This technique helps to perceive yourself as a creative person. In the last chapter of his book, author Michalko talks about free choices and our choice of how we interpret experiences.
A meadow gets its character from events that happen on it again and again: The germination of grass seeds, the wind, the growth of stalks, the hatching of insects, thunderstorms, paths left by game and hikers, and so on. It is a large system of events, partly independent of each other, which determine the overall picture of the meadow.
Psychologically, the nature of our beliefs and perceptions is based on an interpretation of our experiences. The meadow can not independently change its character. But we humans are not a meadow! We have the choice to interpret experiences the way we want – yet most people are not aware of what this means.
Michalko cites roses and thorns as an example: We can lament that roses have thorns, or rejoice that thorns have roses. It is our personal choice how we interpret the experience. It is not the experience that determines who we are, but our interpretation of the experience. We all have a repertoire of experiences in our lives – these experiences are initially neutral. “Good, bad, right, wrong, sad, angry, lazy, mean, kind” and so on are all interpretations of people. The question is which perspective to choose. Our interpretations shape our beliefs and theories about the world. Conversely, these theories determine how we perceive the world – the observations then in turn confirm our beliefs. Psychologists call this phenomenon “confirmation basis”. This phenomenon describes how people, once they have recognized a theory as truth, force any new information to confirm their theory. Example: Once a car buyer has decided on a model, he or she is likely to continue reading articles that confirm the quality of his or her chosen brand even after buying the car, and hardly any articles that praise other brands and models.
Early astronomers were of the opinion that celestial bodies were eternal and imperishable and consisted of ether. This theory made it impossible for them to perceive meteors as glowing rocks from space, although they found such material on Earth. They could only describe things that fit into their theory of heaven.
Conservatives see the evil of liberalism everywhere, while liberals see the evil of conservatism everywhere.
In terms of creativity, this means:
People who perceive themselves as creative see evidence of their creativity everywhere, and people who believe they are not creative see evidence of their lack of creativity everywhere.
How we interpret experiences affects how we feel. To do this, you can perform an exercise. See implementation.