Mind vs Brain - a paraphrase of something smart Dan Nelken said.

Copywriter, Dan Nelken, of Nelken Creative, is a pretty smart guy.

While I don’t often sing the praises of non-female-identifying professional creatives, I’m making an exception for Dan.

I was first introduced to Dan through his delightfully written and charming LinkedIn posts a few weeks ago. After finding myself nodding my head and laughing out loud repeatedly, I finally took the bait and subscribed to his weekly newsletter to ensure I didn’t miss out on any of the fun and wisdom.

Dan describes himself as a “Creative Director + Dog Walker (and) Author of ‘A Self Help Guide for Copywriters,’” which is due to be released soon. He’s also done some terrific copywriting for Lululemon. While we wait with collective bated breath for the release of his book, here are some of the things I learned when I had the opportunity to listen to Dan share his thoughts on creativity during a recent marketing class.

One of the golden nuggets he shared with us was about the battle between the creative mind and the creative brain.

You might be tempted to think those are the same thing, but oh ho, they are not!

What follows is a paraphrased and possibly bastardized version of what Dan explained, as understood by me and recorded in my notes.

The creative mind thinks really well. It has focus. It works through problems like an adult, considering, revising, questioning, expanding, flowing, and ultimately producing. In contrast, the creative brain is like an idiot dog. Dug from the Pixar movie Up comes to mind.

If the creative mind was a picture it might be something kind of like this.

The creative brain is easily distracted (squirrel!) and, like a dog, needs to be led where you want it to go. You can’t let that doofus be in charge; chaos will reign! You will assuredly get little to nothing accomplished, and the creative journey will be as mentally exhausting as trying to get my teenagers to clean their rooms. JUST FOCUS, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!!!

Behold the idiot cat. Since I don’t have a dog, I will think of my creative brain like this idiot who clearly thinks he is a hat.

With this in mind, it really is no wonder that creative professionals of all levels can still struggle to create. Even after 20 years, I know I still do.

But as I lay in bed this morning with my brain running like a thousand hamsters in the Boston Marathon, I was finally able to tell my brain to “Shut Up, You Dog!” And you know what? It helped.

For a few minutes this morning, Dan Nelken’s idea about the mind vs. the brain helped me interrupt my early morning anxiety fest and reminded me that I am in charge of what goes on inside my cranium. Yes, my anxiety, with a chaser of depression, is a biologically based challenge that can’t just be ‘willed’ away, but I can separate myself from my idiot brain when it says stupid stuff or tries to self-sabotage my successes with shiny objects and insecure feelings.

Dan Nelken taught me something critical about the battle between my mind and my brain, and it was the smartest thing I’ve heard all week.