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The 5 Cups of Creativity · The Daily Writer

• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everybody to the Born to Create Podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm your host.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an author, musician, and teacher, but most importantly, I'm a husband and a dad.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the show, we talk about practices, habits, and strategies that help us live out our creative calling.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode two, and today we're going to be talking about the five cups of creativity.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the post that accompanies this episode, as well as all the links, at KentSanders.net slash five cups creativity.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And five cups and creativity all have a dash in between them.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's five dash cups dash creativity.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: For the last couple of decades, I've devoted myself to helping people discover and use their creative gifts.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: In my various roles as a teacher, musician, writer, and editor, I've become convinced of one very important truth.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: We find the most joy and we help the most people when we're doing what we were born to do.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: However, there are several barriers that prevent most of us from living and creating at our full potential.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: These barriers, I believe, come from several different kinds of confusion.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: First, we're confused about the process of creativity because we lack a systematic way to develop our creative potential.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: We bounce between various books, courses, resources, habits, and systems, never truly committing to any of them and only frustrating ourselves more along the way.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Second, we're confused about the nature of creativity because we misunderstand the creative process.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to believe that only highly gifted or talented people are truly creative.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Third, we're confused about the actions of creativity because we suffer from information overload.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're consuming too much content, listening to too many voices, and not taking decisive action on what we do know.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, we're confused about the purpose of creativity because we aren't clear about our own gifts and goals in life.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Over the past few years, I've been on a search to understand more about these barriers and how they prevent us from being more creative.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: The more I studied, the more I began to see that there was a clear process for developing more creativity in your life.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: This process revealed itself as I studied the lives of some of the world's most creative people, and it also rang true as I thought about the ups and downs of my own creative life.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: This process, and you might call it a template or a pathway in addition to a process, doesn't really matter what language that you use, whatever you call it, this gives you a framework for understanding and developing creativity in your own life.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I simply refer to it as the five cups of creativity.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last few years, I began to look at my own life and wonder why I hadn't seemed to reach my creative potential.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: The more I studied the subjects of success and creativity, I began to see patterns emerge in the lives of highly creative people, such as the people at Pixar, Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Coach John Wooden, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen King, and so many other creative people.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: It all seemed to click for me when I came across this quote from Walt Disney a number of years ago.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the greatest of all is confidence.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Walt Disney's statement seemed to summarize everything I was learning about creativity.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And really I just took this as a starting point, and I made a couple of adjustments that you'll see in just a few minutes.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you, as Walt Disney said, make dreams come true?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: How do you unlock your creative potential and begin to pursue what you were born to do?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: This framework of the five cups of creativity, I believe, is a really great starting point.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into these five cups.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: But before we do, keep in mind that these don't work in some type of linear fashion.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: You don't necessarily work on the first one, you know, first and then number two, second, and number three, third.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's much more of an organic process.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity is more nuanced and individualized than these five things and working on them in some sort of sequential order.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I believe they all affect one another.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: These five cups of creativity are like the parts of a car, such as the engine, the wheels, the body, etc., that all must be working together for the car to go anywhere.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So let's briefly look at these five areas, or what I call the cups, a little bit more closely.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is clarity.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity, I believe, is like a river, and clarity is the right and the left banks of the river.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you have clarity about your gifts, your goals, your purpose in life, and the audience that you're serving, it allows your creativity to run faster, deeper, and in the right direction, just like riverbanks do.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is confidence.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you believe in yourself and your abilities, you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: A person who lacks confidence will always be timid and fearful, doubting themselves and their direction.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Confidence gives you the momentum and the courage to tackle obstacles and reach higher goals.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number three is consistency.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Almost anyone can create something worthwhile on occasion, but a true professional approaches creativity more like a workman.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: As William Faulkner once said, I only write when I am inspired.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, I am inspired at nine o'clock every morning.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity requires consistent daily effort to accomplish anything worthwhile in the long run.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is Curiosity.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Curiosity is the desire to explore new subjects and find connections between things that don't seem related.