As we were brainstorming this series, I was talking with a friend of mine, Julie Prescott (Julz & Co). She was offering a perspective on creativity that I hadn’t really considered before.

Julie told a story about one of the many art courses she’s taken (she’s so talented!). In this course, the assignment was to take a piece of paper, and a stick of charcoal and go make art.

Now, on the surface there isn’t anything terribly remarkable about these instructions. There is an important principle here, though.

Contrast the charcoal assignment with being presented with a blank canvas, and an array of paint, pencils, crayons and a truckload of supplies you could use for a mixed-media piece… with the instructions, “Go be creative!” I don’t know about you, but overwhelm would slip in pretty easily for me in that situation. I remember what it was like when years ago a friend thrust a paintbrush into my hand and ordered, “PAINT SOMETHING!” I had no idea what to do! It took me hours to lay down the first brushstroke, simply because I couldn’t decide what to do, or to do first. It was incredibly frustrating.

What makes Julie’s story remarkable is that the instructions she was given limited the possibilities significantly. All the supplies were removed and she was left with a canvas (in her case a piece of paper), and medium (charcoal). That’s it.

What happens when the field is narrowed is that it gives our brains something more specific to work with…rails to run on, if you will. It restrains us to some extent, and gives us something to focus on. Rather than being given every option with the command, “CREATE!” we’re limited in our focus, and in some interesting way this is often where our creativity is unleashed. It gives us a starting point. We begin to consider every possible way we can use what we’ve been given, or what’s been made available to us. Charcoal… sketching, rubbings, shading… “how many different ways can I create using what I have in my hand?”

I remember hearing an analogy of a train. At one point in our history, the train was emblematic of freedom. It was the railway that took us from one side of the country to the other, and it was through the incredibly difficult work of laying new track, section after laborious section, that our country was “opened up.” It was such an exciting time. And yet… a train, when it leaves it’s tracks, is completely useless. In fact, we use a related term, “derailed” to denote a disaster or epic failure even today. The train… incredibly powerful, and the emblem of freedom from a bygone era… needs the rails it runs on in order to optimize its power.

We can see this principle played out in so many areas of our lives. Sometimes we need structure… constraint, in fact… in order to allow our power and creativity to fully flourish.

And so… as I think about this I come to the heart-wrenching conclusion that I have to be willing to give up a little freedom sometimes in order to let the creativity flow. For a person like me, with a high “freedom need” (Choice Theory peeps, you know what this means) this can be a sobering realization.

The next time you need to unleash your own creativity to problem solve or bring a dream or idea into reality, and it just isn’t happening… consider taking away some of the options. It’ll help you focus, and give your brain something to latch onto. From that place, you can begin opening possibilities up again, and see where the muse of creativity will take you.