The Creative's Guide to Social Distancing
This is what disruption feels like…
With life abruptly changing for so many Americans — in a sudden, overnight shift — it can be easy to feel as personally obliterated as your social systems are right now. Job loss, loss of office life, and loss of social community, from bars to gyms and everything in between. This is what disruption feels like.
At times like this — as is the case with any time — you are faced with a simple choice each morning: do I wish to seek out the positive in this day, or sulk in it as a victim?
A note from the creatives:
You are going to fine. Even better, in fact. Because now is the time you have been waiting for, to finally be creative.
It was during the Great Plague when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth. Social distancing himself provided the white space to create a greatest work. And it was during the Great Depression that Coco Chanel created both the world’s first designer-branded perfume, Chanel No. 5, and her timeless suits. Both remain in fashion even now. We also created the electric razor, the chocolate chip cookie, and our first electric guitar — by Leo Fender.
Destruction and creation are partners. We’re forced to take them as a pair.
It is a fact that innovation is synonymous with both creativity and destruction. Even the greatest economists, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx, all accepted some version of this economic concept, now called creative destruction.
It is the idea of adaption. The business cycle inherently destroys things and creates new things. And so long as it is our human nature to adapt rather than just give up, the cycle remains a series of ups and downs. So when there are downs you can also expect new opportunities. During desolation is creation. Which makes the case for choosing to adapt and create, whenever it feels like you should be giving up.
The radio destroyed the piano. The car killed off the horse transport. Uber ate the cab medallion. So on, and so forth.
Covid19 destroyed your social construct. Maybe it destroyed your business. And at this very moment, graduate business school students are writing papers about this quite possibly being the most innovative time that business has ever seen. Business owners are forced to adapt to digital, and to detangle the social construct from their models.
In Mandarin the word for crisis is written with two symbols: one means danger, and the other is opportunity.
How to be creative.
If you are social distancing, consider this.
Thousands and thousands of people have mentioned wishing they just had enough time to write that book. Take up that hobby. Create that startup idea.
Today is your lucky day. You’re finally given your time.
At some point, “how to be creative” was one of the most popular English language searches on the internet.
So here is your guide to creativity.
Creativity is a choice. Everyone can be creative. Give yourself permission.
Creativity requires space, physical and mental. Social distancing is a gift from the world, to your creative self.
Creativity cannot be rushed.
Creativity has no right answer. Just begin.
Creativity is the brave act of mental meandering. Applying uncommon ideas to each other. Tinkering and testing. It is doing without the requiring that what is done must be perfect.
Creativity is both an art and a process. If you wish to create something specific, seek out the process others have used to provide you with a basic structure. The information is freely available on the internet.
Create your art for the world because the world needs your art. Maybe not everyone, maybe just a few people. If this is the case, create for them.
Creativity is unlike other labor because you don’t exchange it directly for money. Create for a purpose that matters, not for the dollars.
Creativity is easier when it is constrained. For example, asking you to go create a movie is infinitely more difficult than asking you to create a 30-second Instagram video from your phone. The more constraints present, the easier creativity becomes. A simple constraint is to set a deadline for yourself.
While the human brain is wired to sense potential threats and fear, you are also free to switch off your news consumption, shut down your social media account, pick up your pen, crayon, paintbrush, your hammer, your laptop…
Whatever tool you need to finally be creative. Just try it on for an hour or so.
The world has finally given you that space you’ve been requesting of it. In fact, it’s demanding you create.
The end.
Thank you to friend Jim Kwik for pointing out the Macbeth story. After my office was finally shut down I spent yesterday in bed eating ice cream and generally in a funk. Your anecdote provided the mental vitamin I needed. Thank you, and I hope this helps pass that motivation along. Even the most strong, creative introverts can feel weak and lonely at times. In fact, everyone feels this way. I am so grateful to each of you whose sixth sense knows me well enough to pick me up when I’m in need. You know who you are.
About.
Jessica Higgins is an agent of change for public, private and non-profit organizations around the world. Her focus is on facilitating the development of an enterprise’s authentic voice as a means of conveying their core values to stakeholders through their internal and external words and actions.
Beyond her advisory work, Ms. Higgins is a best-selling author as her first book: 10 Skills For Business Communication, reached #1 in Amazon.com New Releases for Communication and Social Skills books. Her work has also been published in over ten thousand media outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, Huffington Post, CBS, and Newsweek.
In addition to serving as a Partner of R+I, Ms. Higgins is the President of Curated Financial, an investment fund manager she founded in order to streamline the cultivation of bespoke investment opportunities for private clients after finding a general lack of cohesion in the investment selection process of alternative investment options. Curated Financial advises a venture capital fund and a fund of funds focused on the selection of emerging managers.
Ms. Higgins holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Behavioral Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctorate / Master of Business Administration from the University of Miami. In addition, Ms. Higgins is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification holder with specialty in Systems Design and holds an executive education certificate in Behavior Design from the Design Lab at Stanford University.
Learn more about her work in finance at curatedfinancial.com, her venture accelerator is researchinnovation.co and her marketing agency is digital-unicorns.com.