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: The curious person values learning for its own sake, not just as a means to an end.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Curiosity is the impulse that allowed Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest artist of all time in my opinion, to invent so many marvelous machines and to make so many contributions to our understanding of anatomy, architecture, science, and so many other areas.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Likewise, Walt Disney was an endlessly curious person who literally changed the world through storytelling, animation, and theme parks, which on some level were all the result of his curiosity.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Number five is community.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity is not a one man or one woman show.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: You need a team, a mastermind, a small group, teachers, peers, and mentors who will help you to soar farther than you can on your own.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Your community will make you sharper and better.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody makes themselves.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're all part of a community.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier I mentioned a quote from Walt Disney that was so helpful in summarizing creativity for me.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Disney mentioned four key areas curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: You might notice that my areas are a little bit different than his.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I did with these.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I kept curiosity and merged courage with confidence because they're similar.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I changed constancy to consistency because I think consistency is a more up-to-date term.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what about the other two areas, clarity and community that aren't included in Walt Disney's four key areas?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's what happened with those.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I added clarity because we need clarity now more than ever.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: With so many opportunities today for creatives and so many distractions like phones, computers, media, all kinds of things happening in the world, it is vital for any creative person to have a clear understanding of their gifts, direction, purpose, goals, and audience.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you read any biography of Walt Disney, you'll see that he was clear on what his gifts were and what he wanted to accomplish.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I've included clarity.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I also added community because almost any artist who accomplishes anything noteworthy does so with the help of other people.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this was absolutely the case with Walt Disney.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: He employed a small army of artists, designers, musicians, and other creative types to make his vision a reality.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So with my apologies to the great Walt Disney, an artist I deeply respect and admire, as do a lot of other people in the world, of course, I made a few changes to his well-known quote that I cited above, and I used that as a basis for the Five Cups of Creativity template.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now before I wrap up this episode, let me dive into one more thing related to this idea of the five cups of creativity.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: You might wonder why I've used cups as a metaphor for these five areas of creativity.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's really several reasons.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: First is that cups are portable.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Over the years I've read various ministry and business books that use the term buckets as a metaphor.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to creativity, a bucket is not really the best metaphor because nobody takes buckets around with them.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't carry buckets in your car, you don't carry buckets to work.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: However, we do take cups everywhere.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: We take cups with us in the car, to the office, and pretty much everywhere that we go.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity is like a cup in that you take it with you wherever you go.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Second, cups need constant refilling.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You have to keep your creative cup filled up because it regularly runs dry.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: No one else can fill it up for you.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: You have to take responsibility for filling it up yourself.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Third, cups contain fuel.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a coffee drinker, you probably see it as a cup of fuel that helps run your day.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know I like coffee and my wife certainly loves coffee as well.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like the fuel that runs our day on some level.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity likewise is the fuel that feeds your passion and your work, just like coffee does.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, cups represent fullness.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you live an intentionally creative life, you create and live from a sense of fullness, not a sense of emptiness.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then fifth, cups represent sharing.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: We intuitively think about getting coffee with a friend or going out to dinner with people that we enjoy.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Cups represent sharing, relationship and community.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And creativity is meant to be the exact same way.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: It represents sharing, relationship, and community.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So once again, to summarize, the five cups of creativity are clarity, confidence, consistency, curiosity, and community.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which of these is most important to you on your journey right now?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your thoughts.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can join the conversation and find the post and the links that accompany this episode at Kent Sanders.net slash five cups creativity.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's five dash cups dash creativity.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: When you visit my site, you'll find all kinds of great resources to inspire your creativity.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'd also love to share a gift with you when you subscribe to my newsletter.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out, as well as learn more about my books, writing, and services at KentSanders.net.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to connect and you can tweet me at Kent Sanders, or you can find me on Facebook and Instagram as simply Kent Sanders.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I also hope that you'll check out our Born to Create Facebook group by visiting Kent Sanders.net slash Facebook group.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: What will you do with the time you have left?