You, a creative force

Set of conceptual firework units

Do you consider yourself creative? I hope so, as I’m sure you are.

Very few people consider themselves creative though, as somewhere along the line they have gotten comfortable with what is, or they tried something and maybe weren’t recognised for it, or didn’t feel it led to anything, or worse – they were slammed for it.

Kids are endlessly creative, both in mind and in expression. Listen to a kid’s fantasy stories, where everything is possible and watch them draw the most beautiful drawings where there are no rules!

And as Ken Robinson very aptly describes in his fabled TED talk, over time we learn to become non-creative. If you haven’t seen it, here it is and it’s brilliant!

I think there may be a number of reasons why we tend to become less creative over time. The main reason I think is that we create habits, patterns in our lives of doing things the same way. And I believe we need patterns to make sense of things, and to make life easier (so we don’t have to think about absolutely everything we do, but can actually do things subconsciously!)

But therein lies the challenge – to have habits and patterns AND to now and then challenge our thinking about things, not getting stuck.

Why not create a habit of saying to yourself each day, one or more of the following questions:

  • What can I do differently today?
  • What could I look at differently today (reframing)?
  • How can I look at that differently (reframing)?
  • What’s the craziest idea I can think of this context?

Our common sense often holds us back, even “brainstorming” is often just ” very gentle brainbreeze” (=more of the same).

The thought is free – not everything that gets suggested has to be done. We can play with thoughts and ideas. It’s often in some of the craziest ideas that something really original and revolutionary gets created.

As Albert Einstein so insightfully said: “If an idea isn’t at first absurd, there’s no hope for it”.

So, let’s continue to create and stretch our creativity. Let’s push ourselves to think differently. Let’s play with ideas. And let’s watch the world transform, one idea at a time.