21 Archetypes and Personas That Block Your Creativity-Part 1

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. ” ― Carl G. Jung

The famous psychologist Carl Jung described a collective model for the behavior and personality of people where he used the concept of the archetype.

The meaning of the word archetype originated from the ancient Greek words of “arkhe” or ancient and “tupos” or a model. 

Jung described that the human psyche was composed of three major components:

The self-conscious mind or the ego.

The personal unconscious that was composed of memories including repressed ones.

The collective unconscious, which are inherent models and structures that are acquired through society and genetics.

Jung described archetypes as archaic or ancient models or patterns that existed in the collective unconscious of people within societies.

Archetypes are basic human patterns that determine behavior and model collectively learned knowledge and experience, and usually invoke a deep emotional reaction in people.

Jung described four major archetypes including the self, the shadow, animus and the persona and did not rule out others.

The persona is the social mask and means “mask” in Latin. The persona is how we present ourselves in a social context and it can change based on the social situation that we are currently present in.

“All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes,” -Carl Jung

Some of the archetypes that are famous are:

• The heroine/hero
• The trickster
• The wise person
• The Caregiver
• The Sage
• And so on…

One of these archetypes may represent a dominant behavior type for you or you may have a few of them and come in and come out of them depending on the situation that you are in.

I have connected and combined some of the dominant blocks that people experience in their creativity with the deep-set models and behaviors that are sometimes responsible for those blocks in the first place. 

Creative blocks that you experience may come and go but if you are experiencing some blocks that are habitual and structural, you may have hit upon an archetypal behavior pattern that you believe in and that is impeding your creative process.

Let us look at some these counter-productive creative archetypes and personas.

I think that that the usage of archetype and persona might be interchangeable in some cases since some of these behavior patterns are triggered in social contexts and act as a social mask.

“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” —Marcel Proust

This is Part-1 of the two part series on how Archetypes and Personas block your creativity to flow freely.  

1. The Left-Brained Person Archetype

“When we have a workshop or when we have clients in to work with us side-by-side, eventually we get to the point in the process that’s fuzzy or unconventional. And eventually these big shot executives whip out their Blackberries and they say they have to make really important phone calls, and they head for the exits. And they’re just so uncomfortable. When we track them down and ask them what’s going on, they say something like, ‘I’m just not the creative type.’ But we know that’s not true. If they stick with the process, if they stick with it, they end up doing amazing things and they surprise themselves just how innovative they and their teams really are.”- David Kelley, TED talk

This archetype is dominated by the perception that “I am not a creative person.”

When a kindergarten class is asked if there are any artists, most hands shoot up.

This unanimous show of hands begins to decrease in amount as children make their way through primary school.

When kids reach middle school, the same questions reveal that most students have already opted-out of their creativity or believing that they are creative people.

It becomes increasing stressful in school to be labeled as “the odd creative type.”

To add to this, there is the confusion of expecting to be good in math and science and the dilemma of the left brained analytic and the right brain creative types.

I believe that this labeling into “the creative types” and “the analytical types” is an archetype that we choose to buy into and effectively shut off one part or the other. 

So the next time your brain screams at you that you are not the creative type or if you are not the analytical type, stop to think about it for a moment if it a model or a social construct that you are getting influenced by.

Action Tips:

1. Choose to do some small creative project and see it to completion. The goal is not to create a Picasso but to mix, match, add, subtract and create something novel. Keep the judgment out.

2. Catch yourself or others when you see the archetype appear in your life and your consciousness. Gently remind the self or others that it is possible to be creative or analytical and is interest and practice based.

3. Look into the past and find evidence of your creativity or look for corroboration from someone else who thought they were not creative but found that to be an archetype.

For example: My analytical engineer friend had to find a highly creative solution to a seemingly impossible problem. 

2. The Great Expectations Archetype

“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.”― Sylvia Plath

This persona is marked by the idea that something is not to the correct standards to begin or continue with the creative process.

In other words, you expect the world of your creativity and nothing short of those high standards is agreeable to you.

For example, you may have expected writing to be different and expected it to be more blissful, feel great, and induce a state of satisfied flow, but in reality it is sometimes difficult and tiring.

Your writing is taking a lot of work and even though you love to write, it is not matching up the “built up image” that you have embraced through social ideas and other experiences.

Your real experience of creativity is disappointing compared to the romantic image that you have in your mind and you seem to not able to shake off the expectations.

You feel like there needs to be a lot more of the following ideas and expectations:

Money coming easily through your creative pursuit.

Time is blissful and not an issue.

People immediately respond and get crazy about your work.

Tools just fall into place.

The reality does not look like that and it is quite underwhelming and disappointing.

This archetype reared its ugly head a long time before in my life when I joined fashion design school.

I was expecting a romantic, highly creative and glamorous environment with creative fashion geniuses running around at school.

Instead I was confronted with hours and hours of tailoring and drafting and cutting and more stitching…you get the point.

