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The No. 1 Habit of

Highly Creative People

Isolate and create.

“In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of

solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.” ~Rollo May

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow him on twitter or identica.



Creativity is a nebulous, murky topic that fascinates me endlessly — how does it work?

What habits to creative people do that makes them so successful at creativity?

I’ve reflected on my own creative habits, but decided I’d look at the habits that others

consider important to their creativity. I picked a handful of creatives, almost at random —

there are so many that picking the best would be impossible, so I just picked some that I

admire, who came to mind when I thought of the word “creative”.

This was going to be a list of their creative habits … but in reviewing their lists, and my

own habits, I found one that stood out. And it stands out if you review the habits and

quotes from great creative people in history.

It’s the Most Important Habit when it comes to creativity.

After you read the No. 1 habit, please scroll down and read the No. 2 habit — they might

seem contradictory but in my experience, you can’t really hit your creative stride until

you find a way to balance both habits.

The No. 1 Creativity Habit

In a word: solitude.

Creativity flourishes in solitude. With quiet, you can hear your thoughts, you can reach

deep within yourself, you can focus.

Of course, there are lots of ways to find this solitude. Let’s listen to a few of the creative

people I talked to or researched:

Felicia Day – wonderful actress perhaps best known for her awesome

work on Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and

The Guild.

I was thrilled when she replied to my email asking about her creative

habits. One of the things she said: she makes “sure to be creative first

thing in the morning, before doing anything for the outside world, really

sets the day up for me. It makes it feel that CREATING is my job, notanswering emails.”

Ali Edwards – an author, designer, and leading authority on

scrapbooking.

I was honored with a response from Ali as well. One of her top habits

wasn’t exactly solitude, but is related: “Do nothing. I have a habit of

welcoming time away from my creative work. For me this is serious

life-recharging time where my only responsibility is to just be Mom



& Wife & Me. Doing nothing has a way of synthesizing what is really important in my

life and in my work and inspires me beyond measure. When I come back to work I am

better equipped to weed out the non-essential stuff and focus on the things I most want to

express creatively.”

Chase Jarvis – an award-winning photographer.

Chase also kindly responded with several of his key creativity habits —

see more great ones at the bottom of this post. But here’s one that I loved:

“Find Quiet. Creativity sometimes washes over me during times of

intense focus and craziness of work, but more often I get whacked by the

creative stick when I’ve got time in my schedule. And since my schedule

is a crazy one and almost always fills up if I’m just “living”, I tend to

carve out little retreats for myself. I get some good thinking and re-charge

time during vacations, or on airplanes, but the retreats are more focused on thinking aboutcreative problems that I’m wanting to solve. That’s why I intentionally carve time out. I

make room for creativity. Intentionally. The best example of what I mean by a retreat is a

weekend at my family’s cabin. It’s a 90 minute drive from my house on the coast. There

are few distractions. Just a rocky beach and a cabin from the 60’s with wood paneling

and shag carpet. I go for walks, hikes, naps. I read. I did get an internet signal put in there

to stay connected if I need it. But the gist is QUIET. Let there be space for creativity to

fill your brain.”

Maciej Cegłowski – painter, programmer, excellent writer.

Maciej is one of my favorite bloggers, and responded to my email with aclassically short answer that to me, embodies a beautiful way to find

solitude.

What habit helps his creativity?

Maciej replied: “Running up hills!”

Leo Babauta: OK, I wasn’t going to talk about myself in this post, but I thought I should

share some of my previous thoughts.

The best art is created in solitude, for good reason: it’s only when we are alone that wecan reach into ourselves and find truth, beauty, soul. Some of the most famous

philosophers took daily walks, and it was on these walks that they found their deepest

thoughts.

My best writing, and in fact the best of anything I’ve done, was created in solitude.



Just a few of the benefits I’ve found from solitude:

• time for thought

• in being alone, we get to know ourselves

• we face our demons, and deal with them

• space to create

• space to unwind, and find peace

• time to reflect on what we’ve done, and learn from it

• isolation from the influences of other helps us to find our own voice

• quiet helps us to appreciate the smaller things that get lost in the roar

Read more: the lost art of solitude.

The Greats on Solitude

Of course, many other creative people have believed in the habit of solitude. I’ve

collected a small but influential sample here. There are many more examples.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – prolific and influential composer of the

Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as

pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral

music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Mozart: “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of

good cheer–say, traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal or

during the night when I cannot sleep–it is on such occasions that my ideas

flow best and most abundantly.”

Albert Einstein – theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is

widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists

and intellectuals of all time. He is often regarded as the father of modern

physics.

