From the author: photos from free access on the Internet - From a psychological point of view, is the opinion justified that discipline can destroy creativity in a child/teenager? (Many children correlate creative activity with chaos, disorder and reject the rules of conduct accepted in creative teams and in creative classes, believing that they prevent them from performing creative tasks) Creative activity really resembles chaos, flow, flight of fancy, it can be compared to cosmic activity energy. And many people associate discipline with lack of freedom, slavery, and hard labor. And then, really, it’s not clear how to combine the incompatible? In fact, discipline and organization are the best friends of inspiration and creativity. Let’s try to figure it out. Soviet and Russian psychologist Ya. A. Ponomarev distinguishes 4 stages in the creative process. The first stage is preparatory, in which we formulate problems and try to solve them. The second and third stages are associated with the processes of intuition and the unconscious, which cannot be understood and explained consciously. In fact, the second and third stages are the same chaos and space that we talked about at the beginning. At these stages, we cannot explain how, line by line, poetry is born in us, or why we draw this particular image, why the body chooses these particular movements in dance. It often happens that a creative find comes in moments of rest, when we switch to other things or fall asleep. The fourth stage is the implementation of the solution, the finalization of the idea. In order for a work - a painting, a poem, a dance - to blossom and sparkle with colors, the creators hone every detail, achieving a brilliant result. Often it takes days, or even months, to bring it to its final form. It is at this stage that if the creator is not disciplined, then we are unlikely to see the product of creativity. Discipline is most likely the ability to organize your work with the least amount of time. Discipline from within. This is more difficult than following external rules and order. Self-discipline helps you get through difficult obstacles on the way to realizing a creative product. Only a disciplined creator can overcome laziness, fear and “I don’t want to.” In the book “The Path to Financial Freedom,” the famous millionaire, business consultant and successful writer Bodo Schaefer gave a parable: “One day I went into the kitchen with my mentor to drink coffee. He took the coffee pot and began pouring coffee on the floor. I jumped to the side so that the splashes wouldn’t hit me, and yelled: “Wait, wait, you don’t have a cup!” But he calmly continued to pour the coffee, and then, looking at my perplexed expression on my face, said in a calm and impressive tone: “You see, Mr. Schaefer, this coffee on the floor is very similar to your wasted talents. No matter how much coffee you have, without a cup it has no value. In the same way, your abilities are worthless without discipline.” While wiping a puddle of coffee off the floor, I realized for the first time that discipline could be a lever for my abilities and allow me to give the desired form to the potential that lies within a person. Without discipline, any talent is wasted.” - When, in what case can this really happen? How to avoid this? Often, when there is no organization within oneself, when it is not possible to carry out what is planned, namely to complete it, there are reasons - obstacles in the external: discipline imposed from the outside interferes. This may sound like: I can’t obey rules, it’s impossible to create under pressure, inspiration doesn’t come to me on a schedule. How to avoid this? Make discipline free and freedom disciplined. Cultivate self-discipline and organization within yourself. - In what cases, where do children need discipline, and where is it unnecessary? Strict external rules of behavior and restrictions, as well as anarchy in creativity, are unnecessary. The success of developing a person’s creative potential lies somewhere in the middle, between.