When the Japanese warrior Nobunaga decided to attack an enemy who had one-tenth the number of men. He knew he would win, but his soldiers were in doubt. So when he stopped at a Shinto shrine he told his men:
"After I visit the shrine I will toss a coin. If heads come, we will win, if tails, we will lose. Destiny holds us in her hand."
When he tossed the coin heads appeared. His soldiers were so eager to fight they won their battle easily. "No one can change the hands of destiny," his attendant told him after the battle. "Indeed not," said Nobunaga, showing a coin which had been doubled, with heads facing either way.
Paul Reps, Zen Flesh-Zen Bones
We can always achieve what we think we can achieve. (Un)Consciously we accept certain limits. As we have these in mind we will concentrate on them; they will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is what many people call destiny. Although this may promote a certain degree of creativity (making the most of what you have) it is wise to also become aware of the limits, why do I accept them? Because I think it is normal, routine or because others say so? Or am I just anxious? Bocks are often caused by our anxieties (cf. shields).
Anxieties in lecturing may be helpful in explaining this point, since we all have attended and some of us perhaps have given them. They are the perceptual blocks that make us perform badly. The most prevalent ones are :
denial - pretend the audience is not there
projection - I find this easy/clear, therefore it is easy for them
rationalization - why spend so much time on it anyway, the party is nicer
substitution - pretend it is easier than it is, beat about the bush
paradox - do the opposite of what you're saying
The words on the left shows the psychological process, the one on the left the result. Two other types of blocks are also interesting because they will always influence us: cultural and environmental blocks. Cultural blocks are acquired by exposure to a given set of cultural patterns. Environmental blocks are created by our everyday social and physical environment.
Some examples of cultural blocks are:
1 Tradition is preferable to change.
2 Engineers make notes on squared notepads.
3 Coloured pens are nice for children.
4 Problem-solving is more important than opportunity-creation and anticipating
5 Reason and logic are preferable to intuition and playfulness.
6 Learning is different from play.
Some examples of environmental blocks are:
1 Being on time is more important than doing the right things.(Many employers seem intent on hiring hours instead of brains.)
2 Lack of support for new ideas.
3 Winning is what counts.
4 Humour is different from hard work.
5 Fun should not be combined with work.
It would seem that often work and play are regarded as entirely different. This dualism prevents many from having fun in our work. As children we played the whole day and when we were tired we fell asleep. We asked questions (sometimes driving our parents crazy) in short: we played and learned. For children our culture thinks this normal. This playful attitude was changed at school, where work and play are clearly distinguished.
This process can become so strict a harness that it curbs us in our playfulness with situations. The limits of the harness are the blocks in our creativity.
Even in science we so easily forget to keep looking with both hands and open eyes. We no longer dance around the subject,
but instead try to pin it down in a premature explanation, a label, a name: it is all very serious, isn't it? The compulsion of explanation and interpretation takes away all scientific playfulness. The risk in growing up and maturing is that we lose pure human functions, that we lose possibilities of expression and creation, that we become unbalanced.Creativity is relearning the ability to question things, the way we did when we were children.However, now with the knowledge of grown-ups: balanced (see also trees).[back to start Creativity Explored in Gulliver’s Footsteps] [Go to Lilliput start] Go to Brobdingnag start page] [Go to Laputa start] [Go to houhnhnm start] [Go to Creative Self start]
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