Well, I quit.

My expectations and the idea of fashion design was so far away from the reality that I was completely disillusioned and instead of staying and finding things that I liked, I got defeated by the expectations game.

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Begin to match your expectation with the reality.

2.Focus on the aspects of the creative work that you enjoy without falling into the expectations game.

3. A good creative rule of thumb is to create more and expect less.

4. Focus on how you really feel and what you enjoy about the experience of creating and not on expecting how you should feel.

3. The Perfect Creative Archetype

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali

This archetype is the model that allows for raging perfectionism to blossom and run amuck in your life.

This is bolstered by social ideas such as:

Half-baked solutions are not worth the trouble.

If you cannot do a great job, there is no point trying.

The winner takes it all, the loser comes second place.

You hate your creative work with a burning passion because it is not perfect.

You hate your work because you think it will be judged harshly and it will “not be good enough” for the world to see.

The truth is that this archetype is supported by your erroneous belief that you are less than better than the rest of the world.

It is exactly the belief that “there is no point trying” or “you will never be good enough”  that blocks your creative progress.

Even the best creative people have produced some very mediocre work but even though they may have disliked their own work at times, they did not allow that to stop them.

Picasso made 50 thousand pieces of art work in his life including paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures and prints and not all of them are famous or equally good. 

Twyla Tharp admits that occasionally some of her choreography was bad and not to her standards.

James Dyson of the vacuum cleaner fame made 5127 prototypes before he found the one that worked.

Charles Schultz wrote a peanuts column every single day for 50 years, some of which were not as good.

As you see, creative success resides firmly in the numbers game and not in producing the “perfect piece of work” every time. 

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Make imperfect art and get habitual at it.

2. Make failure a friend and not a foe. However, attempt to fail better and smarter by learning from it.

3. Develop a gentle and supportive inner dialog through observing when you are criticizing your own work as not perfect.

4. Remember that perfection is just a theory and not a fact. In fact, perfection is relative and means different things to different people.

5. Aim for excellence, not perfection.

4. The Overwhelmed Persona

“The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I’m in the middle of a battlefield.”-Amanda Palmer

Have you ever felt like saying:

“I have so much to do, I do not know where to begin?”

The truth is that we have felt like this at some point or another in our lives but if it is becoming habitual, you may need to look at the “overwhelmed persona” that might be influencing your creative powers.

This persona happens due to some structures and habits:

Saying yes to everything due to excessive politeness. 

Over scheduling and taking on too many creative projects.

Not having clear boundaries between creative work and other distractions and commitments.

Feeling like society and people reward you for being overwhelmed and stressed out and running in four directions all at once.

Not having a realistic idea of what it takes to do a project.

Multitasking to the point that everything is a blur.

Moving from one task to another so fast that you do not allow any task to proceed to an impactful degree.

Having an excessively cluttered mind and environment to the point that you cannot think anymore.

It is best to become quickly aware of the work of this persona in your life, and the following ideas and action tips have been useful in my life!

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Slow down and breathe.

2. Say “no” more often to people and things that will over schedule you. Resist overdoing. 

3. Declutter your mind and your environment.

4. Ditch excessive multitasking and make focus and mindful unitasking a priority.

5. Have a functional system to categorize and catalog all your creative projects so that you can effectively go between them without feeling overwhelm.

In other words, wrap up one project and put it into the box before you open another.

5. The Uncertain Creative Persona

“Regardless of your faith, you can never escape uncertainty.”― Shannon L. Alder

This persona is marked by a lack of clear understanding of the creative process, where to begin, what to do, and how to end the work.

The tools that are involved are hazy. 

You may say and feel like: “I do not know where to begin and where to go, and I feel lost.”

The uncertainty creative persona may also rear up its blocks in social settings where:

You see an expert and you do not know what to do.

You feel like you have to prove something to others and your mind goes blank.

You do not have a clear beginning and a clear ending point and do not have restrictions or focus to develop your creative idea.

Most great ideas that you had in the past but ended up taking no action may have suffered from the influence of this persona and block.

You get a great idea and you tell someone about it and you discuss how great it would be and then three months later you are exactly where you were before.

You are still at ideation and not into implementation and action because you are hazy about the process involved.

The uncertainty creates tension and stress and you end up letting go of the idea altogether.

Action tips to unhook from this persona:

1. Understand the process better by breaking it into small parts that can be implemented.

2. Ask someone in the field about what goes into the implementation without giving away the whole idea.

For example, if you want to market a new sauce, instead of giving the recipe away, ask what is involved in the different steps of creating, packaging and marketing your creative product.

3. Take action on a small first step and then move to the next small step. When you only look at the big picture, it can seem remote and out of grasp.

6. The Overthinker Persona

“We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. … Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.” ― Anthony Hopkins

This persona is burdened by the classic “Analysis paralysis.”

You analyze every small detail to death and spin your wheels in the minutiae instead of moving forward.

