The Campbell Academy Blog (38)

The rigid Schedule

It's a common trap that we all fall into thinking that we're not allowed to be creative or are not allowed to have creative thoughts or creative times, we're not allowed to grab inspiration and try and turn it into something, not allowed to daydream because it's a waste of time it's not efficient and it's not effective.

That type of stuff is for 'Creatives', people who write songs, poetry, or paint pictures that sell for a lot of money.

It's not for the likes of us, is it?

It's not for us who put our nose to the grindstone for 40/50 years, trying to save up for a pension and then give up and then die two or three years later when we stop working and have no purpose anymore.

There's no need for us to be creative because there's nothing to create, which, of course, is the most utterly ridiculous thing that anyone could imagine.

Today's world is hyper-complex, and it gets more and more complex on a daily basis, so it's just not possible to fix it with an instruction manual.

It's not possible to navigate the conversations, situations, and altercations that you inevitably encounter without being able to be creative and think creatively. Use your empathy, emotional intelligence, and vision to try to find a solution to a problem that no one else can, or certainly not as quickly as you.

You can have a rigid schedule if you want; you can schedule an hour's worth of creative time, but it just doesn't happen like that, does it?

It comes at you in the most unusual places (one of the best ideas I had was at the corner of the field on Ruddington Lane as I was running back in the day, and I couldn't believe that it came to me there in amongst the grass and the dog shit and the sweat, and the trying hard to breathe).

It never comes in the same place at the same time, the ideas, the thoughts, the creativity, it's unpredictable, and so you need a little bit of space in your life, a little bit of tools to harness that when it gets there and a little bit of motivation not to give up.

It's just not fun or full of any soul to have a rigid 9 to 5.30 all the time making money till there's no time left to spend, as Gerry Cinnamon puts.