CREATIVITY
Preamble
Creativity is the
use of imagination or ideas to create an original product. It has
to do with using one’s current competencies and resources to achieve the
desired results.
According to Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "Creativity is the ability to respond to all
that goes on around us, to choose from the hundreds of possibilities of thoughts,
feeling, action, and reaction that arise within us, and to put these together
in a unique response, expression, or message that carries moment, passion, and
meaning."
Creativity
is a function of the thought processes of a man’s mind.
FACTS TO BE NOTED ABOUT CREATIVE PEOPLE
1.) They Make Things Happen
Creative people do not wait
for things to happen, they deliberately make things happen by their choices and
attitude towards things.
2.) They See Opportunities
They see opportunities where many people see
difficulties. While majority of people
are trying to understand and analyze problems, creative people are thinking of
solutions.
3.) They do not like boundaries
They work with the
mentality that there is no boundary or limit and hence are able to go the extra
mile. For instance when the Wright brothers came up with the idea that they
would be able to make a metal fly (airplane), scientists gave them a number of reasons (including the law of
gravity) why they thought they were day-dreaming. Nobody gave their explanation
a chance in their days but with a lot of focus, resilience as well as their
belief that there are exceptions to the Law of Gravity, their dreams came
through and today, metals (airplanes) now fly!
4.) They are great observers
Creative people are those
who pay attention to details. They spend quality time to observe things that
are of interest to them, making deliberate effort not to miss out any detail. They
observe twice as much as they speak!
5.) They take time for solitude
They are great thinkers.
Sometimes our creative abilities are dampened because of the distractions in
our immediate environment. The need therefore to take some time out for
reflections cannot be overemphasized if we must remain creative.
6.) When they fail, they come back up stronger
This is a very strong point
for creative people. They do not take failure as hard as many people do. They
only see failure as the indication that they had not got something right and as
such, they revisit with a view to getting it right. They are not afraid to fail
and like Thomas Edison who after several attempts at inventing the light bulb
without success said “I
have not failed. I've just found 10000 ways
that won't work”. He eventually succeeded. The truth is that once one succeeds,
no one is interested in how many attempts that had hitherto been made. One day
of success can make fifty years of failure records irrelevant!
7.) They follow their true passions
Creative people are noted
by how hard they follow their passions irrespective of what the opinion of the
world around them is. They are not easily dissuaded. If they find themselves at
the wrong job for instance, they are willing to quit irrespective of how good
the pay package is. They are willing to take a huge risk for the sake of
following their passions.
8.) They learn something new everyday
For the creative minds,
allowing a day pass by without learning something new is a huge loss, and as
such they learn to make their day count by learning something new. It is their
culture.
THINGS THAT KILL CREATIVITY
1.) Stress
2.) The fear of failing
3.) Inaction
SUMMARY
Creativity
starts with an inner spark, intuition which needs to be nurtured towards
achieving a goal. It is the force that is needed to drive this generation towards
greater level of success. They more creative the youths of today become, the
more colourful their destinies in the near future, thus living a life short of
creativity is abnormal for every youth. As a matter of fact, the reason why
most organizations are looking for young people as staff is for them to
introduce creativity and innovation in their systems. You can change the course
of your life from today as you employ more creative ways to achieve success in
life.
