Elena was preparing for work. She had her morning routine, which she followed religiously. You could tell the day of the week it was by her outfit. She had 5 sets of work clothes, which she wore each day of the week. (Monday was a gray pantsuit and light pink blouse). She woke up every day at 4 AM and was at work exactly at 6 AM. She was always the first to arrive.
Her office looked like a museum. But there seemed to be no theme to the items on her shelves or desk. The walls had no pictures, just Post-It-Notes with quotes. She had no desk, just a table. Along one side of the office was a whiteboard fitted with drawings, word collections, and questions.
Ninety-two percent of the company’s sales came from Elena’s ideas and that was frightening to the company’s CEO, who knew that Elena was approaching retirement. He didn’t know how he would replace Elena. One thing the CEO wanted to do was to find Elena’s creativity secrets. The CEO hired a local anthropologist to shadow Elena and see if there were things that Elena did that could be taught to others.
Savannah knew this would be a challenge, so she decided to explore Elena’s creative development in a series of interviews. She began by wanting to know about Elena’s strict habits. “I must say, you do not seem to be the image of a creative person. I always imagined them to be free spirits with little discipline.”
“That’s actually the opposite of what I think it takes to be creative. I had the advantage of growing up in a large family with 11 siblings, so I had to become very disciplined about my daily routines. We only had one bathroom, for example. Meals were served at set times and late arrivals were left with nothing to eat.”
“I understand, but what does that have to do with creativity?”
“Our brains have a lot of work to do, and when you can relieve them of mundane decisions, it frees up time for more creative thinking time. My habits have provided me with the needed brain time for unchartered thinking.”
“But don’t habits lead to a boring life? I can’t imagine wearing the same outfit on a Monday, for example?”
“I came from a background where I only had two sets of clothes, so having five outfits is a luxury. No, that’s not boring to me because I have the joy of developing new ideas.”
“You are convincing me, but one more question. What’s the most valuable of all of your habits?”
“That’s easy. It’s scheduling alone time from 6 am-8 am each day. No one bothers me in those two hours. I couldn’t function without that alone time.”
As Savannah wrote up her first interview, she concluded that maybe anyone could be creative if they just gave their brains some time to wonder.
* * *
“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.”–Sean Covey