Here we talk about Inspirational music.  Tonight I’m going to talk around it.  Oh it’s in here somewhere, but we’re going beyond the box in our thinking – into the realm of creativity concerning all the arts – not just music.

Here’s a misconception: That the title of this post is antithetical, that the artist has to be completely free in his thinking – that creativity has to have no boundaries, necessitates a completely open field and that we, as artists, need to seek a life of exemption from structure, that we must have latitude, room to maneuver… independence.

I’m one who thinks it’s actually just the opposite.

I think real creativity is about specificity.  It’s the art of narrowing down the field, not widening it.  It requires great defining structure and severe laws that govern each step.  It requires limitation instead of unobstructed freedom.  It’s about discipline.  You have to know the box to think beyond the box.  If you’re going to live on the cutting edge, you’d better know that edge very well.  Otherwise you’ll fall off.

Many artists are deeply unorganized people of nature.  Of nature…  What does this mean?  It bespeaks of living wild and free.  Bah!  I have lived wild and free in my life and, looking back, those were always times when I didn’t get very much done.

I no longer live wild or free.  My days are highly restricted to schedule, to certain governing principles that I’ve learned make my life work better.

One of the most important of these is organization.  My life works best when I’m organized.  I consider myself a highly organized man.  I know that if I weren’t, I wouldn’t get half the things done that I do.

When life gets going so fast that I can’t keep up, I become a miserable cur and suffer from that old energy sapper called ‘stress’.  I’ve learned that, for me, stress is simply me not organized.  Stress comes from not knowing a situation well enough, and being haunted by the indecisiveness of the moment.  The answers are not clear and so into the void of thought comes enigma, mystery, a dire feeling of being lost or fear of being incapable or on the wrong road.  Stress.

Then I can’t sleep.  I get ornery.  I’m not a happy camper.  I begin to flail about.  I wander and yes, sometimes get lost.  Misery comes quickly and always at the lowest ebb, I finally wake up and think, “I’ve got to get organized!”

And so I do.  I sit down.  I stop.  I make my lists.  I update my calendar.  I think through my projects. I prioritize.  I go over goals and motives.

And it always works.  Once I’m organized, I can get to sleep.  Once I get my sleep, I can think more clearly.  Once I know where I’m going, I can get there more easily.

Once I get specific, I can be more creative.  Once I know the edge, I can walk the edge, I can lean over the edge, I can work the delicate balance, I can tiptoe along the edge – I can even fly off the edge sometimes and land back on it without crashing and burning.

Specificity is creativity.

Ask me to write a song.  I’ll then ask you, “About what?”  (Specificity.)  You say to write a song about love.  I’ll ask, “What about love?” (Specificity.)  You say write a song about falling out of love.  I ask, “With whom?” (More specificity.)  You define the characters.  I’ll ask more questions until I nail down a specific idea to write about.  That’s creativity.

I won’t start writing a song until I have a title.  The title is the central idea of a song, the hook.  Why start without knowing where you are going?  That’s what I mean by being organized.  I have laws and principles that govern my process.  I pay attention to these road maps and when I pay strict attention to them, I don’t get lost or off course.

And when I get carried away in the rush of creativity and stray too far from the basic principles, oft times I do find myself off course.  So I stop, reorganize my thinking, get back on the road, follow the rules.

If you have a mighty foundation, you can build a great building.  Without that foundation, the building will topple before it’s completed.

A foundational thinker is an organized thinker.

Try it.  You’ll like it.