Enlightening Lessons in Creativity
For months, you’ve been trying to figure out what kind of business you want to invest in. Is it going to be a food business? What about it? What food will you sell? To whom will you sell it? Is there a likelihood that your business will succeed? All these questions are floating in your mind almost every day. Then all of a sudden, while you’re doing some gardening stuff, something popped into your mind. “Aha!” You’ve finally found a great idea. Now, you can’t help but wonder why you haven’t thought of that before.
You might think that creativity is a magic – that wondrous moment of discovery. Something that happens in the moment that you least expect it. But creativity is not a mystery. It is a skill that is strengthened by constant practising, and a special gift that you need to value. But how do you uncover your creativity? What can you do to have those “aha” moments happen as you wish? It’s time to enlighten your mind with some important facts about creativity.
Everyone is creative.
Many people limit their definition of creativity with arts. But it also takes a creative mind to come up with a business idea, invent a new technology, write a song, create a marketing strategy, or develop a website. All problems, to be solved, need creativity. However, it turns out that our brain is hardwired to fear creativity. In a 2010 study by the University of Pennsylvania, researchers found that people tend to replace creative ideas with those that are practical, tried and true. This is a survival mechanism of the brain against a potential danger. But you have to make sure everything is balanced. Taking risks is also crucial to practising creativity.
Curiosity sparks creativity.
The more questions you have in mind, the more answers you will find. Curiosity springs from an open mind. Being curious enables you to see what most people fail to see. As a result, you come up with new ideas – the better ones. People who practise curiosity don’t get tired of exploring. They always have questions in mind that need to be answered. They don’t want to miss even the subtle details because for them, these can all be useful.
Creativity is infinite.
Do you often worry about running out of ideas? Do you fear that you won’t go through the same “aha” moment again? Although creativity might seem afar at times, it is not a finite resource. Creativity is always there, just waiting to be unravelled. Our mind is perfectly designed to generate endless thoughts and ideas. However, negative thoughts often hinder our minds from creating new ideas. As long as your mind is at work, you have access to a limitless wealth of knowledge and creativity.
Creativity is a product of hard work.
A creative idea doesn’t come out from nowhere. It comes from hard work, diligence and perseverance. Take the case of Michelangelo. His creative work was not built in a day. Prior to his famous artwork at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Michelangelo was not really a painter. He was a sculptor. But that didn’t stop him from creating such as magnificent work of art. Painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel took him four years to complete. Each day, he had to go through lots of challenges – the mould, the changing weather that damaged the plaster curing, the difficulty of climbing up and down to the ceiling, etc. If not because of his hard work, Michelangelo would have not arrived to that beautiful painting we know today.
Creativity is focusing on the process, not the result.
You might think that the outcome predicts the success of a creative work. But that’s not the way it is. To come up with a successful output, you have to put more emphasis on the mere process of creativity. If you give all your energy thinking about the end result, you will lose the energy needed to think about the best way to achieve it. Don’t worry about the fame, money or prize yet. Focus on the work first.
You don’t have to be a master of your craft to be creative.
Remember Michelangelo? He wasn’t really a painter. Still, he was able to do a remarkable painting that until know, is admired by people all over the world. Ask creative people you know and they will tell you that creativity is about solving problems and not being afraid to use new techniques and take risks. You don’t have to be the best of everything to come up with a creative idea. It’s all about curiosity, perseverance and hard work.
Creativity is unpredictable.
Just as you don’t know when the “aha” moment will come, the end result of your creative journey is also hard to predict. What you want to achieve now may not be the same with want you want five years from now.
A creative journey can be full of ups and downs.
The road to creativity is never straight. There’s a curve and it’s called ‘failure’. But that’s okay. All these challenges are designed to make you better. They are there to sharpen your creative mind. To be truly creative, you must allow yourself to fail because sometimes, the most creative ideas spring from failure. You have to forget perfection as such does not exist. Mistakes and failures may hurt a lot, but the lessons they bring are worth the pain.
Creativity is the secret ingredient to success. You have to learn how to cultivate your creativity no matter what kind of profession you’re in. But the journey towards creativity is not going to be easy. Expect stumbling blocks. But don’t worry. By practising curiosity, working hard, focusing on the process and not the result, and taking risks wisely – you can ultimately experience that “aha” moment you’ve been waiting for.
Dear Readers,
What do you think are the barriers that prevent people from cultivating their creativity?
Share your comment below.
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