How many of you when thinking about creativity, associate it with the arts? Probably a handful of people would raise their hand on this question.
A couple of months ago, while planning for this art event, I came across a colleague of mine who simply told me, that he was flat-out not creative. When asked why he didn’t think he was creative, he commented on how his ideas are more practical. To add on top of that, he included that he is not in the arts to really be creative. You can imagine how being someone that believes that every one has the potential to be creative, if not are innately creative could react to that comment.
Many people mistakenly believe if individuals aren’t born with creativity, they will never be creative.
This to me made me think of several misconceptions we may have about being creative.
Imagine you are in this box for X number of year (let’s say 6 years to give it a number), where every morning, you were told the following phrases. In the end of the month, you were made to believe that these are true.
1) Creativity is mainly pertained to the arts only.
2) Creativity is only for a handful of people, instead of for every one.
3) Creativity is not practical, and is not a disciplined process.
What’s the biggest misconception about these?
1) The first misconception is we associate being creative with the arts. However, you can be creative in math, science, music, dance, cuisine, teaching, running a family, or engineering. I find when even having a conversation with someone, you can get creative with the way one plays with words and puns.
2) Everyone has tremendous creative capacities. It is for everyone, not just a few. Not to mention this is a skill in which could be developed more as well.
3). An essential part of every creative process if evaluation. Problem Solving take creativity. When I am working on a painting, I am constantly thinking whether this paint mark is going to work with this composition. Does that colour work with this colour? Is it heading the direction that I want it to be?
Something to ask yourself:
Am I working to break out of my “box” of limitations so that I explore ideas and options to experience creative breakthrough?