Being creative
If there is one ability that scares most of us, it has to be this one — Creativity. I am not a creative person — is probably one of the most used phrases ever.
I believe one of the big problems here, is the word itself. The word Creativity gives an idea that to be creative, we need to create things out of thin air, but it couldn't be further from the truth.
Being creative is an ability that can be developed just like any other, it does not have to be an Eureka moment.
Last year I took an awesome course called Reaprendizagem Criativa that really helped me on this matter, so I decided it would be cool to share some interesting ideas. Here we are — Welcome to the creativity series 1st article!
I will be writing a total of 5 articles on this topic, going from its definitions, to myths, what blocks our creativity and how we can learn to unblock it! Hope you enjoy!
What is creativity
To start we need to demystify it. Creativity is not having ideas out of thin air — it is to combine existing ideas. Everything comes from different combinations of existing ideas.
Creativity is about thinking differently by looking at things differently. To have a good output we need to start by increasing and improving our inputs.
Creativity is a tool or ability to solve problems. Every need we have is a problem, so creativity is a tool to solve needs — Necessity is the mother of creativity. It is available to all of us mortals — of course it comes easier to some — but it is definitely not only reserved to artists, inventors, etc.
"Creativity is an innate ability that needs to developed through study and practice, that is used to solve problems by combining ideas, following the steps of the creative process", Murilo Gun.
To be creative is to use our imagination solving problems with new solutions. Imagination is something that we are all born with, but we tend to lose it as we move along in life.
We are blocked by school, by work, even by life itself. We need to relearn how to manifest imagination if we wish to be more creative — we will address this in 3 subsequent articles.
The creative process
To understand how new ideas are formed, we need to understand the steps of the creative process. Input, combination, output and feedback — make the creativity feedback loop.
- Input - consists of our current ideas and experiences that could be combined to create something new. It is manifested by our eyes, what we see, what we read, what we absorb and experience in life.
- Combination - consists of combining multiple existing ideas to try and form something new. It is manifested by our brains and diffuse thinking — when you let your mind wander freely, making connections at random.
- Output - this is the step where we need the courage to express our new ideas. It is manifested by our mouths, explaining what we are trying to achieve.
- Feedback - the last step and the most crucial one, where the loop is closed and created. We need to take the constructive criticism and keep trying until we fine tune our ideas.
Combine, don't create
Whenever we try to develop an idea about something, we need to understand the necessity behind it and finding the right questions to ask.
We often focus on the wrong thing. We try so hard to have ideas that we forgot what problem we are trying to solve in the first place — I will also go deeper into this topic later on.
Every creative solution is a combination of references, experiences, inspirations and inputs. The Eureka moment only happens to the prepared minds.
Effort and discipline are the ways to mastery. Talent is 1% inspiration and 99% transpiration. To be creative we don't need to have special genes. We need to learn how to develop it, and then, practice, practice, practice.
Next article will go over some of the creativity myths — click here to check it out! Don't create. Combine!
