Creativity: Definition and Improvement
My dictionary has the following definition of creativity:
Original or imaginative thought.That sounds partly right.
But if it is only original, and yet of no value, is something
creative? If it is imagined, but without reason or purpose, is
that creative? Creativity has to involve creating something,
and this can certainly be in the mental realm, but shouldn't
the definition include the concept of value as well?
Value, of course, is somewhat subjective, and Royane Real,
in the article below, suggests that you define creativity in
personal terms. The article also discusses how to listen to your
"inner voice" to improve your creativity, and how your
creative mind is stifled by your "inner critic." You
can't be creative and critical at the same time.
How You Can Improve Your Creativity - What You Need to Know
By Royane Real
Most of us were very creative when we were children. Then
as we grew up, many of us lost the ability to tap into our resources
to come up with fresh, innovative ideas. No matter what jobs
we currently have, we need the ability to be creative, to find
new and better ways of doing things. Creativity - it's not just
for artists!
Would you like to enhance your creativity? Do you think that
increased creativity is something that would improve your life?
Before you answer yes or no to that question, take some time
to explore what the word “creativity” means to you.
If you think that creativity is something that you only need
if you’re an artist, while you happen to be a middle-manager
in a corporation, you may decide that increased creativity is
not really important to you. But creativity is actually something
far broader than artistic expression, and it’s required
in many areas of life.
Your idea of a creative person might be someone who lives
in a loft, painting gigantic canvases all day long. Or perhaps
a writer at her computer, working on a long novel. Or a musician,
actor, or singer performing on stage to an audience. All these
people are expressing themselves artistically, and they can all
rightly be said to be creative people, even if no one else enjoys
their art.
But what about an entrepreneur who has an idea for a new product,
who forms a new company to produce and distribute it, eventually
employing hundreds of people? Doesn’t this also require
creativity?
What about a research scientist toiling in a lab, developing
new compounds in an effort to cure disease? Isn’t this creative?
What about a single mother who manages to come up with healthy
delicious meals on a tiny budget? Isn’t that creativity?
To one person, creativity can mean gluing seashells to a picture
frame. To another, creativity might mean solving a grand unified
theory in physics. And to another person, being creative might
mean coming up with an ingenious new way to speed up a factory
assembly line.
When we define creativity only in terms of artistic expression,
we miss a lot of other potential applications for creative thinking
and problem solving.
An artist painting a picture, or a writer working on a novel,
both have something in common with the researcher in the lab,
and the entrepreneur, and the person gluing seashells to picture
frames.
They are all working on problems and devising solutions that
didn’t exist before. These people are using their minds
to imagine fresh ways of doing something, putting together existing
forms and ideas in new ways.
They may be creating a new idea, a new look, a new product,
or new technique. Sometimes the ability to be more creative can
lead to personal fame and fortune; sometimes it just provides
a deep sense of personal satisfaction.
Can we improve our ability to be creative? Yes, in fact, learning
to be more creative can be quite enjoyable and easy to do. Most
of us were very creative as children, before we learned the official
rules about how things are supposed to be. We can resurrect our
ability to be more creative by exploring some of the many techniques
that have been developed to improve creative and artistic ability,
as well as to improve creative problem solving.
Some of the techniques that are used to improve creativity
include brainstorming, mind-mapping, various forms of hypnosis
and meditation, and guided imagery.
The techniques that have been developed to try enhance creativity
all have one thing in common. They are all trying to bypass the
inner “judge” or “critic” we have in our
minds.
Most of us have an inner voice that is running a constant
commentary on everything we think and do. We might barely notice
this inner voice much of the time, yet it has a great impact
on what we can accomplish in our life.
In many of us this inner voice is usually very negative. No
matter what we want think about, or want to do, this inner voice
is running like a tape in the background of our minds, criticizing
our ideas, our performance, and our ability to be successful.
When we come up with a new idea, our inner voice may be saying,
“This idea is stupid.” Or it might tell us, “I
should never be mediocre or average, I must be brilliant and
perfect all the time. All my ideas should be totally brilliant
and innovative. If my ideas aren’t perfect right from the
start, I am a failure and it’s better not to even try”.
Our negative inner critic does not always appear as a voice.
Sometimes we see visual images of ourselves failing. Or we may
have physical sensations of fear and embarrassment that stop
us from pursuing new ideas or new actions.
Your inner critic isn’t being evil when it criticizes
you, or when it tells you your ideas are not very good. Your
critic is actually trying to protect you from being ashamed or
embarrassed by the potentially negative comments and reactions
of other people to your ideas.
Our inner critic is trying to make us perfect and safe, but
it can have an unforeseen damaging effect.
If our inner judgmental dialogue is mostly negative, our creative
abilities will suffer.
Instead of helping us to come up with better ideas, this endless
barrage of negative inner commentary will hurt our ability to
come up with new ideas.
You can’t be creative, and be critical at the same time.
These two processes require different ways of thinking. The critical,
judgmental, analytical function of the brain is not the part
that knows how to generate creative ideas.
Even the types of brainwaves that you generate when you are
being rational and analytical are quite different than the brainwaves
that go with maximum creativity.
When it’s time for you to be creative, you have to send
your “inner critic” out for a walk.
This article is taken from the new book by Royane Real titled
"How to Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember
Better, and Be More Creative."
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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