Adaptability v Versatility: How Creativity Expands Capacity - Part 1

Creatives have a superpower. In fact, they have several, but I think the one that trumps all the rest is their ability to be adaptable. Masters of the pivot, the improv, the reimagine, creativity pushes us to expand what we believe we can do; it expands our capacity - for what? - for change, for learning, for leading. Creativity is a necessity in self development, it is also its own world that requires us to be adaptable to sustain our creative practice. To move forward in this conversation I need to show you where I’m coming from. 

When I talk about capacity I’m talking about our ability to encompass and confront challenges, our appetite to create and experiment and explore the world around us and the one inside of us too. Our capacity to create, to accept our creativity and embrace it expands each and every time we engage with our creativity. Capacity increases with each challenge to do it again, do it differently, do it more. Challenge is the invitation to increase our capacity for something, and every time we meet that challenge we are able to encompass more of, not only ourselves, but also our creative practice. It becomes easier to devote time, attention, and energy to our creativity when our capacity to engage with it, tolerate its challenges, and value it, increases.

Adaptability in this context is adapting to circumstances and processes whereas versatility, although liked as a sub category of adaptability relates to the skills we have being used in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes. As a sound bite adaptability is changing to accommodate or tolerate circumstance and versatility is utilizing a single skill for multiple purposes, or rather changing to suit one circumstance versus serving many circumstances with one constant.  

I also want to separate out the two spheres of my thoughts right now. The idea that creativity is a tool for self development for us to grow in terms of adaptability and versatility as life skills versus the view of adaptability and versatility as virtues within the creative practice only. Although they go hand in hand they are macro and micro views that land on flip sides of the same coin. 

Let’s talk adaptability! 

In the creative practice being adaptable is a necessity. Creative projects rarely go to plan - if there even is a plan! Creatives learn very quickly within the practice and individual projects themselves to be adaptable, pivot, expand, make changes, flow with the twists and turns of real time creating. I want to be clear here: I want to look at adaptation in the long term sense - a lifestyle shift rather than short term flexibility, though I will provide examples of both. Being adaptable sometimes equates to being flexible and this is why I am an advocate for true integration of the creative practice into your life rather than a scheduling nightmare of a checklist item to knock off by end of day. 

How do we Adapt in our Creative Practice? 

Time

This is the when, the frequency, and the duration of dedication we give to our creative practice. A creative practice is like any other disciplined work we do in a day from a day job to a fitness routine, meal planning and children’s extra curriculars. Now, some of these disciplines are more rigid than others and the more fluid areas of our lives have to adapt around them. This isn’t even mentioning the host of interruptions that occur in a year - holidays, sick days, unexpected extensions of activities, deadlines that get pushed up. But what we do with the time in between makes all the difference. 

Short term flexibility - Flexibility in a creative practice might look like committing to creating two days a week, but those days change based on the kids soccer schedule in the summer, or might have to change for a month or two because of a pressing work deadline. 

Long term adaptation - Adaptation of time in your creative practice looks like learning when you are most creative and blocking in more time within those hours or months. It might mean shortening creative sessions as you become more comfortable getting into and out of your creativity, leaving more time on either end of life’s inevitable encroachment. Or it could be as drastic as becoming your full time work life requiring more structure to manage the creativity and the business side of it to stay in balance. 

At the end of it all your time is the most valuable resource you have. It deserves your respect. Adapting your creative practice to the time you can reasonably give to ensure you respect your time and your creativity and every other facet of your life requires mindset shifts and discipline, but once you have adapted to your reality of time, your creative practice settles into a predictable pattern, a work like discipline that turns on and off with greater ease and more focused joy. 

Space

We all dream of the perfect creative space with the exact furniture and set up we envision as being most optimal. However, more often than not, we know how we work best but the space we have to work in is less than perfect. Many creatives allow that to stop them, but not you, not us. A personal custom designed and built studio space is a luxury many of us cannot afford, and even if we could, we may not be willing to dedicate considerable resources to its realization. Space is always more a matter of what you do with it than what it is. 

Short term flexibility - Flexibility might look like having dinner in the living room because you’ve got a creative project on the go at the table, or moving into the bedroom to work on your laptop because your desk is in the living room and the kids are having friends over for a movie night. It might even look like wearing noise cancelling headphones because your work space is in the kitchen where kids are doing homework and your spouse is cooking dinner. 

Long term adaptation - Adapting a space to suit your creative practice might look like adding shelves to your coat closet in the living room to store your boxes of fabrics. It might be a wall mounted tuck away desk in the hall beside an inspiration board that can be tucked up when not in use, or having a partition wall tucked away in the bedroom to section off your desk so you can create after your spouse heads to bed. These are more permanent changes to the space you work in to better ensure you have a place to create and honour your creative practice as a sustainable part of your life.

Our spaces tell stories about us - who we are, how we live. They also significantly impact our mental and physical health and wellbeing. Adapting to the space you’re in, seeing possibility and taking control of how it will serve you in life and creative practice is taking back power and calm focus. It takes trial and error. It takes moving a room around twelve times before you find the right configuration, the right solution, but once you do it clicks and it works - moreover you feel calm, centered, and focused in your space and in your own head, freeing you to create.   

Tools

Whether it's a case of finances or accessibility, sometimes the greatest act of creativity we commit in practice is the creative and adaptable use of tools of our trade - or other trades - for our creative purposes. The tools you use to create are a bridge between you and your creation, but they will never be the reason you don’t get something done, even if we have to use a kitchen utensil in its stead.  

Short term flexibility - This might look like using lower cost or not preferred materials or tools until you feel ready to invest in higher quality specialty tools. For the short term using a hair dryer instead of a heatgun for melting crayon art or manufacturing is a viable solution, but for the long term it just won’t work the way you envision or be as sustainable between the equipment itself and the possibility of a blown fuse. 

Long term adaptation - This might look like using chisels and files in pedorthic cast modification - I’ve used fine cheese graters in a pinch - or having a favourite scrunchie instead of a painting sponge to achieve a textured effect. Adapting to what you have in your space and how you work with items to suit run of the mill and uniquely challenging creative executions is a skill that grows with time.

Our tools extend to connect us to our creations, yet they are not the stars of the show, nor are they wholly necessary in order to be creative. Often having to adapt tools to suit your purpose teaches you to be creative far before you touch a canvas or the blank page. If there’s a will, there’s a way and in adapting our tools to our needs and finding a way to execute what we envision we kick start our imaginative centers and step into a center of confidence, one that I hope you carry with you long after you step away from your current project.    

Part two of this minimum three part series will look at how we adapt while working on a project, taking our view of adaptability from a set of physical or environmental circumstances to mindset and perspective. For this week, work on celebrating how you adapt your time, your space, and your tools to engage with your creativity as you can, where you can, and how you can. Maybe take a step back, zoom out and see the massive adaptations you’ve already undergone, and where it has served you well in your life by expanding what you believe is possible for your world.