Creative Compliments and Creative Criticism: How Attuned is Your Hearing?

The average human ear can hear sounds in the frequency range of 20 Hz - 20 kHz, from deep low bass to sharp high end treble and all frequencies in between.

Anyone who’s been involved in music production, or simply experimented with the tone and equalizer controls on their stereo, will know how the bass and treble controls, and low- and high- pass filters, can emphasise one end of the sound spectrum and/ or reduce or completely cut out the other.

Imagine for a moment that bass sounds, the lowest end of the sound spectrum, represent positive, enthusiastic comments that people make. When someone encourages our creativity, praises our efforts and supports us in every way they can, consider these as bass level sounds.

At the other end of the scale, high treble sounds come in the form of negative and critical comments. When anyone makes a disparaging, sarcastic or otherwise unhelpful remark about our creativity and creative work, consider this as treble level sounds.

So how good would you say your hearing is at either end of the sound spectrum? Do you tend to tune in more to positive and complimentary comments, or those that are disparaging and critical? What would you say the ratio or percentage is for each? In other words, for every time you hear a positive comment, how many negative ones do you hear?

If you find, as many of us do, that it tends to be easier to be more attuned to the negative, then consider how this impacts your life and your creativity. Is this an ideal environment for someone to be richly creative, experimental and productive?

So if we do find ourselves in this situation, what can we do about changing it?

All we need to do is adjust our tone controls in a way that enhances the positive energy (bass) and decreases the negative energy (treble). To hear more bass, the positive comments, there are essentially two things we can do – turn up our bass levels or turn down our treble. Or both.

Here are some practical approaches that can help -

Think about the company you keep – If those around you are constantly negative or cynical then it will inevitably have an effect on your own outlook. By surrounding yourself with other creative and positive people it will energise and inspire everyone involved.

Practice taking responsibility for your reactions – Whenever anyone says anything to us, we ultimately have a choice in how we react. Practice taking control of your responses, rather than slipping into a mentality of being someone who’s easily and often upset or discouraged.

Be more positive about yourself – Maybe you find many of the negative comments you hear actually originate from within yourself. Negative thinking, like positive thinking, is just a habit that we can choose to adopt or reject. There are many practical ways to change the way you react to the thoughts you have, from daily affirmations to more in depth exercises that question and deconstruct the limiting beliefs you hold about yourself.

Adjust your physiology – There’s a direct correlation between how we sit, stand and hold ourselves and the attitude or mood we feel. Sit slumped in a chair with your head bowed and the corners of your mouth turned down, sigh a few times and see how positive and optimistic you feel! Now sit up straight, breathe clearly and deeply a few times, hold your head high and smile. Notice how it effects your outlook.

Change your focus – If we are determined to always focus on the negative, we will always find negativity. Likewise, if we consciously focus on the positive, we will find more to be positive about. A simple technique is to take a few moments at the end of each day to recall the three best things that happened that day, however tiny they may seem.

With a little practice of these techniques and others you come across, you’ll soon begin to become master of your own tone controls, learn to hear the positive bass sounds more clearly, and notice the difference it makes to your outlook and levels of creativity…

© Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.