Excessive analysis makes it sound like you are being cautious and reduces your risk, but the truth is that it significantly increases the risk of not doing anything at all.

You may think overthinking is an advantage but in reality this persona appears to action takers as you are being indecisive and uncertain of your own actions.

This persona usually reveals other hidden concerns such as not allowing your work to be put out there due to the comfort of overthinking and analyzing everything.

It may reveal hidden security issues that you may have gathered about your self-concept and how you relate to the world.

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Become aware of overthinking and excess analysis.

2. Take a few good opinions but asking everyone what they think of your creative idea is simply an invitation to criticism and judgment.

3. Allot a certain time for the thinking process and then cap the lid on thinking and increase the implementation.

7. The Self-Doubter Persona

“When in doubt, be ridiculous.”― Sherwood Smith

The self-doubter questions everything about their creativity and the process and repeats “I am not good enough” in their minds and reflects that belief in a social setting.

The self-doubter’s patterns are: 

• Lack of self-belief in their creative work.
• A deep-set pattern of self-reproach and criticism.
• Not feeling like they  matter.
• Being hesitant to take the next step because they feel like something is amiss and this happens constantly.
• Asking everyone what they think of their work and basing decisions solely on the external validations and judgments.
• A belief that they are not worthy of the best and feel surprise when someone praises or uplifts them. 

This is a very damaging persona to your creative process because there is no faster destroyer of creative flow and process than to doubt every step of the way.

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Increase self-love and self worth by repeated affirmations and looking you in the eye.

2. Become aware that you are burdened by the persona of doubt and make an action plan to respond in a different manner when triggered into a corner by this block.

3. Remind yourself that not everyone will like you or your creative work but some people will love it.

4. Find validation and meaning in something that is a higher cause and does not dry out like the likes of other people.

5. Keep the company of people who see your worth and uplift you and give you supportive advise instead of shutting you down.

8. The Angry Disgruntled Artist Archetype

This is a very common creative archetype and has been around for a very long time.

The emotionally angst ridden and unhappy artist.

The sculptor who is brilliant but cannot get their act together.

Of course, creative angst and discomfort may be vital for the creative process but when it impedes your creative process, it begs another look and assessment.

The truth dawned on me like a pile of bricks while engrossed in my stories of creative anguish.

The world does not care about my anger or if I was upset and disgruntled and felt lack of respect.

The world cared even less for demonstrations of those impetuous feelings that were meant to be harbored by the angry artist archetype.

People only care for your creative product and if it brings value to them. 

Make sure that your anger is not alienating your customers and the people who eventually decide if your creative process should continue by supporting it or shuttering it by walking away.

Anger is only productive if you are transforming in into a creative something.

But anger without a cause and without any creative outlet or expression is simply a deterrent to your creativity.

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. You do not have to be angry or disgruntled to be an artist or a creative person.

2. Yes, You can actually be a happy artist.

The archetype is simply a perception and a model that impetuousness and drama are essential for effective creativity.

3. Use the angry artist archetype to your advantage by creating more when you are angry and not less.

Use the difficult emotions to find a way through the artistic process and not to block it.

9. The Poor Me Victim Creative persona

“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” Lee Iacocca

This is a very dominant persona where lots of people are walking around feeling sorry for themselves and expect the world to follow suit.

The world listens for a little while and takes notice and pity but very soon it forgets and moves on with its work, and worse still begins to avoid the person.

This persona is dominated by the feelings and talk of how the world is conspiring against you and how social justice is not happening.

While that might be true that life is not fair, but there is little you can do to change that by being part of the problem.

The solution is to become so good in your creative work that none can ignore you anymore.

Where is the time to be sorry for yourself in that enterprise of excellence?

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”-Steve Martin 

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and your situation.

2. Begin by deciding where you would like to focus your creative energy and powers and fill in the little gaps of understanding and incompletion first.

3. Remember that an ounce of action is worth more than a ton of talk, pity and advise.

10. The “Ignorance and Denial is Bliss” Persona

This persona ignores the problem of the creative void hoping that it will go away by itself. However, the creative void or wishing to be creative in your life simply becomes greater.

Often, people are in denial of what they truly desire because they are covering their consciousness with other personas and archetypes such as roles in their life and navigating the hedonic treadmill.

The idea that acquiring more stuff or to enjoy more by trying to grasp it at the cost of unleashing your creativity is a meme or a pattern or a model that is usually counter-productive in the long run.

There is nothing more soul-satisfying or soothing that to give expressing to your unique blend of creativity and it should not be forgotten or allowed to be denied for other personas or roles.

Action tips to unhook from this archetype:

1. Become aware if you are using stuff and other hedonic pursuits to cover up your creative needs and requirements.

2. If you are denying your creativity the expression that it is requesting from you, how does that make you feel? Feelings are usually good indicators of what is important to pursue.

3. You do not have too quit everything to pursue creativity. Simply make some time to express your creative needs.

This is the end of part-1. Read part-2 here!