Tapping into Your Innate Creative Abilities

Three Secrets of Creative Geniuses Revealed

By Scott Jeffrey

They enchant us, surprise us and serve us. We don’t understand them, yet we marvel at their extraordinary creations and discoveries. They are the world’s creative geniuses. They come from every background, culture, nationality, occupation, religion, and age. Trying to find mysterious commonalities in the geniuses personalities is futile; creative genius is as diverse as the work it produces.

Creative genius is revealed in all forms of art, invention, scientific breakthrough, philosophy, psychology, business, medicine, engineering, and even sports. Virtually every field of endeavor has its pioneers and gifted souls who transform how we think, feel and live our lives.

If brilliance is so elusive, how can we learn from these creative souls and artistic minds? And how can we apply their “secrets” to our own lives to unleash the creative genius within?

Here are three key lessons of how creative masters operate within the world:

1) Creative geniuses are devoted to the discovery process.

As perpetual students, creative geniuses exhibit an extraordinary level of commitment to their craft. Knowing there is always more to learn, they remain open to new realizations. Their unwavering commitment differentiates their “way of being” from the masses. For example, 80 percent of the United States population feels they have a book inside, waiting to be written. But how many people will work diligently on their writing? No one would pick up a brush and expect to paint a work of art. Each field of endeavor requires study, training and a never-ending resolve for excellence.

Although creative inspiration may arise at any moment, it favors those who have prepared for it. Professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Howard Gardner noted that it takes at least ten years of consistent study/work/practice on a discipline or craft before genius surfaces, pointing to the work of Sigmund Freud, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein, among others. Creativity researcher Howard Gruber concurs: “Perhaps the single most reliable finding in our studies is that creative work takes a long time. With all due apologies to thunderbolts, creative work is not a matter of milliseconds, minutes, or even hours – but of months, years and decades.”

This intense commitment may deter the weak-at-heart from pursuing discovery or the creative process, but fear not. For mere mortals, the lesson is that we must be patient with ourselves – nurturing and supporting our progress – and whenever possible, committing more time and energy to what interests us.

Exercise #1: Ask yourself, What am I committed to learning this year? Perhaps there’s a topic like creative writing, gardening, painting or quantum mechanics that you know a few things about and would like to explore more deeply. Schedule time in your calendar for personal study and practice, classes or a weekend workshop.

2) Creative geniuses surrender to the moment.

Even the tenacious devotion of the creative genius must at some point “let go.” Creative inspiration doesn’t come from sheer will, but through the willingness to relinquish control and enter the state of wandering. The ability to let go – to surrender to the moment – is perhaps more difficult than a laborious decade of study. In our Western world, we tend to neglect the wanderer within. Our lives are inundated with perpetual activities, work and family, emails and phone calls, and other demands of life. Yet, it is those rare moments of allowing when the creative impulse ignites. Intense study and practice likens to swimming upriver; surrendering to the creative impulse is like floating downstream.

Periods of reverie are a prerequisite for inspiration. The analytical mind drifts aside, allowing the higher mind to align to inspired ideas. Playwright Neil Simon acknowledged this altered state of consciousness by saying, “I slip into a state that is apart from reality. My mind wanders – even when I talk.” We’ve all experienced these precious moments of insight while taking a shower, driving on the freeway or walking through the woods.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart reflects, “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer – say, traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them.” Poet Rudyard Kipling also understood the need to lay the conscious mind aside and embrace the wanderer: “When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait and obey.”

Exercise #2: Commit to walking in nature, cracking open your journal, reading poetry, or sitting silently. Schedule more time, even just 20 minutes, to minimize distractions.

3) Creative geniuses live with profound humility for their gifts.

Most people assume thoughts originate from our brains, as if there’s a thought-generating machine inside that is always “on,” except during sleep when the dream machine takes over. Neuroscientists are unable to locate the “place” from which these ethereal enigmas arise; they can only determine what parts of the brain get activated after the thought has registered.

Mystics and philosophers, however, have proclaimed since antiquity that thoughts arise of their own, characterizing them as impersonal. Although difficult to fathom, with honest, introspective observation, one can easily confirm that thoughts arise of their own—whether you want them to or not.

This realization brings up the next big question: Where do thoughts come from? Psychiatrist and consciousness researcher David R. Hawkins confirmed that thoughts arise from the infinite field of consciousness itself, a sort of collective nonlinear pool of knowledge existing beyond time and space. This infinite field is known by different names by various religions and schools of thought; Western religions call it God.

Creative geniuses seem to have their own understanding of this infinite field; however, they all intuit the impersonal nature of thoughts, ideas and creativity. Masterfully, they don’t take credit for their work; instead they credit a “higher power” as the source of their inspiration. William Blake called it “Poetic Genius.” Puccini said his greatest opera Madame Butterfly was “dictated to me by God.” Both Brahms and Beethoven appealed directly to the “Creator Himself.” Like Aristotle before him, Rudyard Kipling looked to his “Personal Daemon” for inspiration. And, in recounting his experience with the creative process, Mozart said, “What has been thus produced I do not easily forget, and this is perhaps the best gift I have my Divine Maker to thank for.”

A true genius does not wrestle between the polarities of false modesty and overt narcissism. If your thoughts aren’t personal, can you take credit for them as “mine?” Humility is the trademark of creative genius: available to all, accepted by the treasured few.

Exercise #3: Close your eyes and tell your mind to stop thinking for 30 seconds. Notice how your mind will continue thinking, regardless. Next, close your eyes and simply observe the thoughts that come to mind for 60 seconds. Notice the random nature of the thought flow. This exercise will help detach you from the sense that the thoughts are yours, paving the way to greater humility. This new awareness can increase your alignment with higher creativity.

These three simple, yet powerful lessons represent the commonalities among all creative geniuses. Since the source of creativity is consciousness itself, the creative impulse is available to all of us. Are you ready to tap into your innate creative powers?

If you enjoyed this article, see Creativity Revealed: Discovering the Source of Inspiration.