Something I’ve come to realize, but have a hard time wrapping my actions around, is the hardest part about doing a thing of significance is the mental pendulum leading up to that decision. The back and forth, second guessing, and “what-ifs.”

Making the decision - doing it - is easy. You make the call and you operate.

I wouldn’t mind carrying a midget around that constantly reminded: “It’s simpler than you think.”

How do I know that ska isn’t dead? Because the BBC told me so:

The Specials have been talking to the BBC about reforming officially, for a reunion tour.

No dates as yet, frontman Terry Hall says they need to get into the studio first:

“Well we’re still trying to put dates together, but hopefully September/ October time. We need to spend the Summer rehearsing… I think it’s taken me 30 years to realise we could do it really well.”

Terry Hall and Lynval Golding made surprise appearances at last year’s Glastonbury Festival.

The pair appeared onstage with Lily Allen to perform Gangsters, and later on a different stage, with Damon Albarn on piano and a beatboxer, performing A Message To You, Rudy.

Terry Hall says that seeing other artists on the reunion trail has been an inspiration:

“Because I saw Patti Smith do Horses, and I saw The Pixies reforming… you do it with dignity or don’t do it at all”.

If you aren’t familar with legendary British ska band the Specials‘, one of the most influential and foundational bands in the genre, here’s a recap or three (oldschool, oldschool, and newschool):

Ska makes people happy. And the world needs happy.

(Great news via the Daily Swarm)

In a recent study on creative improvisation, scientists backed by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) found that:

…when jazz musicians are engaged in the highly creative and spontaneous activity known as improvisation, a large region of the brain involved in monitoring one’s performance is shut down, while a small region involved in organizing self-initiated thoughts and behaviors is highly activated.

The researchers propose that this and several related patterns are likely to be key indicators of a brain that is engaged in highly creative thought. (scientificblogging.com)

The article goes on to draw some interesting implications from this study on creativity in general (emphasis added):

Interestingly, the large portion responsible for monitoring one’s performance (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) shuts down completely during improvisation, while the much smaller, centrally located region at the foremost part of the brain (medial prefrontal cortex) increases in activity. The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in self-initiated thoughts and behaviors, and is very active when a person describes an event that has happened to him or makes up a story. The researchers explain that, just as over-thinking a jump shot can cause a basketball player to fall out of the zone and perform poorly, the suppression of inhibitory, self-monitoring brain mechanisms helps to promote the free flow of novel ideas and impulses. While this brain pattern is unusual, it resembles the pattern seen in people when they are dreaming.

When you are deeply focused in creativity, you are actually using a different part of your brain from when the focus is production and achievement - medical evidence that the best cure for the creative-destruction of overthink and self-editing is wreckless and uninhibited creative outpour.

The premise of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” (a fantastic study of happiness) is: In order to reach a deep level of joy and satisfaction, you must fall into the “flow.” He describes “flow” as:

being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.

I can’t help feeling that in today’s fragmented and over-stimulated society, instances of “flow” and non-performance-driven creativity are harder to come by. Inspiration, creativity, and, ultimately, happiness are something that have to be pursued and worked for.

How can I set aside a performance mindset and replace it with “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake?” How can creative shops enable employees to be truly and satisfyingly creative?

How do you break out of the noise and make time for “flow?”

(Related: “Some thoughts on creativity“)

Last week my friend Terrell Meek wrote an inspired post on feeling happy more often through a “Recipe for Little Happiness.”

Here’s her first ingredient:

Recognize what makes me feel good. I take the time to register my emotions so that I don’t pass by a moment of happiness unnoticed. This sounds absurd, but we’ve all ruined a perfectly good moment by worrying about future events. The classic example is the feeling of dread you may get on Sunday evenings as you start to think about work the next day. This practice also helps me identify what it is that actually makes me happy, which keeps me from repeatedly doing things only because I think they should make me happy.

Click here to read the rest of it. Her perspective has already made my week better.