Episode 15: From rut to self-actualization (with Scott Barry Kaufman)

Are you living up to your creative potential? Or are you stuck in a rut? Could it be that the rut is serving you? These are some of the questions we wrestle with in this episode of Emerging Form. We talk about Christie’s sweet spot between struggle and boredom, how fencing (or another new activity) might supercharge your creative process, and LOTS of tips on how to get out of a rut. We finish, as always with a guest. This episode features Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist at Columbia University and author of the new book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization. We ask him these two questions:

* What does self-actualization look like for a creative person?

* What’s the path to self-actualization in one’s creative life?

Episode Notes

Christie’s review of Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez

Christie’s review of Wired to Create by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire

Kaufman’s NPR interview on Why So Many Gifted Yet Struggling Students are Hiding in Plain Sight

Kaufman’s The Psychology Podcast

Take a Self-Actualization Test

The figure skating routine to lift you out of a rut

En Garde

--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Keep distance, the fencing teacher says,

and by this he means, stay close enough

to your opponent that you could, at any time,

extend, lunge and attack with your point.

All my life, I’ve tried not to keep distance.

All my life, I’ve done my best to avoid

the attack—from either side. And now,

with my silver lamé and my one white glove

and my face safe behind metal mesh, I dig

to find the part of me who craves engagement,

who seeks a bout, who wants to threaten

my target and exploit their vulnerability.

Keep distance, he says, and I understand

that this is how I show up for the game.

This is how I meet not only the opponent,

but, perhaps for the first time, myself.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe