Creativity Conundrum #1: 
Emotional Maturity

A major creativity conundrum has to do with emotional maturity. There are a lot more young people of high school and college age who want to get involved in a creative pursuit than there are people in their 30s and older. As these young and gifted individuals get older, their numbers tend to dwindle. Part of this is because as people grow up their interests change multiple times over. Another reason is because a certain level of emotional maturity is required to express something creatively, and most young people give up out of frustration before they reach that point.

Most believe that the creativity conundrum here is that emotional immaturity is somehow linked with artistic pursuits. There are more young artists because they haven't learned about the cold, hard, real world. Personally, I believe that my creativity has increased as I've gained more mastery over myself. Being creative and using your imagination is easy to do if you can let yourself. Channeling that creative energy into something tangible requires focus, will power and hard work. These are three traits that occur in abundance within the emotionally mature. The creativity conundrum is that too many young people give up on their creative dreams before they reach the level of maturity needed to more consistently turn out brilliant work.

Emotional maturity can be increased through documenting and understanding your emotions, confronting your fears and increasing the gap between stimulus and response, but these methods alone won't get you all the way there. The best and most effective way to improve your EQ is to live life. We come upon so many moments through daily life that force us to grow and mature. Raising children, getting married, deaths in the family, gainful employment and saving for a house are major experiences that tend to force us up the maturity pipeline. The trick here is to live life without completely giving up on creativity. If you can grow to the point that you're a goal-oriented, compassionate and focused individual, you will be able to create amazing work that your younger self would have been extremely jealous of.

Even if you have already grown up and ditched your creative pursuits a long time ago, the brain is a steel trap for everything you've ever thought and loved. Simply get yourself back into the artistic pursuits you've known and loved in the past, slowly but surely, and everything will come back to you if you give it enough time. Your younger self will thank you for it! 

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