Personal growth: The danger of over-seriousness in our creative projects February 27, 2014
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in The Creative Process.Tags: Carl Jung, creative process, lifestyle, personal growth, personal initiative, philosophy, quotes, self-improvement, spirituality
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We can take it as a “given” that initiating, building, and maintaining a program of personal growth or development requires a disciplined approach if it is to be successful. Such a personal initiative requires genuine commitment if it is to become a part of our daily life.
And yet, overdone, a deadening seriousness can settle over our attitude and subsequent efforts, which eventually can lead to a loss of energy.
A lack of playfulness or fun in our self-improvement program will diminish the likelihood of reaching our full potential in our growth plan.
This is especially true if we have included pursuing a creative interest or project as part of our program. It’s particularly important to bring some lightness in approach and execution to the creative segment(s) of our self-improvement efforts. Indeed, perhaps to our entire program, which, being self-generated, is a creative effort in itself.
Psychiatrist and philosopher Carl Jung wrote extensively on the need for a degree of playfulness in the creative process and I’ve chosen a couple of quotations that illustrate his point:
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
“Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.”
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