Creativity Related to Insanity

Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works.

Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.

Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought.

It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to "think outside the box", say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

In some people, it leads to mental illness. The trick is to insane enough to have brilliant ideas but sane enough to use them. There have certainly been cases where people considered mentally sub-normal have suddenly come out with a brilliant insight. Savants (people capable of astonishing memory and mental calculation) like the rain man also cross the boundary. Creative people often have have or feat they have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

In truth many of us have to manage our focus (ADD) sufficiently in such a way we can pursue a career and pay our bills and still find outlets for our creativity.

Barbara Sher discovered that once creative people recognize and accept the fact that they are Scanners they can learn to live with and even take advantage of their lack of focus and inability to lead projects to fruition.

Many Idea Creators are Scanners

Many people good at creating ideas suffer at the same time from being scanners, that means they cannot focus on one thing at a time or more accurately cannot see a project through to fruition before they they throw themselves headfirst into the next best thing.

One suggestion by Babara Sher is to start a Scanner Daybook, use this to note down all your various ideas as soon as they appear . When you are distracted by a tangential idea write it down and in this way "get it out of your system" then return to your previous task. 

Having tried many notebook solutions I now prefer a simple text file which I can email to my cell-phone as required. This contains my ideas, my to-dos and anything else that I think of. I have found over the years that anything more complicated seems to fall by the way side sooner or later.

Whatever your preference  the Number One Rule of Idea Creation is to get that IDEA written down, ideas that continuously churn around in your head are just wasting your "computer power" and blocking you from thinking of something even better. No you must get ideas out where you came see them in the daylight so you can begin to evaluate any flaws.

If you want to learn how to deal with your seeming  lack of focus and see if you are a scanner then read this review "Are you a Scanner?"