Finding Insight
How can you get anywhere if you have no idea where you are going? Finding insight is the first step to any idea worth pursuing. Insight is an ambiguous goal. When you have it, you just know it, but when you don’t there’s a constant fear that you will never find it.
Without insight, it can be easy to procrastinate and avoid that blank canvas or next pitch. It’s the stereotypical personality flaw portrayed in creative characters—meandering about, appearing flakey while waiting for that lightning bolt, aha, moment.
Don’t sit back and wait anymore. Insight is not just a bit of luck. You can become strategic, and even block time in your day to get insight.
Anyone who has served as a creative for more than a week knows that feeling when a project is due, ideas somehow seem to vanish. Poof. Gone. The vanishing act is triggered as soon as someone important like a client or professor gives a deadline and just that constraint alone can be enough to scare away your creativity.
Whining seems like the most reasonable response… you think to yourself, “You can’t put a clock on creativity—inspiration comes when it comes!?” But time and time again I noticed as a professional creative that the best way to find insight is just to acknowledge the fears, change my mindset, and do it anyway.
Unlock Insight by Overcoming Fear
In my experience, the most common cause of any mental block is fear. Or as some may label it—anxiety. While I cannot know the roots of your fears, for me it is often rooted in not being enough—not enough talent, not enough time, not enough research, and the list goes on.
"I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from a single thing that I wanted to do.”
Georgia O-Keefe
Stop Fear
Pay attention when fear strikes! For me, it is often a feeling of not knowing or having something that I think I need.
New Mindset: Start with what you know
Most likely, the area where you need insight is first rooted in life experiences that you already have some understanding and personal development. Of course, you want to learn more and hone your craft! But when this fear of not being enough gets me off track I like to start where I am and begin to remind myself what I do know. You can do this through brain mapping, journaling, some sketches or just simply talking it out with a friend.
Find Insight: Freedom
Do it anyway! Start with a draft, it can always get edited later. Create your sketch or outline, and then lean into the first thought that comes to you. Fear often will block your creativity so you will procrastinate—so just get started. Don’t judge it—there’s time to edit later. Who are you right now? Feel free to follow your instincts—you are enough!
Unlock Insight with Observation
This past summer I had the opportunity to walk through a Leonardo D’Vinci display at The Museum of the Rockies. D’Vinci was not only an amazing painter and sculptor but also a brilliant engineer and scientist. At first, it seemed so odd that one person could become an expert in what currently is seen as different disciplines. While I walked through and read the descriptions of his pieces, one common theme found in his work was his ability to observe the world with curiosity.
Become Present
Most of us get caught with are eyes stuck on our screens, starting at the cars in front of us, or consuming stuff, food, drinks, etc. We are angry about what happened to us yesterday. What would happen if we only thought about what we were doing at the moment? Being intentional to see how the light reflects off the trees, the expression on someone’s face, or the words in the lyrics to the song in our earbuds?
New Mindset: Slow down & Observe
Challenge yourself to slow down and become present in your regular, everyday moments. Start to see others. See nature and notice how things work. Begin to ask why questions.
Find Insight: The Five Senses
Open yourself up to your five senses, especially in the area where you need insight. Are you trying to create the vision for your next marketing campaign? Go to the places where your customers are… observe their movements, hear the conversations, and taste the food they eat. Can you see what kind of problems are they having? You can even slow down enough to label the smells you are experiencing. This takes boldness to step out of your interests and envelope someone else’s whole being to discover the “aha” to your creativity.
Unlock Insight with Questions
We’re experts. We got this. This feeling of being the expert can often lead us to forget 1st principles that we first used to get us to where we are now. This kind of thinking creates blind spots so that we cannot see all the possibilities.
Ask Questions
Begin with all the options in front of you so that you can navigate without blind spots. Often asking, “What is the problem we are trying to solve?” is a usual starting point. But learning whose perspective matters most can make all the difference. Once I worked with a client who wanted to reach farmers markets with a craft booth, but after asking questions about who shops at farmers markets we learned that these customers want to buy produce and food products. While crafts are fun to look at, people at farmers markets want produce and premade food items. This is not where she would find her customers. Without the right question, this client would have wasted a whole season trying to sell something to a group of people who were not in the right frame of mind to buy her products.
New Mindset: inquire first
Creativity can lack insight because we only see part of the story. Once we get a 360 view of the situation then as a creator you will have access to all the resources available which can often lead down a path of endless opportunities and ideas.
Find Insight: start asking
Avoid blind spots by asking the basic who, what, where, when, how and/or why questions. It can be tempting to want to just sit down and get to work without creating the brief for the project. Yet focus and purpose can be more effective fuel for your creative projects.
“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Jack London
