Mastering creative tension
Unlocking more of your reservoir of potential
“In the orientation of the creative, it is not circumstances which bring you satisfaction. You create your own satisfaction, independent of the circumstances. Then you bring satisfaction to those circumstances in which you are involved.” — Robert Fritz. 1
I first came across the above insight from composer and creativity teacher Robert Fritz when I became involved in the organisational learning movement in the early 1990’s.
Fritz bases his work on the following three premises:
Insight 1 — We follow paths of least resistance
“All humans and all of nature go through life taking the path of least resistance. It is important to know that. You may try to change the direction of your own flow in certain areas of your life — your eating habits, the way you work, the way you relate to others, the way you treat yourself, the attitudes you have about life — and you may even succeed for a time. But eventually you find that you return to your original behaviour and attitudes — the path of least resistance.” 2
Insight 2 — Underlying structure determines the path
“The underlying structure determines the path of least resistance. Just as a riverbed determines the path of the water flowing through it, so the structures in your life determine your path of least resistance. Whether you are aware of these structures or not, they are there. The structure of the river remains the same whether there is water flowing through it or not. You may barely notice the underlying structures in your life, and how powerfully and naturally they determine the way you live. If a riverbed remains unchanged, the water will continue to flow along the path it always has, since that is the most natural route for it to take.” 3
Insight 3 — We can change the underlying structures
“We can change fundamental underlying structures of our lives. Just as engineers can change the path of a river by changing the structure of the terrain, so that the river flows where they want it to go, you can change the very basic orientation of your life, so that you can create the life you want. Furthermore, once a new basic structure is in place, the overall thrust of your life — like the power of the rivers current — surges to form the results you truly want. And the direct path to those results becomes the path of least resistance. In fact, with an appropriate change of the underlying structure of your life, the path of least resistance cannot lead anywhere but in the direction you really want to go.” 4
Fritz describes how we need to focus our attention on two essential things in order to change these underlying structures.
The first is to cultivate a powerful and engaging experiential awareness of our future self — the self we truly want to become.
The second is to cultivate a powerful and engaging experiential awareness of the current reality of present-day you — with eyes wide open.
Now you might wonder why this second element is important.
After all, you’re already your present-day you.
But as Fritz points out above, most of us are only vaguely aware of the powerful underlying structures shaping our present-day selves.
Therefore we need to dig deeper to really see our current reality.
Together, these two poles — future aspiration and current reality — set up a dynamic known as creative tension. 5
Creative tension fundamentally changes the underlying structure of our lives so we unlock more of our innate potential.
Creative tension can be best understood through the metaphor of a rubber band stretched between two hands as shown in the image below.
The upper of the two hands points to the powerful and engaging experiential awareness of the envisaged future self you want to create. 6
The lower hand points to the powerful and engaging experiential awareness of present-day you, seen as clearly and honestly as possible.
The tension in the rubber band seeks resolution by drawing the two hands together.
The more powerfully we experience both a) what the future will be like when we achieve our aspiration, and b) our current reality, the greater the creative tension.
Having set up this underlying creative tension, there are two ways it can resolve itself.
The first way this can happen is by reducing our aspiration, e.g.by:
deciding it’s unrealistic for us to achieve
telling ourselves it would somehow be undesirable
convincing ourselves it would be impossible for anyone to achieve
When we back off, water down, or abandon the future we envisioned, in effect we reduce the tension in the rubber band by allowing the top hand to be pulled back down towards the bottom hand.
The second way the creative tension can resolve itself is by the present day self moving towards the future self — i.e. by the lower hand moving up towards the upper hand.
But here we have to be careful of self-deception.
What we want to achieve is genuine movement of the present-day self towards the future we’ve envisioned for our self.
What we want to avoid is deceiving ourselves about how close we already are to the future self, through thoughts like:
“Oh, I’m not really that far away from the future me already”
“I’m being too hard on myself”
“I know other people say negative things about me — but that’s just their bias, insecurity or personal agenda”
etc.
When we back off from our true aspirations, or lie to ourselves about current reality, we undermine the creative tension that’s essential if we want to ensure the path of least resistance draws us to our genuinely desired future self.
Similarly, when we rush into half-baked, quick fix ‘solutions’, we fail to establish the much more powerful underlying structural tension dynamic that brings into play our deeper resourcefulness.
As Fritz points out, this quick fix approach may change the flow temporarily, but the river bed remains the same, and soon enough we’ll be drawn back into the old flow.
Why do we back off on our vision, indulge in self-deception, or go for quick fixes?
In a word (well, two words actually) emotional tension.
Emotional tension manifests as various negative feelings experienced when we see the gap between our imagined future aspiration and our present-day current reality.
Examples of emotional tension include:
guilt — “I should have achieved more progress by now”
self-doubt — “I don’t think I’ve got what it takes”
blame — “They won’t let me”
frustration — “I’ve tried lots of times before but never get anywhere”
fear — “What if I aim high and then fail?”
When we first embark on the practice of deliberately cultivating creative tension, emotional tension can seem an ever-present and unavoidable hindrance.
It can be truly debilitating if we keep undermining ourselves due to negative emotions that appear to be ever-present and unavoidable alongside creative tension.
But there’s a simple trick that we can employ to free ourselves from the energy-sapping and effort-undermining effect of emotional tension.
Not by denying it, but by embracing it — really seeing it clearly so the penny drops that it doesn’t actually sit alongside the creative tension — it’s simply an aspect of current reality.
When I step into my imagined future as a powerful experiential awareness, is the emotional tension part of that future scene?
No, it’s not.
The emotional tension only exists in my present-day current reality.
By the simple practice of seeing emotional tension for what it is — part of my present-day reality but not part of my future self — I observe it, but it no longer has the power to hold me back.
Drained of its power, I become free from its potentially crippling effects.
I’m free to create truly inspiring aspirations for my future self without driving with the brakes on.
By creating an inspiring aspiration for the future and maintaining scrupulous honesty about current reality, I unlock maximum power to create the future I want, together with others.
Try it — you may surprise yourself with what you create.
Questions for reflection
What is my deepest aspiration for my future self?
How do I see my future self acting and interacting to create value — in all its forms, not just financial, with others?
What emotional tensions come up when I set up creative tension, and how can I remind myself that this is simply part of current reality, so it stops holding me back?
Robert Fritz (b 1943) is an American author, consultant, composer, and filmmaker best known for book on creativity The Path of Least Resistance (1984). The quote is on p107.
Ibid (p4).
Ibid (p4).
Ibid (p5).
Ibid — Fritz called creative tension “structural tension”.
The rubber band metaphor is described further in the section on Personal Mastery in the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1994, p193-200).