3rd perspective kills creativity

I wanted to talk about something that I do all the time, especially when I write here. I’m seeing life from the third perspective, and in some ways, this view has little to do with creativity.

What do I mean with the 3rd perspective?

The third perspective is the objective view; it is when I look at something from the outside. I am usually thinking about, analyzing, and/or trying to solve something. There is nothing wrong with this of course, it is very useful and quite needed to survive for example. But if we only see things from this perspective we often feel outside, unemotional, and not very connected to other people.

The second perspective is when I relate to something. It is usually when I am in a dialog with someone. I might agree with someone, or I have compassion for someone else and I try see what they see. This perspective is also very important, because we see that the world is more than just facts and/or more than just my own view. But if we only see the world from this perspective we lack objectivity and we tend to be too involved and caught up in the other, forgetting our own value.

The first perspective is about me only. But it is also about direct experience. This is what happens right now, right here. The experience is mostly physical or sensational. You are not analyzing what is happening, you are living what is happening. Being in the creative flow is mostly a 1st perspective experience in the sense that the experience is happening now and you are not stopping yourself or analyzing the situation. (It can also be a 2nd perspective experience (we-space) when we flow with another person.)
But if you only see the world from this perspective, you will hardly understand anyone else and you won’t be able to distinguish objects in the world; there is no difference between a tree and a forest. Only seeing your view, is the same as narcissism because you don’t actually see the world, you only see yourself.

We need all perspectives

I’m sure it is quite clear to you that all perspectives are important. Perhaps you can also see that different people tend to use different perspectives? Few actually are open to all; most of us are fairly stuck on one of the perspectives. If you look around, or at yourself, I’m sure you will see we often stick to one view. Even religions and politics are often just about one of these perspectives. Some conflicts come from arguing only what perspective is right, not understanding the mutual interest in the topic itself. For example, is love a brain activity, a mutual experience, or just a personal feeling?

When someone argues your ideas, in most cases it is not JUST because you, or the other person is RIGHT/WRONG, it is that you are both right partially, and that both your views actually complement each other. You might be more right, true. But no one will ever know or explain the universe absolutely right; there is always more to say. (which is good news, right?)

No one is smart enough to be a 100% wrong all the time

Let yourself be

The reason for my somewhat bold title of this post is that when you are objective, when you are outside of yourself, analyzing, judging, you are in fact not creative. As soon as you objectify the situation you have left the now; you have stepped aside of yourself to look at yourself and the situation.
Creativity is the opposite of hesitation. Creativity flows, it is. Creation is happening everywhere all the time. As soon as you step outside and see if something is good/bad enough you stop that flow and disassociate with it. Another way to describe it would be like taking out your eyeball from your head and turning it around in order to see yourself.

But I did say that we need all perspectives and that is still true. Problems arise mostly when we are stuck to only one perspective. I bring up mostly about the 3rd perspective here because I guess that most of us are quite stuck in our there, and this does not allow us to experience ourselves, our creations and what we feel. Usually our 3rd perspective jumps the gun too quickly and let us know “exactly what is going on” before we’ve had a chance to experience anything.

The problem is the problem

A good friend of mine reminded me of the fact that I’ll lose connection to my creativity and my own experience instantly when I go to the 3rd perspective. We were talking about a challenge that I had at the time and I was trying so hard to fix it. He showed me that, in a way, the solution is quite simple:

There is in fact only a problem when you are in the third perspective. For example, if you create a piece of art that may or may not be good, you only suffer that possibility as soon as you go into the third perspective and objectify what is going on. As you create and stay with the experience, whatever arises, there is actually no problem.

3rd perspective saves creativity

So what perspective are you in the most? What if you could see thing from other perspectives as well? I remind myself about the 3rd perspective in order not to get too caught up in objectifying my situation. That act of reminding myself, is in itself a 3rd perspective, but this will still help me get back to the now with a gentle nudge. As I said before, none of the perspectives are better or worse, they are all needed. It is the addiction/conviction that only one of them is right that causes problems.

Cheers! photo credit