Welcome to Day Five of the July Intensity Project!
31 Days Toward Living with More Intensity & Creativity
“Don’t be afraid to fall in love with something and pursue it with intensity.” – E. Paul Torrance
How Is Your Intensity Project Going So Far?
I hope that this series is helping you to think more about the roles that intensity and creativity play in your everyday life, and how you might want to rev them up. I’ve been inspired by what DiDi did on her blog with the questions for Day 3. Here is a taste:
“Who do I want to be?“ Me. In whatever shape, capacity, imagination, or definition that exists at whatever moment in time. I don’t need to be anybody else. My skin may be misshapen from years of trying to wear other people’s perspectives, but it’s me now…void of those opinions. I completely accept it as it is. What’s mine is mine…even if its leftovers. Those are the morsels in life that feed us, sustain us, and keep us moving forward to discover our true self–an ever-evolving soul. Many folks just don’t recognize that. (BTW, can you tell I’m hungry? lol)
Please share how you are living with more intensity and creativity! I love comments and believe we learn best from each other.
Your Creative Manifesto
What does it mean to be creative? That might seem like a simple question, but it’s one worth asking because the answer may be more complex than we first realize. Is it just coloring outside the lines (or coloring prettily inside the lines)? Is it broken crayons? Or neatly arranged crayons? Does it mean having a creative product? Or is it a way of thinking? Does it mean going against the grain? Or sometimes do we mistake rebellion for creativity? Is our creativity something we can improve?
We’ll look at some of these questions in more detail later on. For now, I want to introduce a man known as “the father of creativity,” E. Paul Torrance, and his creativity Manifesto.
Torrance developed the widely used Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, which are used to identify creative ability in children. He also created the Future Problem Solving Program, the mission of which is to “To develop the ability of young people globally to design and promote positive futures using critical, creative thinking.”
While much of Torrance’s work focused on and is applied to children, his book The Manifesto: A Guide To Developing a Creative Career follows the lives and careers of adults. His results and conclusions have some surprising and important implications. This is from a University of Georgia alumni magazine feature on Torrance:
“We found that after 30 or 40 years other things became more important than achievement, intelligence, and creativity….I call these ‘Beyonder’ characteristics, such as persistence, courage, willingness to take a risk, and loving and doing what you can do well.” ~ E. Paul Torrance
He drew on his findings to develop a Manifesto to help children and adults to live more creatively. Torrance wrote, “I drew these guidelines from my longitudinal studies in which I had encountered some creatively gifted children with learning disabilities, but I now realize that I was writing them for myself” (The Manifesto: A Guide To Developing a Creative Career, p. 93):
E. Paul Torrance’s Manifesto
Don’t be afraid to fall in love with something and pursue it with intensity.
Know, understand, take pride in, practice, develop, exploit, and enjoy your greatest strengths.
Learn to free yourself from the expectations of others and walk away from the games they impose on you. Free yourself to play your own game.
Find a great teacher or mentor who will help you.
Don’t waste energy trying to be well-rounded.
Do what you love and can do well.
Learn the skills of interdependence.
Your Day Five assignment: What part of Torrance’s Manifesto speaks to you? Consider applying one or more of his tenets in your daily life, or even using this month to write your own Intensity and Creativity Manifesto.
Previous July Intensity Project Posts:
Lisa,
Interestingly, what Torrence describes in the quote about “beyonder characteristics” happened to me, almost I didn’t fully realize it at the time. Prior to my 50th birthday I set a goal for myself to get something published. For years I had an on again/off-again relationship with writing and I felt that I wanted to do something that mattered. What kicked in are all the traits he lists–persistence, courage, willingness to take a risk–and I not only accomplished my goal but I continued writing nonstop since then.
Frances, first of all, congratulations! It must feel amazing to look back on setting a goal and then to to see that you not only have reached it, but have gone beyond. You have inspired me. I am currently reading The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, and I am realizing that life truly can get better and better, in part because those beyonder characteristics are not available to us when we are younger.
Thanks so much.
I really love Day Five’s topic of the July Intensity Project, Lisa. The first declaration resonated with me! (Although, in all honesty, they all have great impact.)
I love that this project celebrates and encourages our passion.
I’ve found such contentment and joy in the past months just living by that first declaration…by not being afraid to fall in love with something and pursuing it with intensity. Acceptance and appreciation are great things, but they aren’t required if you are happy with your own personal pursuits. That also fits into the third declaration, freeing yourself from the expectations of others.
Do what you love and can do well. I believe “Do what you love and love what you do,” might be preferable to me, it removes any connotation that seeks approval.
Loved today’s assignment. Thanks for sharing all this wonderful information and challenging us to consider, share and create. As before, This is a condensed reply–my blog goes into more detail if anyone is interested in reading it.
DiDi, as usual I loved how you addressed this issue on your blog. I also like very much your rewording: “Do what you love and love what you do.” I suspect that too often we don’t give ourselves permission to adapt the work of others so that it has more meaning for us. You showed us how to do so.
Thank you for the kind words about the July Intensity Project! I’m so happy that it is proving useful for others.
~ Lisa
Freeing myself from the expectation of others struck me the most in that manifesto. That wasn’t always easy for me to do in life–although it got much easier as I got older. Life’s too short as it is.
Kristi, amen! I’m still working on that particular part of the manifesto. The work of Harriet Braiker on overcoming people-pleasing has helped a lot, but, for me, it’s definitely an ongoing (and sometimes slow) process.
~ Lisa