Specific goals vs Creativity

Hi everyone, it’s been some time again!

Recently I was attending a few interesting webinars on neuroscience and the impact on the thinking process, so here are some thoughts I wanted to share.

Apparently due to the way our brain works sometimes when we set very specific goals it limits our ability to have creative approach.

You would ask why?

The answer is that sympathetic and parasympathetic systems cannot work together in parallel, it is either one or the other. So, when we focus on a specific logical goal, we activate sympathetic nervous system which helps us being logical and reasonable, and when we want to be creative, we need to have parasympathetic system being active, engage with emotions and limbic system. (very simplified version of what actually is going on)

We obviously need both, so where is the balance?

Of course, it will depend on each individual and specific life stage/situation. However, this is one of the reasons why scientists recommend having some sort of very distant long-term vision, which acts as a “north star”, and because it is so distant it allows to be creative and playful around finding ways of getting there and engages emotions. This is some sort of way of giving our brain the “why” and then comes “what” and “how”.

And after that specific short-term goals can be approached in a more pragmatic way.

I’m trying to test and observe this approach now; will let you know the results :)

What do you think?