Answering the first question: Despite what you may think, creativity or the ability to be creative exists in each and every one of us.
Do you have trouble believing that? It is understandable if you do. Sure, there are people in the world that it is easy and even obvious for us to be able to see that they are creative. Artists, musicians, cooks and designers are some of the more obvious examples of where we can easily see creativity in action. But, all of us are creative? “No way”, you say. “I could never do, make, build, design, something creative”.
Many of us often look, listen, taste, touch or smell something that has been created by another person and if the creation resonates with us, we wonder how were they able to create something so amazing. We wonder how did they even come up with such an amazing thing. We admire the talent and skill that they have that enabled them to translate the idea from their mind to whatever the medium that they used to share their incredible idea.
Why Not Me?
And for many of us the thoughts that we have about how great something can appear to be to us can lead us to a sense of frustration and even desperation because although we can certainly appreciate and value a creative work, we despair at our own lack of skill or ability to do something even remotely close to what it is that we appreciate.
Our appreciation for a creative thing may lead us to wonder, “Why can’t I do something even one-tenth of what it is that I love so much? ” We ask, and even cry, “Why am I stuck in my life with only being able to admire something, yet with even being able to recognize the creativity of it, why do I lack the ability to create something special myself?”
Know Your Own Limitations
Yes, it can be very hard for many of us to deal with our own lack of skills or an apparent lack of talent. And yes, there are some natural talents that we may never have due to genetic or biological reasons that are simply well beyond our control. Not all of us are born with the voice of Freddy Mercury, Adam Lambert, Celine Dion or Adele. One of life’s sad truths is that at some point in our lives we must come to the place where we can accept the limitations that we have been born with.
We need to also keep in mind that the creative talents that people have that allow them to create amazing things, those talents that we have come to appreciate in other people along with the creations that they have made, took many, many hours of practice and work to get to the level of skill and perhaps success that that “creator” possesses. The talent and success that we see and admire today may have taken that person years to hone into the ability that they have or had to create those things that we love.
We may not have been born with certain skills or talents, but even if we were, perfecting them or even just maintaining them takes consistent work through time and effort being put into them.
So yes, we may never be the next great singer, painter or whichever creative endeavor that you most highly covet. But that does not mean that you cannot have or add creativity to your own life.
The truth is we need creativity in our lives and not just for us to be passively appreciating creativity of others. We must be actively more creative every day on our lives, ourselves.
What? Me? Creative? No way!
It is easy to have doubts when if for most of your adult life, you have seemingly not partaken in any sort of creative activities. After-all, as adults, for most of us, we have real and every-day responsibilities that we have to take care. We need to work. We need to take care of our families. Just those two aspects of our lives alone, occupy most of our day-to-day lives. Who has the free-time to pursue sill “creative” activities?
Here’s the funny thing that you may not have thought about or considered until this time. It can be argued that the reality is that we are all utilizing some level of creativity in our lives and we are doing so just about every day of our lives!
Think about this: Have you ever convincingly told a “white-lie”? Have you ever looked at two or more different things and said, “no, I like this one better”, as you pointed to one of the different items to choose from. Do you sing in the shower?
After watching a TV show or movie, or after finishing reading a book, do you say to yourself, or with other people, ”Well, that was good, but I would have done it this way…”. Or, “if it was me, I would have had them do this…”. Or, “Why did that happen? Why didn’t they do this, instead… ?”
Speaking of reading books, which you should do more of, but when you do, do you not play the movie in your mind of what you are reading from the book? Even if the book that you are reading is a work of non-fiction, your mind cannot help but paint pictures or play a movie in your head.
Even something as mundane as thinking about an argument that you had with someone, the other day and now, you start saying yourself, that you should have said this or you should have said that, instead of whatever it was that you did say. And, for that matter, how about anytime that you think about a witty remark that you could have said instead of what you ended up muttering, after the fact?
Well, guess what? Just about all of these activities mentioned above, and so many other regular and daily activities that we are involved in, we are, in fact, actually utilizing some level of the creative skills that each and every one of us possess.
Are you dumbfounded by this thought now that you actually take the time to think about it, in this way? Okay, maybe now would be a good time to talk about creativity and what it is.
What Is Creativity?
According to Wikipedia,
“creativity is a phenomenon whereby something somehow new and somehow (edit: hopefully) valuable is formed”.
Furthermore,
“the created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, (edit: a lie), or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary work, or a painting)”.
Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity
Note the word “phenomenon” used in the definition. This word is used because we may not really fully understand where creativity comes from. However, we can say this much: A created item comes from a person – someone puts to the relevant medium the idea of their creation. Ah! Now are getting somewhere! Idea! This is important and now begs the question…
What Are Ideas? Great Question!
From Dictionary.com (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/idea):
An “Idea” Is:
“any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity”.
Dictionary.com
“a thought, conception, or notion”.
Interesting!: “Existing in the mind”. And, “a thought”.
We can say that the phenomenon that the definition of creativity talks about can be considered to be the thoughts in your head. So, where does creativity come from? Creativity comes from ideas. And where do ideas come from? Thoughts in our head – People’s heads.
