play the guitar, yet at some point they just stopped. And become truck drivers, factory workers or prison guards.

The media often has stories of actors or musicians who could have had wonderfully forfiling careers, but end up throwing it away because they didn't have the perspective to keep it going.

What will be on the Web site?

• I hope to have show notes posted on the wed site ( or at least summaries of each show, so you can read them at your leasure).

• I hope to also have all the creative quotes I have collected over the years on the site so you can have a ready source of inspiration any time you need it.

• I will have a blog page so we can have a two way conversation going. You can post questions or comments (constructive critisum from you is also welcome).

• I will have also have an extensive "Creative goals" questionaire you can read online or down-load so you can discover your creative aspirations.

• I will include info-maps and diagrams which (I hope) will help you see the interacting areas of your creative personality.

• I would like to include some cartoons of a few creative guys that want to be heard as well.

I intent that these podcasts be as useful and practical as possible. I want you to get as much out of them as possible.

I hope to make each show about 15 to 20 minutes long. And have at least 1 new show each week.

Above all, I know you need to create. And I know I want to help you to create again. To experience that child like flow of create expression. And to help you become a creative professional. Someone who loves the freedom and possibilities that a creative field of choice can provide.

These podcasts are about you and your create development.

So what is creative development I hear you ask?

Firstly, it is about YOU as a creative person. Creative development is not just about becoming better at a particular learned skill. It is more than impoving your creative abilities. It is about combining all that is needed to become the most creative person that you can be. It's about recognising and achieving your creative potential. Creative development is the journey in that direction. To use a metaphor: It's more than learning the techniques of driving a car, it's about knowing what destination you are interested in getting to and finding the right vehicles to get you there.

• It's primarily a personal journey, but does include your role as a professional creative person.

• It's about creating yourself. Turning the design process on our selves.

• It's about content creation, not just learning technical skills. More about 'why' than just how.

• It's about understanding that creative process.

• How to recognise problems and define them, so a creative solution can be found?

• What are creative opportunities? How do you seek and find them?

• What are the needs of people? Have they a need for something new?

• Can something that already exists be made available to them? Is there a service that they will use?

•What are your interests, talents, personal highlights, view of the world etc.?

•What could your life's work or life's theme be? How do you design a purpose or role for life?

•How do you plan a sustanable creative future?

•What are the things that block or hinder creativity?

• How can creative communication be used as content? And how do audiances respond to it?

• What is Creative balance? What are it's benefits in regard to your developing creativity?

• What advice can creative people of the past centuries give about what fostered their achievments?

Written by Steve Supple at: www.ineedtocreate.com