We hear so much about “going with the flow”, but what does this really do for us and our growth?  In Crisis, Covenant and Creativity, Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo writes:

When I was growing up, people used to say that if you want to be creative all you have to do was “let go.”  It was assumed that the way to unleash creativity was to shed all limitations and “go with the flow.” But reality proves otherwise.  Letting go only makes us less focused and more confused. The range of options overwhelms us. The truth about creativity is just the opposite.  It is born not out of the chaos of unconventionality, but rather from the devotion of discipline. True creativity is, as Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, “an emotion controlled by an idea.”  It is the ultimate triumph of form over undeveloped matter. (28)