Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of your Brain's Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brain's Coach and it is my job here to bring to you, to construct, share with you, discuss with you and apply all the best cutting-edge, most researched, interesting, applicable, effective brain-body work tools, all with the purpose to help your best to express its fullest version. That's what we are all about here your best, unleashing that into the world to the best of our abilities. So, folks, today I, the day after my birthday, second day of my 37th birthday on this planet. Today I wanted to share with you my thinking about creativity and what I got to understand as I progressed on my own journey of being an entrepreneur, a coach, a creative, a person who wants to live their life audaciously, courageously, creatively, but also living and building lasting legacy. You know, life is actually full of contradictions. Life is all one one big old contradiction. It's not black and white, it's a ton of different colors and all kinds of shades of gray and other colors, and very often it's not this or that, it's both. Like for creatives, any kind of creatives, like anyone who creates new stuff or recompiles different parts of what is to come up with something new, an entrepreneur, an artist, anyone who wants to live their life on their terms, building, carving their path forward. We all need to understand that that creativity that we have, this creation need it, will only thrive to its fullest ability in very, very good structure, among really well-defined routines and constraints. And it's a paradox, right? That's why the newsletter that I sent out today is called the Paradox of Creative Structure out today.
Speaker 1It's called the Paradox of Creative Structure why artists are ritualistic fanatics, like have you ever watched a chef working on their masterpiece, trying to recreate it? It's a lot, a lot of science. It's like a little bit just here, there, but not too much. When you watch them work, it's like the most sophisticated, complex scientific experiment unfolding in front of you, the one that then you can eat. That's how you get predictable results, right? If you love, for example, work of a specific chef, or you love specific restaurant, you want to get there and you want to get a predictable result. Not like you like something, you come in and you expect it to be the same, and then it's not. Have you ever wondered how difficult that is and how much precision goes to this edible piece of art. Have you ever thought about that? How scientific most art, most creation, actually is?
Speaker 1So today, it's all about that creative boundaries, creative structure, what you need to design and maintain if you want your amazing ideas to survive the contact with real world. And that's where a lot of actually entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs and artists very often would struggle a lot until they understand this simple law the more creative you want to be, the more you actually want to make happen in the world, the more structure you need. Nobody, nobody, skips this rule. Like Mozart, you take the most creative artist in any realm out there. They are fanatical about their rituals, routines. I need to get this and that and I only work in that kind of space. I just thought about why that is Anyhow.
Speaker 1So my birthday is over and I ate a ton of dark, 99% sugar-free chocolate. So my creativity, my energy match my schedule, full and thriving, and I'm loving every bit of it. You know, yesterday it's a small side track I was talking to my mom and I was like life is best lived full and engaging and you need to jump into it each day like you would in a cold lake and, yes, still a bit of thinking so you don't die. But then the best stuff happens when you're in it, not when you're thinking about that. And so the more meaningful experiences and actions you have in your life, the richer your inner life is. And yes, you need to examine your life, you need to reflect on it. But if all you do is reflecting, soon there's going to be nothing to reflect upon.
Speaker 1Kind of the same as creativity If you don't put anything in, then soon you're going to have nothing out. That's why the best creatives actually also work in cycles Sometimes it's daily, sometimes it's weekly, sometimes it's yearly when they put in, when they absorb a lot of stuff from their environment, experiences, and then they go through this period when they deliver, when their mind combines all the pieces and parts, connects the dots and then they create. So creativity is never in a vacuum. So creativity is never in a vacuum. That's another truism that most experienced artists quote, unquote. Right, if you are an entrepreneur, whoever you are, if you create you're an artist. The artist with experience know that if you don't put anything in for a long period of time, soon your well of creative stuff is going to dry out and you're going to have your I don't know artist block, your writer's block, your entrepreneurial block. You need to experience without expectations. Just live your freaking life, jump into the light and then you have something to reflect upon.
Speaker 1So now back to routines. As I woke up and I was getting back to my work, I looked through my messages from my clients and I saw one where my client shared with me her schedule, her finalized still semi-finalized routine, which she's going to work with right now, and she said I feel so at ease, at peace now. Why haven't I done this before? You know a lot of my clients when we start working together, and most of them are the kind of clients who are creative, who want to and do live life on their own terms, and it's very unpredictable. It's a very unique experience and a lot of them resist routines at first because very often we believe that if we create routines, it's going to complicate our life and it's going to suck creativity out of everything that we do, which is actually the opposite of what happens. So my clients resist routines until their life gets so chaotic and unmanageable and stress levels skyrocket that everything else stops working. And that's where like, well, this is not working, so I need to change things, and very often the very often thing that they need to change is introduce routines that are going to simplify, routinize, automate the foundations, so then they don't have to think about that trivial stuff like your meal, so when you wake up and when you go to bed, what you dress into when you work and how you work, et cetera. There are so many decisions that you can be automating, so your brain power and your physical energy are freed up to do the actual creative stuff and have a lot more capacity to make decisions, to be creative and to deliver on your vision.
