Do we all have some creative ability in us? Yes. Can we learn and grow to be more creative? Yes. Should we all be living as “creatives?” I question this. But what creativity we have, whether it’s art, ideas, businesses, innovations, or solutions to problems, how can we best go from the idea or concept, to actually doing and delivering something? I don’t want to do something with every creative idea I have, but with the ones that matter, I’d be lying if I said I just made them all happen. I don’t always, and I haven’t always understood why. Which is why I have for you today, Zorana Ivcevic Pringle. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle is a senior research scientist at Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence where she studies the process of making something both original and effective, which is how she defines creativity, and explains how turning those ideas into reality always starts with the choice to act, or what she calls the creativity choice. It is a choice that must be made again and again until one’s creative ideas take shape. She has a new book called just that, The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action. In this conversation we discuss not only what it takes to get started with our creative ideas but the psychological and emotional tools needed to sustain the creative process. I really appreciate Zorana coming at this as a true scientist and not telling us it’s just easy. She claims the creative process is hard, and when it comes to the original idea and presenting something useful to humanity, I agree. I feel we do a disservice to people when we try to encompass things into a little formula we sell as “easy.” I find few things of value to be very easy. Simple maybe, but seldom easy.  So here we walk through the three parts of Zorana’s Creative Process and as you will hear, we discuss the  necessary ingredients, but ingredients you must assemble in a unique way for your unique self. You can find Zorana’s book, The Creativity Choice, anywhere, and connect with her at her website zorana-ivcevic-pringle.com

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