Kill your ego. Wake up creativity

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We often provide tips to help you break up your routine, try new things, and boost your creativity. Today we propose to kill the ego in order to save creativity.

Ego - self-opinion

Ego is not bad. But it is so easy to fall into the trap of narcissism, convincing yourself that you are smarter, more talented than all these little people, and that you are the one who deserves more.

Unfortunately, such beliefs can interfere with all areas of life: relationships, work, creativity, and the ability to grow.

Therefore, you need to arrange regular checks of your ego. Think you can control yourself? Think again. Here are five ways to test your ego (by the way, one of them will scare you. Be sure to try it).

1. Take care of what you don’t know how

The ego demands awards, stars on the walk of fame, and pats on the head for a job well done. But when we do something outside of our comfort zone, we can fail. And glorious.

The opposite effect of failure will help creativity. There is no need to go to extremes and take on something terrible. Experiment with a set of skills related to your profession. Are you a photographer? Shoot a video. Graphic Designer? Learn the code. Constantly challenging your ability helps you stay humble.

2. Examine your anger

Bro, are you crazy? The ego is always ready to inflate the elephant out of a fly. The next time you feel a surge of anger, ask yourself where it came from. Does the constructive criticism raise doubts about the results of the work? Because of a colleague's comment, it seems that the whole world is condemning, scolding, threatening you? All of these feelings are the result of an overreacting of your ego. Calculate your triggers and work to transform negative energy into productive energy.

3. Listen to the person you ignored

By listening to others rather than repressing them, you learn a lot more (although dominance is an instinctive movement of your ego). The truth is that you do not know the answers to all questions and your opinion is not the most valuable in the world. In creative work, everyone has a blind spot. Listen carefully to other people's words and try to interact with people. Especially with those you think are complete idiots. It helps to challenge presumptuousness, return to reality, and shed light on decisions that never crossed your mind.

4. Try a new approach

Do you reflexively react to changes? Perhaps it is your ego's concern. It's easy to assume that your approach to work is the best. But by applying new ways and other people's solutions, you can work better and make amazing discoveries.

I have long resisted all the tools that helped me schedule and manage tasks. But when my old-fashioned to-do list got out of hand, I did a survey in the office to see how everyone else was keeping track of tasks. Naturally, I was inundated with a ton of information about different methods, one of which I immediately applied and was pleased with the result. But what's more interesting is that I was able to learn more about my colleagues, how they prioritize. Communication was more important to someone, and he immediately answered letters. Another was concentrating on getting things done. These observations made my collaboration with colleagues much more productive.

Moral: Don't turn your workflow upside down, but being willing to embrace change opens the door to great ideas.

5. Praise someone

Ego requires trust and acceptance, but a lot of people work hard on a good product. It does not depend on the project. You can run a staff of 50 or be an autonomous freelancer, someone is always there to help. The manager made a good statement of work, the editor found a mistake at the last minute. Recognize other people's merits and praise: this approach will improve the work environment and help to work together.