Einstein: “On the other hand, although I have a regular work schedule, I

take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is

going on inside my head. If my work isn’t going well, I lie down in the

middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in

my imagination.”

Franz Kafka – one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Novelist and writer of short stories whose works came to be regarded as

one of the major achievements of 20th century literature.

Kafka: “You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and

listen. You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet,

and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be



unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

Nikola Tesla – inventor, one of the most important contributors to the

birth of commercial electricity, best known for his many revolutionary

developments in the field of electromagnetism.

Tesla: “The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted

solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating

upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone—that is the secret of

invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.”

Joseph Haydn: A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his

career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian aristocratic

Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers

and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it,

“forced to become original”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – German writer and polymath. Goethe’s

works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy,

and science.

His magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the

two-part drama Faust.

Goethe: “One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in

solitude.”

Pablo Picasso – Spanish painter best known for co-founding the Cubist

movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. His

revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and

immense fortunes throughout his life, making him one of the best-known

figures in twentieth century art.

Picasso: “Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”

Carl Sandburg – American writer and editor, best known for his poetry.

He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a

biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg

“indubitably an American in every pulse-beat.”

Sandburg: “One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover

creative solitude.”

Thomas Mann – German novelist, short story writer, social critic,

philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his



series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into

the psychology of the artist and the intellectual.

Mann: “Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous — to

poetry.”

The No. 2 Creative Habit

While it might seem contradictory, the No. 2 habit when it comes to nurturing creativity:

participation. This can come in many forms, but it requires connecting with others, being

inspired by others, reading others, collaborating with others.

But how can you have both solitude and participation? They obviously have to come at

different times. Finding the balance is key, of course, but it takes a conscious effort: this

time is for solitude, and this time is for participation.

Why are they both important? We need inspiration from without, but we need creation

from within.

A couple of the people I interviewed had habits that relate to this:

Chase Jarvis: “Devour Popular Culture. Consuming the works of others inspires me.

And it’s not just museums and the “establishment”. I devour magazines, books, street art,

performances, music, etc. All things that make me think critically (and whimsically)

about the world. You get the picture. Inspiration can come from anywhere.”

Ali Edwards: “Participate. My creative spirit is interested in documenting the

wonderful everyday details of our lives. To really get to the heart of the matter I need to

be fully participating in my life, in the interactions with my kids and husband and family

and friends. If I am just going through the motions or wishing away the present moment

for “the next thing” I am missing the blessing of right now. My creativity requires the

habit of active participation and daily attention to detail.”

Other Creative Habits

There are other habits than those top two, of course, that can nourish creativity. Some

other good ones:

Felicia Day: “When I am most productive I am the most ruthless with my schedule. I will

literally make a daily checklist with, “one hour gym”, “30 minutes of internet research,”

and “drink 3 glasses of water” on it. For some reason being that disciplined creates a

sense of control that I wouldn’t have otherwise, as a self-employed person, and I get the

most out of the scheduled hours that I have for writing.”

Ali Edwards: “Take notes. I am a really good note-taker. It’s essential for me to write

down my ideas when they come to mind…otherwise, poof, they disappear way too



quickly as I move on to the next task (diaper changes, wiping noses, tending to the stuff

of life). I use my phone, my computer, and a moleskine notebook to jot down thoughts

and ideas and then I move them into Things every week or so.”

Chase Jarvis had a few more:

• Live a creative life everyday. I very much believe in doing creative stuff

everyday. For one, I take photos and videos almost everyday. Doesn’t matter the

camera. I use my iPhone everyday. Just taking photos keeps me in a creative

headspace. Hell, I play with my food and draw and doodle.

• Moderate Expectations. Make it a habit not to judge yourself on your creative

output. Sometimes your creativity is on fire. Great news. Other times, it’s not. It’s

hard sometimes when you make art in a professional commercial capacity

because you’re paid to be ‘ON’, but you’ll save yourself a lot of grief if you make

it a habit to be cool to your psyche when your creative mojo isn’t firing on allpistons.

• Shake Your Tree. When I’m starting to feel stale, I make a habit of getting into

adventures. Break molds. Drive home from work a different way. Stir up my

routine. I get active and shake my tree.

• Find fun. Doing what you love inspires you to be more creative. Make time and

space for having fun. All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl.

• Lastly, being creative means living a creative life. Expect yourself to have one.

Believe you are creative. Know that you are. Make that the most important habit

of all.

For more on creativity, read my Little But Useful Guide to Creativity.

“Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To

others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your

very soul an idea.” ~Lou Dorfsman

Original Content may be found at zenhabits

Ebook © 2008-2010 http://write-wright.blogspot.com/

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