Your Creative Mind

Five

Mastering One’s Mind

ONE OF THE MOST common ways we misunderstand creativity is by assuming it is somehow opposed to self-control. In movies and novels, creative people are often portrayed as quirky and unpredictable, living disorganized lives by their own rules and refusing to adhere to a daily schedule or conform to other societal expectations. Although there may certainly be a few highly creative people who fit this description, such characteristics are far from essential to the dynamic, creative mind. In fact, self-control and mental discipline actually increase creativity and improve its application. A bold mind is also a controlled mind.

Philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes’s famous revelation “Cogito ergo sum” (I think, ...