Rollo May said anxiety is not the enemy of creative work
The psychologist who studied creativity most seriously in the twentieth century reached a conclusion that runs against almost every productivity hack ever written.
Rollo May trained as a psychologist and worked as a therapist before he turned his attention to what creativity actually requires. His 1975 book The Courage to Create is a sustained argument against the idea that the creative state is one of calm, flow, or ease.
May's central claim is that genuine creativity demands what he calls an encounter — an intense, absorbing confrontation with the problem or material at hand. This encounter produces anxiety, not despite being generative but because it is. You are trying to bring something new into the world, and newness is always a disruption of the existing order, including your own existing order.
He distinguishes between neurotic anxiety, which causes paralysis, and what he calls normal anxiety — the productive tension of being genuinely engaged with something uncertain. The goal isn't to eliminate that tension. The goal is to stay in it long enough to reach the other side.
May's warning is about the avoidance of encounters: the artist who finds ways to stay comfortable, to work only in familiar territory, to remain technically proficient without risking anything. That person, he argues, will never produce work that surprises anyone — including themselves.
The courage in the title is not about overcoming fear once. It is the daily practice of choosing encounter over comfort.