What is creativity? How much are you limiting yourself because you don’t believe you are a creative person?
What does it mean to be a creative person anyway? Perhaps we are getting stuck on the word ‘creative’.
A trawl across the web highlights all sorts of writings and musings on creativity. And it seems that there are many of us out there who would put ourselves in the non-creative box. Or at least, I used to but have now learned to climb out of that box and perceive myself – and creativity – differently.
And in that lies the answer methinks. Our perception of creativity is often what stops us seeing our own potential.
Myths about creativity abound –
- very few people are very creative – you have to be one of the ‘chosen few‘
- you have to be born with it
- only right-brained people are creative
- you probably are a little bonkers too, not really grounded in the real world (the bias in that statement gives you an indication of where I am coming from!)
- it just comes naturally to certain people, and I am not one of them
- creativity is being able to draw well/synonymous with artistic.
If you would class yourself as not creative, what would the reasons be?
A study by Adobe in 2012 of 5000 people across the UK, Germany, France, Japan and the US noted that only 39% of respondents described themselves as creative. Three out of four of those who responded believed they were not living up to their creative potential.
What is more, the study went on to discuss the fact that everyone has great capacities for creativity, but these capacities are not always developed. Until we stop seeing ‘creative’ in a pre-determined, never-going-to-be-me sort of way, we will struggle to reframe ourselves as actually being creative: as having the capacity to create.
If we choose to define creativity as the act of making something from nothing, how does that change things for us? Have you made something from nothing recently – you can take as broad an interpretation of that as you like. Chances are very high that you have.
Well guess what: that means that you are indeed creative.
Here are some interesting – and sometimes quite challenging – definitions of creativity that I have come across. Read through these, and see which ones strike a chord with you. Which ones prompt a strong reaction? Why? Which ones do you agree with?
And a scarier question – which ones make you uncomfortable because you can see that there is nowhere to hide in terms of accepting your own creativity? When you read these definitions, how many of them do you do on a regular basis? And therefore, what does that say about you?
- Thinking differently about things, doing something purely for the love of it, using your imagination, being inventive
- Just making something. It might be something crummy or awkward or not ready for prime time. If you make something, you are creative.
- Being creative is about saying yes, and chasing those crazy ideas, no matter how weird or impractical they may seem.
- Starting with nothing and ending up with something. Interpreting something you saw or experienced and processing it so it comes out different than how it went in
- Creativity is honouring my spirit – tapping into your soul and your intuition and allowing them to guide what you make
- Seeing the intersection of seemingly unrelated topics and combining them into something new
- One part inspiration, one part motivation [I would add to this, two parts practice]
- Copying smarter [this fits with another thought that there are no new original thoughts out there – we rehash ideas we have come across into our own packages]
And how about this one – this made me stop and think:
Living in possibility and abundance rather than limitation and scarcity.
These are all quotes from articles in the Huffington Post and Copyblogger.
Perhaps my favourite is this –
This might not work.”
Because creativity is linked to taking risks, failing, learning and trying again.
I feel I have opened something of a pandora’s box here – dig under the surface and there is so much more to creativity than one might first think. As is so often the case in coaching!
Over coming weeks my musings will be on more of what fuels creativity – day dreaming, being open to all that is going on around us, learning to be still and quiet.
Because crucially, rather than being constrained by what isn’t and what there is never going to be any possibility or hope of, creativity is about seeing what is and what could be.