Today, I’d like to discuss some attitudes to incorporate into your approach if you want to be more creative:
1. Inventiveness
I’ve previously written about curiosity because I believe it is an important skill to develop as a blogger. Learning to ask ‘why,’ ‘what if,’ and ‘I wonder…’ are excellent questions to incorporate into your life if you want to be more creative.
2. Perceiving problems as appealing and acceptable
One of the problems with the Western mindset is that we frequently regard problems or obstacles as unavoidable parts of life. We avoid or suppress pain when it occurs, and as a result, we don’t often see or feel symptoms that are there to tell us something important. Problems are seen as a natural and normal part of life by creative people; in fact, they are often fascinated by and drawn to them.
3. Confronting a Difficult Situation
Many of history’s most creative ideas have come from people who, rather than fleeing a challenge or crisis, asked, “How can I overcome this?”
4. Constructive Dissatisfaction
Creative people are often acutely aware of what is wrong with the world around them; however, they are constructive about this awareness and will not allow themselves to become bogged down in grumbling about it; instead, they use their discontent to motivate them to do something constructive.
5. Positivity
Most (if not all) creative people believe that most (if not all) problems can be solved. No challenge is too great to overcome, and no problem is too difficult to solve (this does not mean they are always happy or never depressed – but they are rarely stumped by a challenge).
6. Suspension of Judgment
The ability to refrain from judging or critiquing an idea is essential in the creative process. Often, great ideas begin as crazy ones – if the criticism is applied too early, the idea will die and never be developed into something useful and usable. (Note: This is not to say that there is never a time for critique or judgment in the creative process; in fact, it is essential – but there is a time and place for it.)
7. Perceiving Obstacles as a Source of Improvements and Solutions
This relates to some of the points raised above, but by ‘hurdles,’ I mean problems and errors encountered during the creative process. Sometimes the real magic happens on the journey of developing an idea, and it’s often out of the little problems or mistakes that the idea is actually improved.
8. Persistence
Creative people who see their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see them through – even when things get difficult. This is what distinguishes the great from the good in this entire realm. The ability to stick to something is critical.
9. Adaptable Imagination
I enjoy observing a truly creative person at work when they are ‘on fire.’ They have this amazing ability to see a problem or challenge and all of its potential solutions at the same time, and they have an intuitive knack for bringing previously disconnected ideas together in flashes of brilliance that seem so simple – yet are so difficult for the average person to imagine.
Is creativity a personality trait or something that can be learned?
As I read through this list of creative people’s characteristics, I find myself wondering whether creativity is linked to personality type or whether it can be learned.
My uneducated response to this question is ‘yes.’
Some people are simply creative; they do not train themselves to think in this manner, and they frequently are unaware that they are any different from the rest of us; it is simply who they are.
However, I believe that we can all improve our creative abilities over time.