The Two Biggest Myths of Creative Thinking

 

The key question isn’t “What fosters creativity?” But it is why in God’s name isn’t everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything.” — Abraham Maslow

In my post What To Do When Everything Is Going Wrong, I spoke about dealing with the frustrations of the infamous “creative block”.  This occurs anytime we can’t get our creative juices flowing, but what really is creativity? 

If you listen to Osho being creative “means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”

This is a very poetic definition, but it only feeds the first myth of creativity:

·         Only some people are capable of creative thinking

When most people think of creativity they often only associate it only with those in the arts, like artists, writers, and musicians.  Creative thought is much more widespread than only living within the arts. 

We all require creativity in our lives for independent thought and problem solving.  As George Lois said “creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” So if creativity can solve any problem, it must be available to more people than just the artists.  In fact, we are all capable of creative thought we just have to learn how to foster it.  If you think about it, how else could our greatest leaders get to where they are without creative thought?

This brings me to the second myth of creativity:

·         It just comes naturally to creative thinkers. 

We are not creative machines; the inspirations that feed our creativity must be worked at.  In our quest for creativity we can be notorious for focusing solely on that one endeavour for an extended period of time.  By doing this, we often achieve the opposite of our desired effect and stifle our ability to be creative; thus, experiencing the dreaded creative block.  So how do we feed our creativity without stifling it?

To help us understand this let’s take a look some of the most creative thinkers of all time. Leonardo Da Vinci is most known for his paintings, The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, two of the most identifiable pieces of art ever created.  But he was so much more than just a painter; he was also a sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Michelangelo is most known as a painter (The Sistine Chapel) and sculptor (The Statue of David) but he was also an architect and engineer.

If I was to stop at these two examples, although they are great, they also continue to feed the first myth of creativity, but we find great creative thinkers anywhere we look, even in the science community, which usually thought of as being rigid and stifling creativity.  Albert Einstein is most renowned scientists of all time with his work on the Theory of Relativity and physics but he was also a renowned philosopher.  Thomas Edison holds 1093 US patents in his name and is easily regarded as the most prolific inventor in history but he was also a successful businessman as well.  How could either of these men achieve their amazing accomplishments and accolades without the presence of creative thought?  They couldn’t that’s how ;)

What does each of these creative thinkers have in common?  On first glance they all contributed significant masterpieces to their respective disciplines but more importantly each one had multiple outlets and focuses outside their main discipline.

For me personally I enjoy having multiple outlets for my creativity.  In fact, most of the inspiration for my new posts come when I using channelling my thoughts and energy into one of my other outlets that have nothing to with this blog.

We are all capable of creative thought.  In fact, this requirement for creative thinking is going to become more prominent in our society as time progresses.  As Edward de Bono said, “As competition intensifies the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better . . . no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems” 

As this need for more creative thought emerges we must discard the myths often associated with creativity. 

·         We are all capable of thinking creatively.

·         We must feed our creativity with multiple outlets.  Creative thought does not just come naturally, it is work.

Hey if I can come up with new posts each day and a decent picture here and there, anyone can be creative right ;) 

I would love to hear your thoughts on the myths of creativity.  Do you agree with them?  Did I miss one?  Oh I chose today’s picture not because it was my sharpest and best picture but because it was me attempting some creativity one day with my camera. 


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