My mother sent me a photo of a typewritten piece of paper this week. It’s a list, titled The Ten Commandments That Block Creativity. Actually it’s written in all caps, since whoever wrote it down thought it was very important.

I assumed she sent it as a push towards creative inspiration as I plugged through deadlines. Deadlines which I am procrastinating on right now by writing this. Mothers are good like that.

The list is credited to Stanley Krippner, and I don’t know where he published the original, but I did see it made an appearance in the 1973 book Child Development and Learning.

In his commandments, Krippner was writing specifically on children, and the cultural norms at play that hamper their creativity from an early age. But I think that as adults, particularly in a creative field, we can find truth in these.

The full list of the commandments goes into detail on each one of them, but I think that they stand for themselves.

The Ten Commandments That Block Creativity

by Stanley Krippner, PhD

1. Everything Thou Doest Must Be Useful

2. Everything that Thou Doest Must Be Successful.

3. Everything Thou Doest Must Be Perfect.

4. Everyone Thou Knowest Must Like Thee.

5. Thou Shalt Not Prefer Solitude to Togetherness

6. Remember Concentrated Attention and Keep it Holy.

7. Thou Shalt Not Diverge From Culturally-Imposed Sex Norms.

8. Thou Shalt Not Express Excessive Emotional Feeling.

9. Thou Shalt Not Be Ambiguous.

10. Thou Shalt Not Rock The Cultural Boat.

So here’s to rocking cultural boats, learning to not be perfect and reminding ourselves that not all we do has to be a success.