Creativity is something we all want in our lives, but it can be challenging to understand what creativity is and how we can enhance our creative abilities. This blog post will learn how you can be a creative genius or at least a little more creative than before.
When we think of creative genius, most of us imagine a creative genius like Steve Jobs. He wasn't just a creative genius; he was an entrepreneur who came up with things you now use every day and probably take for granted. For example, I can't imagine my life without the iPad; it changed how I learned and played many of my favorite games.
As we grow up and become more experienced, we tend to lose our creativity and fail to find the things that make us happy. In this blog post, I will review some of the factors that contribute to losing our imagination and then offer advice on how to regain your creative genius.
1: Creativity is Easily Lost.
Many of us have a strong sense of what is or isn't creative, but let's explore this a little further. When we talk about someone being "creative," what exactly do we mean?
I like to look at the definition of creativity proposed by Scott Barry Kaufman, a neuroscientist from New York University. He calls it "the drive to generate something new and meaningful." This definition is much broader than our shared understanding of creativity.
While many people would describe Steve Jobs as a creative genius, he was simply an entrepreneur who created new products that were meaningful to people at the end of the day. It can be easy to forget that, but everything we do daily is creative.
2: Creativity Can Be Learned.
While we have to be born with the potential for creativity, we can train ourselves to be more creative and enhance our creativity. A lot of this has to do with how we interact with others.
Research has shown that it's essential to be in environments where you can create things and work collaboratively with others. Imagine if you didn't have the opportunity to play with Legos as a child, or if you never had the chance to be a reporter or perform on stage, and then learned how to play those same games when you were older. You would likely find it hard to be creative now.
While we can't change our genetics, we can change our lives and work environments through activities such as journaling, meditations, and morning routines. These habits can significantly impact how we interact with others and how others see us.
3: You Have to Breathe and Rest.
According to psychologists, of all the factors causing creativity to be lost, the main one is stress. We can lose our creativity simply because we become stressed and don't sleep enough. When we're under a lot of pressure, our mental processes slow down to make room for more things to process. While this is a good thing at first, it can eventually cause us to lose our creative abilities.
It is essential to learn how to deal with stress and "use it" instead of letting it use you. In a previous post, I wrote about how stress can be used for creativity by taking the time to do the "Imagination Exercise":
4: Taking Care of Our Minds.
When we are stressed, our minds get distracted by our external stresses and anxieties. To create something new or creative, we need to focus on what we want.
This is why so many people use meditation practice to enhance their creativity. When we meditate, we can calm our minds and tune into what we want for ourselves. This is a crucial part of creativity, as all creative activity begins with an idea, which usually comes from within.
5: Being in the Right Environment.
Many of us forget which environments allow us to be more creative and productive. We often surround ourselves with people who are not creative and don't have a lot of opinions. This can hurt our ability to be creative in the future.
Research has shown that when we go to work for a more creative company, we end up being more creative. When we're stuck in a less collaborative environment, it's harder to come up with something new or even think of something new.
6: Being Open With Others.
One significant factor contributing to creativity being lost is when we don't share what we are working on or our interests. We all have ideas that could benefit others, and as creators, we need to make sure others know about them.
The advice from psychologist Robert Sutton is to be "authentic" with how you interact with others. This is the best way to connect with others and make sure that they know you on a deeper level. When we close a connection with someone, they will be more inclined to help us out when we need it.
7: Challenging Yourself to Improve.
When you're no longer challenged or interested in what you are doing, you'll become creative, but it will only be due to your boredom. It's not a permanent condition when you lose your creativity because of boredom.
One of the reasons people become bored is because they are not forced to keep improving. Most of us need the push from a challenge to make an effort to stay creative. If we don't challenge ourselves, we lose our creativity and only remain competent for a short period. Alternatively, if we are challenged with new situations or new skills, we can improve our abilities over time.
8: Not Wasting Your Time.
When we do not take the time to learn or try new things, it can significantly impact our creativity. What we most of the time think of as creativity is a lack of growth.
Research has shown that when we're bored, our minds are occupied with all the things we already know, which prevents our creativity from developing. To stop being bored and start being creative, we need to challenge ourselves to learn new things and make new connections. To do this, we have to slow down.
9: Not Having Too Many Choices.
When we are given too many choices, it can be challenging for us to find the right one to solve a problem creatively. We must quickly come up with ideas but not so many that we become paralyzed.
Creativity is more often than not a process of elimination. This means that when we are presented with too many choices, it can be hard to pick the right one because we don't know which one is the best among all of them. Instead of choosing the right one, we should eliminate those that don't make sense and don't like it.
10: Permitting Yourself to Fail.
One of the main reasons why we believe our creativity is lost is because of a decision we've made in the past. We might have made a good choice at first, but it ended up hurting us in the long run.
Understanding that it is OK to make mistakes and fail is integral to our creativity. If we never forget, we might think that we are not creative because of the decisions we've made in the past. The truth is that most of us don't fail enough, which can significantly negatively impact our creativity.
11: Not Having Enough Time with Yourself.
We all spend most of our time doing something or trying to achieve some goal. This is a good thing because it keeps us focused and motivated. But when we spend a lot of time thinking about what we have to do, creativity can be lost instead of just doing it.
We need to make sure that we can seal off some free time in our schedule where we don't think about anything but being creative. This "free time" helps our mind relax and brings out the best ideas to use later in our projects.
Conclusion.
Creativity is an ability that we all have. There are many ways to use our creativity to make our lives better and more enjoyable. For example, a creative person will not be bored with the same repetitive daily tasks. They might feel bored at first because they are used to something else, but after some time, they will see that there's beauty in being creative and doing something new every day.
We keep our creativity alive by challenging ourselves to try new things, find better ways of doing things, and be open with others. We can use different methods to find out where our creativity lies, but the main thing is that we keep challenging ourselves and not giving up too quickly.
Often, other people will tell us that they want us to stop being creative because it's hurting them. It is true that acting like we are being creative when we're not can be frustrating to other people. We should try not to take it personally because it doesn't mean they don't want us to be creative or don't love us as much.
One of the best ways to ensure our creativity stays alive is by understanding how important creativity is in our lives and making sure that it remains active.