There is a
myth about creativity that it is all about genius and talent. Certainly, there
is no smoke without fire, and some people do have a particular bent for it, but
the reality is that we all have far more capability to be creative than we
realize.
When we
were children, we were more creative than our parents and teachers could
handle. We thus learned not to be creative, and most of our lessons were
structured and controlled, and the lessons were so effective for many of us, we
were left with the belief that we were never creative and could never be
creative.
The
patterns of non-creativity often carry on as we grow older and we get stuck in
habits and 'I am not creative' goes from being an excuse to a description the
mental ruts into which we fall.
Learning to think
Just as we
can learn to swim, so also can we learn to think. People such as Edward de Bono
have put significant effort into teaching thinking as an acquired skill.
Socrates did it many years ago. He would answer a question with another
question, forcing his disciples, including Plato and Aristotle, to think for
themselves.
A simple
way you can do this is to buy puzzle books, especially those that include
tricky and lateral thinking games. Crosswords are another mind-bender that can
help you climb out of your rut. You can also vary the method – working on
jigsaw puzzles, for example, helps your visualization.
Another
variant is to sign up for a class where you will have to think outside your
normal patterns of thought. If you are a scientist, take an arts class. If you
are an artist, study philosophy. You can also do these in your spare time.
Books cost pennies and contain gold dust and gems.
Learning by doing
The army
uses a term: 'muscle memory'. When you go on a long march, your muscles seem to
remember how to march a long way and months later a similar march is nowhere
near as hard. The same is true with creativity. Once you have opened the gates
and got stuck into some really hard creative work (it is a myth that it is all
fun and easy).
Get
engaged in any creative activity you can. Offer yourself as an out-of-the-box
thinker for other people's brainstorming sessions. Paint, sculpt or take
photographs. Climb mountains and shout from the hilltops.
Do things
to break your own paradigms. Wear different clothes. Get a different haircut.
Enter for creative competitions. Read things you wouldn't normally read. Step
outside the box and push the boundaries to expand your comfort zone.
The secret
is to keep on going with as many different things as your brain can take. Go on
different holidays. Take up different hobbies. Drive to work by different
routes.
Build
yourself a regular schedule of practicing creativity. Just like going to the
gym, spend quality time in practice. Plan the activities and exercises you will
do, as well as the ways you will use it to enhance your life.
Many
people have found simple, but valuable ideas that they have turned into
profitable businesses. Do you think you could not do that? What is stopping
you?
Keep generating
ideas. Look around you for problems to solve. There are many opportunities all
around you, right now. Look at the issues you and others are facing. Look at
the little difficulties, from unscrewing a tight lid in the kitchen to lifting
heavy items out of the car.
Practice
may not make perfect, but it will make you a whole lot better at creativity.
T
“Inter caecos regnat strabo”
Among blind people the squinting one rules.
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