How to Turn Discomfort Into Creativity

I ran out of good ideas. This is how I'm getting more.

There I was, sitting on my sofa with my iPad in my lap, Procreate at the ready, waiting for a creative jolt to the prefrontal cortex in order to make the next great t-shirt design for my brand, Lost Mixtape. Except the ideas weren’t coming; no jolts, not even a pop of static electricity. In fact, the ideas hadn’t come in weeks. I had zero inspiration for making anything for the brand, and I was freaking me out a bit.

Sure, I have my list of “maybe some day” ideas that I turn to in situations like this. However, and I don’t know about you, but whenever I go back to that list, I’m not inspired by any of my past ideas as I was when I initially jotted them down. Sometimes I don’t even know what the hell I was thinking when I wrote it.

Perhaps it was a three-fingers-of-whisky moment that requires three more to get back to that frame of mind, but then who wants to do anything at that point?

Before we dig in, two things…

1. Save this post. You’re going to want to spend some time thinking this one over.

2. Share this with a creative friend who is struggling with creative inspiration.

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So I did what anyone with a completely lack of any creative synapses popping and I asked the completely stable and not unhinged people of Reddit for ways to help stir the mush into something cool. You cannot even image the ideas I got from others, some might even have gotten me arrested (no, really), but there were a few that sounded interesting.

One technique is called mining discomfort, where you remove all digital stimulation and sit with your intrusive thoughts, writing each one down as it comes. The person who shared the idea said they do this in their studio, but I had the idea of taking it to the streets. I wanted to see what being in a busy urban environment mind lend to ideas that compliment what I’m making with Lost Mixtape.

With a pick axe and a near total lack of wifi, I ventured forth into the cringe of my dopamine bereft mind, and I cannot lie, there are some ideas I will not share because I got a little weird and dissociative.

Shout out to Colossus Bakery. Best kouign-amann rolls in Long Beach

This is everything I wrote down (that I’m willing to share):

• Street noise is distracting. The city is loud.

• My back is to the traffic. And I’m sticking out slightly in the lane. I feel vulnerable, but there’s no way for me to change positions.

• My instinct is to reach for my headphones to avoid the noise, but that’s the point.

• Caught myself checking text messages and then went down a rabbit hole. Why do these devices have such a stranglehold on us?

• The bench is hard. Needs pillows or cushions. Its tolerable and I’m just being soft.

• Almost forgot to pay for parking — expensive mistake. Parking permits have become the norm for my life.

• The amount of empty or papered-over storefronts is disturbing. Will retail ever be more affordable again?

• There’s a breeze coming from behind me, messing up my hair. I want to fix it, but I’m trying to let it sit and feel the discomfort.

• The smell of exhaust overwhelms me. Sitting outside is nice, but stinky.

• One of these discomforts is generating ideas, but I’m forcing myself to sit with them until I’ve done this work.

• People watching isn’t nearly as interesting as I thought it would be here. What did I think this would accomplish.

• Some old guy just sat down near me. It’s his right, but I’m annoyed.

• I put my headphones on just to make sure nobody talks to me.

• The old guy is bleeding from his arm. He’s coughing open-mouthed. I want to leave.

• Gas prices suck. American politics is worse. The economy is in the toilet. Human rights are dying. I feel like I should make more noise.’

The bolded entries are the ones I felt would make the most sense to turn into a t-shirt design, but the ideas are still raw, and more philosophical and contemplative than they are t-shirt meme worthy, which I believe means I need to dig deeper.

The recurring idea of the headphones has something bouncing around in my melon about putting the earpods on and shutting the world out, but I want the concept to be more implied than explicit.

The anticlimactic result is that I didn’t reach the idea I was expecting, but I did find one unexpectedly.

Contemplation Coffee & Pastry by Dave Conrey

Did the experiment work? That’s relative, I suppose. I still walked away with a design idea, one that will actually make it to a shirt soon, so I’ll classify it as a success. Will that other unfinished idea do the same? Not sure yet. We’ll see how much whisky I have in the cupboard.

I plan on doing more of these explorations in the future, perhaps creating a series of creative explorations, putting myself through the paces and sharing the results. If you want to see more of that, consider becoming a member so you don’t miss any of them series. It’s going to be fun… or at least funny enough to laugh at my pain.

Question Time

Before I let you go, I want to ask, have you tried a creative spark igniter technique that you found helpful? Share it in the comments and we’ll all get brighter together.