The act of creativity comes in direct conflict with the act of habit. When the habit is done well, it’s almost automatic. It makes habits extremely powerful. The habitual life is a stable, peaceful, and productive life. But it’s also a very predictable and boring life. That’s not a bad trade-off if you don’t mind those attributes.
For the artists of the world, the thought of being boring and predictable is a thought almost too painful to bear. However, without stability and productiveness, your creativity will hardly matter (at least, while you’re alive.)
Creativity involves the flexibility of stepping outside of your habits and thinking outside of preconceived notions. But these systems are what give us all great stability in life and community. It’s one reason that the artist is often viewed as a rascal or a renegade. It’s also why so many great artists have such unstable and boisterous lives.
Creativity is the tool that can solve any problem. It is the source of originality in the world.
The difficult balance for the working creative is implementing enough habits to give your life stability while preserving enough free creativeness to be interesting and make interesting things. I’m still working on how to strike that balance myself.