Speaker 1Brett Stahlberg, one of the top leading high performance coaches, authors, thinkers, posted maybe a couple of days ago on his Instagram Routines are powerful. They help you to activate when you are feeling low. Automate decisions so you don't burn through your willpower and prime your mind-body system for the task at hand. And then he writes about rules of effective routine creations and routines. You know they're very individual. Also you gotta have some but then they are individual what you do, when you do, where you work, etc. And that's why almost no two artists at least I don't know any that have exact same routine. It depends also on your biology, like whether you're a morning person, whether you're a night person, whether you're an introvert, an extrovert, what kind of place is suited for your work? So all of the things you need to figure out through experimentations, but what is undeniable is you do need a routine in order to automate, in order to save your decision-making capacity, in order to also reduce stress levels.
Speaker 1Tony Robbins, one of the early birds of high-performance psychology, always talks about this human need for certainty and uncertainty for both. So uncertainty, we need this novelty, especially as artists. In this life, we need to explore, to absorb new, to seize opportunities, to create new stuff. So we need that. That's our exploration gene in us. But we also need that certainty which gives us a sense of predictability, of familiarity. Routines are a way to create this shelter where we recover and where we can feel like, huh, I can just rest here and just allow my body and mind to rejuvenate, so then I can go out there and seize the day which is also a little bit or a lot more stressful and also interesting and creative, but these routines which your brain turns into programs which you run on autopilot. So routines save you physical, mental, cognitive energy, reduce your stress, create structure, reduce overwhelm, and all that so you can fully embrace your creative side and you can be very effective and deliver a lot, a lot of results consistently. A lot, a lot of results consistently.
Speaker 1Greg McEwen in his book Effortless. So he is productivity, efficiency thinkers. He is an essentialist or minimalist. He's all about simplification, to create more and experience more. So in his book Effortless he writes take the high-tech path for the essential and the low-tech path for the non-essential. What he talks about here is about automation of the stuff that you don't want to be thinking about, like your meals or what you're going to wear every day, and adding friction to things where you'd like to make more conscious decisions. Friction to things where you'd like to make more conscious decisions. And Tony Robbins talks about certainty and uncertainty and how to create more conditions for both to thrive.
Speaker 1And then now back to my routine 5 am, or you know for 35, I wake up, I go for walks, I do my meditations, then after that I do the deep work, the creative work, the stuff that moves my vision forward Somewhere early midday for me it's very early, I'm an early bird maybe like 11 to 12. I go for a midday workout and then the rest of the day, maybe the next five hours or so I work with clients and then after that I have dinner, walk and studying, and most of my friends know if they want to have a chat or want to catch me. They know my times and they know that I'm almost like a clock you could literally check your clock for my walking times and so if they want to meet up, without scheduling anything like, can I join you for a walk, because 99% of the time that's what I'm going to be doing at specific times of the day, and if you know where I live, you also know where to find me for those walks. If you know where I live, you also know where to find me for those walks Anyhow. So that might seem like a lot of structure and it's kind of boring, but, believe it or not, exactly that allows me to get a lot, a lot of creative stuff done every single day, and so when somebody asks me to create a presentation, a workshop, a talk, to brainstorm certain things, it's almost guaranteed I'm going to deliver. Exactly when I say I'm going to deliver, and my creative muse is going to meet with me every day at the same time well, maybe different geographical spots, but at my desk working on things. You'd be surprised how well you can depend on your creativity when you put it in this box and structures and when you have a set date with your muse.
Speaker 1Creativity thrives in structure and also helps you to manage stress, overwhelm and chaos of a life, so your best ideas actually have a chance to survive the contact with the real world, for whichever reason. There is this quote by Mike Tyson that came to my mind right now Everyone has a plan until they're punched in the mouth. So when you have your ideas and your plans, they will never, ever go as planned when they experience, when you encounter real world. And what I learned, not just from myself, but also people who are a lot more successful than I'm in the world, what I learned from them that if you want your creative, crazy side to thrive and leave a legacy, leave something that the world is going to remember you by then, you absolutely have to have structure, you absolutely have to have routines so the world can depend on you and your muse knows where to find you. That's it for today, folks.
Speaker 1I hope you found this podcast episode inspirational, insightful, motivational, so you have the drive to think about your routine. Get one, experiment with one. Create one so your best ideas have the most chances to survive and thrive in the real world. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out Angela at BreakthroughCoachcom or on Instagram, angela Brain Body Coach. One word Please do share this podcast with at least one other person who you want to succeed in this world. Maybe that's creative, genius person who just can't, for whichever reason, put stuff together and deliver. So share this podcast episode with that person, because the structure chances are the structure is exactly what they need at this moment and if you have any suggestions, also reach out. Until next time, stay creative, build structure and help your ideas thrive.