The problem with problem solving is: "The problem leads to action to solve the problem, leads to less intensity of the problem, leads to less action to solve the problem, leads to the problem remaining."
Creators imagine what they want, but they also have the ability to bring what they imagine into reality.
The vital question is: "What do I want to create?"
Problem solving addresses the symptoms (the circumstances), and not the root (the structure).
Creating is not a product of circumstances. It exists in different environments and forms.
Creativity is a universal human (sentient?) concept.
The steps of creating are:
1. Conceive of the result you want
2. Know your current state (accurately)
3. Take action
Creating is a matter of invention
4. Learn the rhythms of the creative process
Germination, Assimilation (you become part of that which you are creating), and Completion
5. Create momentum
As you gain mastery, you naturally become more productive
"All the great things are done for their own sake." -- Robert Frost.
Creators are motivated by the desire for the creation to exist. They create for the sake of the creation itself.
When you separate yourself from your creations, you can experience one of the most profound understandings of creativity - love. The reason you would create anything is because you love it enough to see it exist.
You should treat your own life as your creation, because it most certainly is. Just as much love and care, if not more, should flow into crafting the life you want as working on any other artifact.
How do you create the what in "What do I want?" YOU MAKE IT UP!
Focus on the results you want; Just as Thomas Edison focused on producing an electric light, and Frank Lloyd Wright focused on creating living spaces.
"You have to know what you want to get. But when you know that, let it take you. And if it seems to take you off track, don't hold back, because perhaps that is instinctively where you want to be. And if you hold back and try to be always where you have been before, you will go dry." -- Gertrude Stein.
Also focus on developing the means and capability to create what you want.
The process should always serve the result.
Tension seeks resolution. E.g. a questions seeks response. Thirst seeks drink.
The path of least resistance oscillates in some structures, and resolves in others. Structures that resolve move you towards the ultimate result.
A dieter sets up structural conflict because their hunger and desire to lose weight are in direct conflict (you cannot eat and not eat at the same time). This creates an oscillating structure.
A corporations desire for short-term profits (to attract investor capital) and the need to invest for the long term creates a similar structural conflict.
A classic structural conflict is that between our desires and the belief that we cannot have what we want.
Within inevitability there are events that are not inevitable.
Alas, you cannot simply "solve" structural conflict.The attempt to remove one of the tensions (e.g. removing our desires) only results in another tension (i.e. the desire to remove all desires) that is connected to the same system.
Only by changing the underlying structure can you create lasting change, but any attempt to change the structure from within the structure will not work.
There are three major strategies for trying to compensate for the fundamental unresolvability of structural conflict:
1. Staying within an area of tolerable conflict
2. Conflict manipulation
3. Willpower manipulation.
The "goal" of the structure in structural conflict is equilibrium - to equalize the opposing tensions.
The first strategy is to minimize the amplitude of oscillations, to stay within the "norm" of mediocrity, at the expense of creativity and greater accomplishment.
Conflict manipulation means to agitate one of the tensions (e.g. create worry of failure) in order to "spring" the system in moving in the desired direction. This may appear to work at first, but the opposing tension ultimately brings things back to equilibrium. Ironically, this reinforces the sense of helplessness.
"I never tried to worry anybody into intelligence." -- Robert Frost
In Positive Addition, William Glassner advocates replacing negative addictions (e.g. smoking or drinking) with healthier alternatives such as jogging or yoga. However, these still produces an undermining effect, since the addiction itself (positive or negative) is an avoidance mechanism.