I
was brushing my teeth this morning when the question suddenly hit me: What is
creativity? Of course, we all have a vague concept in our minds about what it
is. Merriam Webster defines it as “the quality of being creative; the ability
to create”. But when I chose the overall topic of my blog posts, I hadn’t
really thought about what my own definition of creativity is. For me,
creativity is not one concrete, tangible thing. It’s more like an umbrella term
that unites several concepts.
Creativity is innovation:
It’s
the ability to change the world through sparks of insight, thoughts and ideas.
No great change ever came about without a creative approach to solving a
problem or the desire to make the world a little bit better.
Creativity is a process of
discovering solutions:
It’s
coming up with different not-yet-thought-of solutions and then choosing the
right one. Actually, it’s not inventing a solution but rather discovering one.
If there is a problem there is also an already existing solution. That’s not
just an empty phrase. There are always one or more solutions that need to be
discovered. They may not be apparent – that’s why it takes someone who thinks
outside the box to find them– but they cannot be made up out of thin air.
Without wanting to get too philosophical here, I hope you get the gist of what
I mean.
Creativity is an intrinsic desire to
do your best:
Anyone
who has ever been creative can relate to this. Once you start doing something
artistic, you want to do it the best you can. The feeling of creative flow,
pleasure and passion in what you are doing is usually accompanied by quite a
bit of perfectionism. Of course, it doesn’t have to be perfect but we certainly
have the desire to make it so.
Creativity
is fearfulness:
Who
hasn’t been afraid of rejection, not having enough skill, deadlines, being
overwhelmed by the task, or discomfort with the medium? We are all held back by
things like that. And I’m guilty of that sometimes, too. But all this does is lead
to frustration and then procrastination. We doubt ourselves and we are
uncertain about our work. No matter what you are working on, there always comes
the point where you ask yourself “Is this complete crap? And if not, is it good
enough?” Anyone who cares about a piece of work has encountered these thoughts
before. It’s disconcerting and debilitating but it doesn’t always have to be
bad. We just have to recognize that we are fearful sometimes. It means that we
care about what we do; and that’s good! It shouldn’t be something that holds us
back. Instead it should be something that helps us improve. Viewing our own
work critically is natural. Conversely, being too self-assured means we’re not overcoming
our fears and is more to our detriment than to our advantage. Therefore,
embrace the fear!
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition,
but certainty is absurd.” (Voltaire)
Creativity is side-stepping your ego:
It’s
the moment we accept and overcome our fear that we are truly creative. This is
only possible when we side-step our ego, because our ego is just a big ol’ fear
monger, anyway. Once we learn to see the
bigger picture and lose our fear that our ego might get damaged by criticism or
failure, it makes life - and creativity in particular - so much easier.
Creativity is empathizing with
others:
Part
of being creative is the question “What value does this have for others?” We
want to be creative for the sake of being creative sometimes, but most of the
time we also want to serve a purpose with it: be it entertainment, fascination,
imagination or inspiration; in some cases, aggravation or consternation. To
achieve that, we have to empathize with others, which can be much to our
advantage in everyday life as well.
Creativity is clear-minded focus:
As
I discussed in my post about creative flow, being creative can put you
in a state of high mental alertness and clear, undistractible focus. It’s the
willingness to work for hours without taking a break. It’s when the world around
you could go up in flames and you wouldn’t even notice that it got a little bit
warmer. That’s the kind of focus I’m talking about.
So, there you go! These are my definitions of creativity. I’m sure I could come up with a lot more of them, but for now I think these are enough. I didn’t want to make this post too daunting to read, but maybe you’ll have some definitions of your own that you want to share. What is YOUR definition of creativity? Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below…
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