Guess what! We are all people. We all have thoughts in our head. Granted many thoughts that we have are the same thoughts over and over, but there are times, for each and every one of us when we have “eureka!” moments. There are times that we do have new or different thoughts. In any case, it does not matter. The thoughts in our head is quite simply our mind being creative. Each and every thought that we have is the result of our mind somehow and in someway, being creative.
So, then, since we all have thoughts, we are all creative people: “I think, therefore I am” and if ”I am” and I think, therefore I create!
We can pare this idea down (Idea! See! We are being creative!) to:
I think, therefore, I create.
If we say, “I think”, which we all do, by the way, the we can also all say, I create. Therefore, we all create. We all are creative at some level or another. All of us. Each and every one of us.
Again, we may not ever write a hit song or paint a Mona Lisa, but we all engage in levels of creativity in our lives. We are all creative whether we know it or not.
This is where a main difference can be drawn between the people that we can define as being creative and the rest of us: The people that we consider as creative are aware of their creativity and actively and consciously take action with regards to being creative.
Now, We Come To The Crux Of This Article.
Creativity is in all of us. We all have thoughts in our head. So, in order to be more creative in our lives, we, at least, just need to be more aware of our thoughts and ideas and then we need to find some way to take action and do something with and about those thoughts.
- The first step is to become aware. We need to re-acquaint ourselves with the inherent creativity that is within us all.
- Then we need to find ways to constructively act out our creativity.
Why Creativity Is So Important. Do We Need To be Creative?
Creativity is there, within us, for all of us. And it is important that we all engage in creativity in our lives. One simple and main reason for us to choose to be more creative is that it is through creativity that we can become better able to solve problems that occur in our lives.
What was it that Einstein has been credited with saying about insanity?
“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein, At Least Commonly Credited To.
Therefore, one reason that creativity is so important to our lives is so that we can avoid going insane.
If we need a new or different solution to a problem, in order to get different (better?) results, we must engage our mind in creative thought. Otherwise, we are simply doomed to repeat what we may already know, get the same (poor) results, over and over again, and, according to the quote, eventually go insane from the frustration of not being able to solve the issue that we are facing.
We need to be (more) creative not just to be able to solve the problems that we may face, we need to be more creative for our very sanity.
By the way, if you look at some of the most creative things that we have come to cherish and appreciate in our world, most of not all of those things are not something that has been created from the ether, or have come from nowhere. Most of the creative things that are relevant in our world and our lives today, are usually tweaks or adjustments to some per-existing thing.
When Steve Jobs came up with the iPhone, cell phones already existed. But Steve had a vision (a thought and an idea) of what the existing cell phone could be. Steve Jobs did not re-invent the wheel, but he certainly did come up with some amazing improvements.
The problem that creativity can solve, may not be something totally new or different, but just a better way to do something that is already being done. Your own creativity may simply come down to building a better mouse-trap.
As we have already pointed out, when you are thinking that something would or could be better if only… is in fact, your own creativity in action.
Conclusion
In one aspect or another, and at some level, since we are capable of thought, we are all creative beings.
Granted, we may not ever become rich or famous due to our creative abilities, but we all do have them. We think, therefore we create.
Talents can be inborn within us, but skills can be learned and acquired. A lack of talent or a lack of skills should not ever be a deterrent to using and improving the creative ability that we all have within us.
Being more creative starts with being more aware of your own natural tendencies to be creative. Once you are aware and are paying attention to your own naturally existing creativity, you can start to control it and use it to your advantage.
Like all skills, getting good with them requires effort be put in. Even the best artists that we can think about have or are practicing their skills on a regular basis. So once we are aware of our own creativity, we must consciously exercise our abilities to turn them into the skill or tool that we can make use of, for our own benefit and for the benefit of those around us.
Even if acting on our creativity serves no immediate purpose, except for our own pleasure, and even if no one may ever see the works that we have created, by expanding our mind into new avenues of creativity and by going places that we may not have gone to before, we will improve as human beings.
By choosing to exercise some creative acts in our life, we just may start to see the world as the amazing place that it really is. By being more actively creative, we may even start to see ourselves in new and better ways.
Creativity Just May Be A Pathway To Confidence.
Sure, we will screw-up along the way but this is how we learn. Making mistakes is how we can become better. Making mistakes, learning from them and becoming better at doing things that are important to us, is what confidence building is all about. Wouldn’t you agree?
As what should be a simple and ever-present fact of life, we owe it to ourselves to continually use and grow our creative skills. Being creative is being human.
We all are and we all need to be (more) creative.
You Can Start Here:
Music is universal. All societies throughout the world have music. We all love some kind of music. And we all have a favorite song or artist that we love and resonate with us.
Instead of wasting time watching silly videos online, make some time to listen to a favorite song of yours. But really listen to it: Actively listen. Try to hear the different instruments in the song. Pay attention to the vocals. And then try to answer for yourself, the question of why the song is so good for you. Just maybe you will start to get your own creative juices flowing.
Be A Man – Do The Right Thing. Get And Be Creative. Find Your Voice. Solve Problems. Avoid Insanity.
BAM!!! Be A Man! Do The Right Thing.
Be the DtRTy Guy!