Creativity is the most fundamental force in the human impulse. It can take many forms like conquering, reproduction, communication, exchange of information, inner passion or fundamentally the partnership with the order of creation. You are creative because you are a creator. You want to express, explore, risk, be seen, and see the potential you have.
Your passion expressed in any form is the result of balanced creativity.
The creative process’s consistency allows you to lose the fear of being right or wrong and put a face to face your limitations with your potentials.
Are you creative?
Beliefs that only unique, talented people are creative (and you have to be born that way) diminish our confidence in our creative abilities. According to a study at Exeter University, the notion that geniuses such as Shakespeare, Picasso, and Mozart were `gifted’ is a myth. Researchers examined outstanding performances in the arts, mathematics, and sports to determine if “the widespread belief that to reach high levels of ability a person must possess an innate potential called talent.”
The study concludes that excellence is determined by:
- opportunities
- encouragement
- training
- motivation, and
- most of all, practice.
7 steps to creativity
- Prepare the ground
Creativity requires an absorbed mind, a relaxed state of focus and attention. Give yourself the time and space you need to get completely immersed in the zone of Creativity and inspiration. Let the desire to play come from the pure pleasure of creative expression.
- Plant seeds for creativity
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we create the world.
We amplify what we think about most. Put your attention on what you want to create, not on complaints. Set an intention to produce the results you desire. Clean from your mind from the oriented task mind and focus intensively on one object of inspiration. Let that subject or object release its secrets by you being totally present with it. If you worry about being perfect, you may never begin to unleash the time and space you need to have the pleasure of creation.
- Live in the question, drop the answers
Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves.
It’s been said that at the age of 5, children ask 120 questions a day; at age 6, they ask only 60 questions a day, and at the age of 40, adults ask 4 questions a day. We, adults, need to embrace “beginner’s mind” and ask questions instead of finding immediate answers. Pay attention to questions other people ask, especially those from artists, scientists, and thought leaders. Collect questions you find compelling.
- Feed your brain with pure links
If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like old faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting.
Be curious and follow your nose. Get interested in something, and it will later provide you with a goldmine of ideas if you learn to make connections between people, places and things that would not ordinarily be connected. Combining ideas and creating relationships are vital practices of Creativity employed by artists, designers, and scientists.
- Allow exploring the experiment.
“I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them.”—Thomas Edison
Edison was both a prolific inventor and innovator, producing over 1,093 patents. He was also a master at learning from failed experiments. When he died in 1931 he left behind 3,500 notebooks containing details of his ideas and thoughts. If you follow your curiosity, experiment with ideas, and learn from your mistakes, the quality of your Creativity will vastly improve.
- Replenish your creative stock
As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing. Have multiple fronts of creation that, even if they seem disconnected, replenish the creative process as field rotation. When you need a break, switch from singing and songwriting to painting.
- The secret to liberating your Creativity
While there is no magic bullet that will liberate your Creativity, it can be helpful to remember how you played as a child. What absorbed you to the extent that you lost track of time? Your child’s play provides the clue to your Creativity, your talents and your passion. What connections can you make from lessons you have learned at play that you can apply to your work?
Creativity takes on many forms in business, art, design, education and science. When we express our Creativity in these domains, we have the ability to understand life itself.