Many people believe that
creativity is inborn and only a chosen few are creative. While it is true that
creativity is inborn, it is not true that only a chosen few are creative.
Everyone is born creative. In the
process of growing up, educating yourself and adapting yourself to your
environment, you slowly add blocks to your creativity and forget that you had
it in the first place.
The difference between a creative
person and a person who is not so creative is not in the creativity that they
were born with but in the creativity that they have lost.
How can you enhance your creative
ability? One possible way is to observe the habits of creative people, identify
the ones that you feel will work for you and then make a plan to cultivate
them.
Here are 16 habits of creative
people. If you cultivate some of them, you will feel an increase in your level
of creativity. In the process, you will also feel tickled by life!
1. Creative people are full of curiosity.
Creative people are wonderstruck.
They are tickled by the newness of every moment. They have lots of questions.
They keep asking what, why, when, where and how.
A questioning mind is an open
mind. It is not a knowing mind. Only an open mind can be creative. A knowing
mind can never be creative.
A questioning stance sensitizes
the mind in a very special way and it is able to sense what would have been
missed otherwise.
2. Creative people are problem-friendly.
When there is a problem, some
people can be seen wringing up their hands. Their first reaction is to look for
someone to blame. Being faced with a problem becomes a problem. Such people can
be called problem-averse.
Creative people, on the other
hand, are problem-friendly. They just roll up their sleeves when faced with a
problem. They see problems as opportunities to improve the quality of life.
Being faced with a problem is never a problem.
You get dirty and take a bath
every day. You get tired and relax every day. Similarly, you have problems that
need to be solved every day. Life is a fascinating rhythm of problems and
solutions.
To be problem-averse is to be
life-averse. To be problem-friendly is to be life-friendly. Problems come into
your life to convey some message. If you run away from them, you miss the
message.
3. Creative people value their ideas.
Creative people realize the value
of an idea. They do not take any chance with something so important. They carry
a small notepad to note down ideas whenever they occur.
Many times, just because they
have a notepad and are looking for ideas to jot down, they can spot ideas which
they would have otherwise missed.
4. Creative people embrace challenges.
Creative people thrive on
challenges. They have a gleam in their eyes as soon as they sniff one.
Challenges bring the best out of them – reason enough to welcome them.
5. Creative people are full of enthusiasm.
Creative people are enthusiastic
about their goals. This enthusiasm works as fuel for their journey, propelling
them to their goals.
6. Creative people are persistent.
Creative people know it well that
people may initially respond to their new ideas like the immune system responds
to a virus. They’ll try to reject the idea in a number of ways.
Creative people are not surprised
or frustrated because of this. Nor do they take it personally. They understand
it takes time for a new idea to be accepted. In fact, the more creative the
idea, the longer it takes for it to be appreciated.
7. Creative people are perennially dissatisfied.
Creative people are acutely aware
of their dissatisfactions and unfulfilled desires. However, this awareness does
not frustrate them. As a matter of fact, they use this awareness as a stimulus
to realize their dreams.
8. Creative people are optimists.
Creative people generally have a
deeply held belief that most, if not all, problems can be solved. No challenge
is too big to be overcome.
This doesn’t mean they are always
happy and never depressed. They do have their bad moments but they don’t
generally get stumped by a challenge.
9. Creative people make positive Judgment.
A new idea is delicate. It can be
killed by a sneer or a yawn. It can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried
to death by a right man’s brow – a businessman Charles Brower
The ability to hold off on
judging or critiquing an idea is important in the process of creativity. Often
great ideas start as crazy ones - if critique is applied too early the idea
will be killed and never developed into something useful and useable.
This doesn’t mean there is no
room for critique or judgment in the creative process but there is a time and
place for it and creative people recognize that.
10. Creative people go for the big kill.
Creative people realize that the
first idea is just the starting point. It is in the process of fleshing it out
that some magical cross-connections happen and the original ‘normal’ idea turns
into a killer idea.
11. Creative people are prepared to stick it out.
Creative people who actually see
their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see
them through - even when the going gets tough. This is what sets them apart
from others. Stick-ability is the key.
12. Creative people do not fall in love with an idea.
Creative people recognize how
dangerous it is to fall in love with an idea. Falling in love with an idea
means stopping more ideas from coming to their mind. They love the process of
coming up with ideas, not necessarily the idea.
13. Creative people recognize the environment in which they are most
creative.
Creative people do most of their
thinking in an environment which is most conducive to their creativity. If they
are unable to influence their physical environment, they recreate their
‘favourite’ creative environment in their minds.
14. Creative people are good at reframing any situation.
Reframes are a different way of
looking at things. Being able to reframe experiences and situations is a very
powerful skill.
Reframing allows you to look at a
situation from a different angle. It is like another camera angle in a football
match. And a different view has the power to change your entire perception of
the situation.
Reframing can breathe new life
into dead situations. It can motivate demoralized teams. It helps you to spot
opportunities that you would have otherwise missed.
15. Creative people are friends with the unexpected.
Creative people have the knack of
expecting the unexpected and finding connections between unrelated things. It
is this special quality of mind that evokes serendipitous events in their
lives.
Having honed the art of making
happy discoveries, they are able to evoke serendipity more often than others.
16. Creative people are not afraid of failures.
Creative people realize that the
energy that creates great ideas also creates errors. They know that failure is
not really the opposite of success.
In fact, both failure and success
are on the same side of the spectrum because both are the result of an attempt
made. Creative people look at failure as a stopover on way to success, just a
step away from it.
Source: Unknown
