Why Rules Kill Creativity (And When They Actually Help)

My nephew threw mashed potatoes at the wall last Thanksgiving.

Not because he was angry. He wanted to see how far they'd go.

His mom was mortified. I was impressed.

That's the purest form of creativity I've seen in years. No plan. No outline. Just: what happens if I do this?

Messes are a requirement. Not a bug. A feature.

But somewhere along the way, we forgot that.

Why We Stop Making Messes

We grow up. We learn rules. We start believing we need everything figured out before we can begin.

The outline has to be perfect. The desk has to be clean. The idea has to be fully formed in our heads before a single word hits the page.

We get uptight. And uptight people don't create. They organize. They plan. They wait.

The Trap of Waiting Until You're Ready

I used to think I needed to know the ending before I could write the beginning.

So I'd spend weeks outlining. Researching. Preparing.

And then I'd never start.

Because the outline was never quite right. There was always one more thing to figure out first.

Rules Come After Creativity, Not Before

Here's what I'm learning: rules come after you've been creative. Not before.

You can't edit a blank page. You can't organize ideas you haven't had yet. You can't refine a mess that doesn't exist.

The mess has to come first.

What Kids Know That We Forgot

Kids understand this instinctively. They don't worry about whether the drawing is good. They just draw. They don't plan the block tower. They just stack until it falls.

Then they do it again.

That's not chaos. That's the creative process working exactly as designed.

Your Permission Slip to Be Messy

You're allowed to make a mess.

You're allowed to write the terrible first draft. To start the business plan on the back of a napkin. To build the thing before you know if it'll work.

You don't need to know where the mashed potatoes will land before you throw them.

This doesn't mean rules are useless. They're just for later.

Once you have something — anything — you can shape it. Edit it. Organize the chaos into something that makes sense.

But you can't skip to that part. The mess is the raw material.

No mess, no creation.

Try This Today

Start something without a plan. Give yourself 15 minutes to make the ugliest first attempt at whatever you've been putting off.

Don't outline. Don't research. Don't prepare.

Just throw the mashed potatoes and see where they land.

What would you make if you weren't afraid of the mess?