Being creative, realizing our talents and crafting a fulfilling life involve self-awareness and respecting who we really are, including our unconscious depths. Many artists, psychologists and others refer to access to our creative inner depths as instinct or intuition.
For many of us who are trained and inclined to be primarily analytical, making use of this non-rational stuff may not be so natural or easy, but many leaders say it is worth the effort.
Take a look for example, at Picasso. The painter spent his teenage years at home in Barcelona studying the masters in art school. (Isn’t it hard to imagine Picasso in art school?)
No surprise, his early paintings look nothing like the masterpieces he would eventually create. He churned out realistic and serious portraits of grizzled peasants and members of his own family.
It was all in the genre of the day and based on the RULES he learned in class—the same rules he would expertly BREAK later on.Along the way in Paris, he went bohemian and dabbled in different styles — impressionist like Monet, still life like Cezanne, colorful works like Matisse. He modeled all of them at different times.
Then, he finally trusted his instincts. He emerged from the constraints of convention, and painted his own way to being one of the most lauded artists in the world.
Do you use your intuition or instincts to be more creative?