The Power of Creativity \(Book 1\): Learning How to Build Lasting Habits, Face Your Fears and Change Your Life pdfdrive com

particularly set, you must before anything else begin it by sleeping
as deeply, as soundly as possible for you to do.”
After  a  deep  night’s  sleep,  Dali  worked  each  morning  for  several  hours  on
his  surrealist  paintings  of  melting  pocket  watches,  distorted  faces,  landscapes
and dream sequences.
When  afternoon  came,  Dali  returned  to  his  subconscious  mind  for
inspiration. He sat in a bony Spanish armchair near his painting supplies, tilted
his head back and draped his hands over the arms of the chair.
In his left hand, Dali held a large heavy key, which he dangled over a plate
on the floor.
As soon as Dali closed his eyes and fell asleep, his grip relaxed, he dropped
the  key  and  it  landed  on  the  plate.  The  crashing  sound  woke  him,  and  he
immediately picked up his painting supplies and recommenced painting while in
a dream-like state.
Dali explained,
And the most characteristic slumber, the one most appropriate to the
exercise  of  the  art  of  painting  .  .  .  is  the  slumber  which  I  call  ‘the
slumber  with  a  key,’…you  must  resolve  the  problem  of  ‘sleeping

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without  sleeping,’  which  is  the  essence  of  the  dialectics  of  the
dream,  since  it  is  a  repose  which  walks  in  equilibrium  on  the  taut
and invisible wire which separates sleeping from waking.”
At  first  glance,  stories  like  these  give  the  illusion  of  the  creative  process
being quick and easy and altogether alien from the grind and monotony of daily
hard work.
Look  more  closely  at  these  moments  of  inspiration,  and  you’ll  discover
idling about or waiting until an idea arrives is not how masterpieces get made.
Creative  masters  like  McCartney  and  Dali  are  able  to  recognise  inspiration
and  then  act  on  it  only  because  they’ve  spent  hours  turning  up  and  doing  the
work beforehand.
They’ve  fertilised  the  soil  and  seeded  their  ideas  long  in  advance.  Such
masters  are  intimately  familiar  with  the  tools  of  their  craft,  and  they’ve  spent
time shaping fragile concepts of big ideas.
In an interview with Paste Magazine, McCartney said,
[Songs] definitely just arrive out of thin air, but I think you have to
know  how  to  spot  them.  I  think  someone  building  a  car  suddenly
knows  when  the  design  is  right  or  when  the  engine  sounds  good.
After  a  while  you  get  used  to  that,  and  you  say,  ‘Yeah,  this  is  the
way you go.’”
McCartney doesn’t just wait for ideas for hit songs to appear out of thin air.
He also gets ideas for song hooks by constantly considering how others compose
and then by developing his idea to spot those hooks in the wild.
As  far  as  hooks  are  concerned,  I  must  say  I  just  love  them.  I  love
them on other people’s records. I love it. You find yourself whistling
it  or  wake  up  thinking,  ‘What’s  that?  Oh,  I  love  that.  What  is  it?’
The best scenario is when you realize it’s one of yours. ‘Oh, it’s the
one I’m writing currently.’ That’s the right sign. But I tell you what,

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it beats working.”
In Dali’s book referenced above, he provides new artists with a schedule they
must follow.
If you’re wrestling with an idea for a masterpiece, he recommends turning up
before the virgin canvas each morning at eight o’clock and working for at least
five and a half hours, six days a week until your masterpiece is complete.
I  give  you  an  hour  for  lunch,  half  an  hour  as  the  maximum  which
the  wake  of  your  ‘slumber  with  a  key’  should  last.  I  authorise  half
an hour for love – you see that I am making generous allowances for
everything.”
Dali continues:
I guarantee you that if with the five and a half hours that I give you
to fill in the landscape or sea you do not have enough…you are not
the great painter of genius that you claim to be and your work will
not be the masterpiece we expected from your brush.”
For  McCartney  and  Dali,  the  creative  process  is  as  much  about  preparation
and good habits as it is about moments of inspiration.
Creative masters keep a schedule, they treat their work seriously, and get to it
whether they’re inspired or not. You too can cultivate creative habits that change
your life, and here’s how.