Creativity is an exotic term that dons different faces from the walls temple of Many-faced God (Reference: Game of Thrones.) Fortunately, the reasons why Creativity dons several faces, is different than it was in the Game of Thrones where the purpose was to carry out assassinations. Creativity looks different, feels different even accomplishes different things depending on who wields it and for what purpose.
In this short essay, I intend to speak of creativity as a trait that we all are born with, and why when we say that we aren’t creative, we deny a small but important part of our humanity.
Whether or not you identify yourself as creative or not, if you’ve experienced one or more of the following, you are creative.
Sign 1: You have an urge to make something new.
If you experience the urge to do things in a new way, you are creative. For instance, if you like to bake, and you find yourself trying out new ingredients or tweaking the processes, you are creative.
You want to interrupt, right?
You want to say, “but hey, I don’t feel creative while writing storyboards. If I am creative, shouldn’t I be creative all the time and in everything I do?”
Sign 2: You come up with innovative solutions to everyday problems.
Let me illustrate.
A dress is ruined because it’s torn at a particular place. You repurpose the dress. You could’ve thrown it away, you could’ve given it to someone less fortunate who would value it anyway, but you figure out a way to make it even better.
You’d like to question me there. Go ahead.
Tell me that you could do it because you are good with dresses, and because you learned sewing when you were little.
Sign 3: You are thrilled to see stuff grow, change, evolve.
This is the most sublime of all signs. While this means that your creativity has been hibernating for a long time, it definitely tells us that it exists. The sweet ache that accompanies your observations and the corresponding feeling of happiness is about your “perceived” inability in bringing about the change – and that ache is the result of your creativity’s efforts to pull itself out of its slumber.
You want to question me again, don’t you?
You want to say, “So what? Perhaps there’s some creativity in me, but if it’s overtaken by sloth, then how does it matter? Isn’t such dormant creativity as good as dead creativity?”
3 Reasons why Creativity stays dormant:
- Absence of Relevance (Why am I not creative in the areas that are important? For instance, my work.)
- Presence of Humility (I can think of new ideas in those areas, because I trained for them – not because I’m creative.)
- Resistance to Change (If my creativity is dormant, let it be!)
We need to realize that Creativity requires that we build quick mental connections between several different but relevant information bits – and so it can automatically be assumed that you must possess a lot of relevant knowledge that has a great deal of granularity, only then you’ll be able to come up with innovative solutions in a particular area.
We also need to remember that we are creative in areas of our interest (new cake recipes, new dance moves,) mostly because we are automatically drawn toward possessing relevant knowledge with required granularity, in those areas. So cast away the humility and embrace your creativity with pride.
Finally, stop resisting change.
You like flowers blooming, get up and work the soil. You like cakes, and in your heart you know that you could bake a better one, get, set, and go baking!
Granularity: Level of detail in data/information.
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