Eric Hoffer understood that our demand for immediate gratification in all things undermines our creative human potential. He points out that the action that occurs instantly is "characteristic of the animal world, where action follows perception with the swiftness of a chemical reaction."
Man, on the other hand, is a defective animal. It is because man had to compensate for his lack of inborn skills and sharp instincts that he became a creator.
"In man," Eric Hoffer writes, "because of his rudimentary instincts, there is a pause of faltering and groping, and this pause is the seedbed of images, longings, forebodings and irritations which are the warp and woof of the creative process."
It is the pause that matters most. Hoffer quotes Peter Ulich in order to underline the social and creative significance of the pause:
"Rarely is anything more important for the rise of civilization than the human capacity to put an interval between stimulus and action. For within this interval grow deliberation, perspective, objectivity--all the higher achievements of the reflective mind."
In other words, creativity is dependent upon "the damming up of impulses and cravings." By however much we act immediately on our impulses, by so much do we fall short of our creative human potential.
On the other hand, a lengthening of the pause between desire and action increases the likelihood of a truly creative response.
A lengthening of the pause may open the door to creativity, but only hard work will bring our talents to fruition. Hoffer had little faith in spontaneity and inspiration as the driving forces behind a great achievement. "Creative people believe in hard work," he writes. "At the core of every genuine talent there is an awareness of the effort and difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized."
Hoffer also wryly added that "it needs great effort to make an achievement seem effortless."
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