Starting week three of writing daily blog posts I have noticed a difference in how my brain retains and organizes information. While I am rapidly producing work, I wanted to take a moment to understand more about what’s going on behind the scenes.

I found an article from Masterclass detailing five general stages of the creative process and broke it down to it’s core, here:

1. Preparation Stage: brainstorming, gathering, filtering, analyzing, considering.
2. Incubation Stage: walking away, choosing a different activity.
3. Illumination/Insight Stage: the answer to your creative quest strikes you.
4. Evaluation Stage: aligning, considering validity, reflection, testing.
5. Verification Stage: finalizing idea, sharing.

Valid in any creative endeavor, the thing I find most interesting is the necessity to walk away and spend time elsewhere. I make time to do this in small ways, subconsciously, but it also makes me wonder if I took a larger break–what would happen?

This also ties in with many concepts in the book Mastery, by Robert Greene.

Which led me to pull some interesting quotes to share with you,

“Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process.”

― Robert Greene, Mastery

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.”

― Robert Greene, Mastery

“It is in fact the height of selfishness to merely consume what others create and to retreat into a shell of limited goals and immediate pleasures.”

― Robert Greene, Mastery

“you must engrave deeply in your mind and never forget: your emotional commitment to what you are doing will be translated into your work.

If you go at your work with half a heart, it will show in the lackluster results and in the laggard way in which you reach the end.

If you are doing something primarily for money and without a real emotional commitment, it will translate into something that lacks a soul and that has no connection to you.

You may not see this, but you can be sure that the public will feel it and that they will receive your work in the same lackluster spirit it was created in.

If you are excited and obsessive in the hunt, it will show in the details. If your work comes from a place deep within, its authenticity will be communicated.”

― Robert Greene, Mastery

Robert Greene’s book, Mastery, is packed with endless information. Even though I have read this book twice, pulling these quotes left me feeling like I should read it again.

Starting with how the creative process works, and ending on a book by Robert Greene.

Connecting ideas leaves you with unique subject matter.