First question, Do you consider yourself to be a creative
person?
Ask that question in a class or a room full of regular people and you will find that a
good number will say ‘No I don’t consider
myself a creative person.’
Or ‘yes, I think so.’
Notice you will rarely get an affirmative from anyone except
of course special people who are
considered the creatives of the society; like the Bloggers, Writers, Designers,
Songwriters, Artist, Poets, Novelist and
the likes.
Well, I asked myself some months ago why we aren’t so bold
to declare our creative ability in public, and one of the reasons I found was
the fear of our output being rejected by these special people. What if after saying a big YES I get assigned a
task? What if what I bring forth does not meet the expectations?
That could be true, people can actually not consider your
output as creative but that does not mean that your work is not creative. I
found that the perception of creativity is relative. What I find to be innovations
might be to another as wacky. Have you ever seen the collection of some fashion
designers that are so ugly you wonder how they ended up at New York Fashion
Week? But people love them!
Due to our default, mindsets and experiences we perceive
differently so if you then assess yourself based on how others perceive your
work would that be fair to you?
The truth is we are all innovators, and engage in creative
processes everyday though most times unknowingly. Let me give some common
examples of everyday innovations you may have experienced:
Ever tried feeding an unwilling child? It can be the most
frustrating task but in order to achieve your goal you try to find another way
to make him eat. Some will burst in a song, dance or even mimic the sounds of
moving cars, trains or fishes that gets the child so engrossed they believe the
food is actually a car and eat! That is creativity and the medium that actually
works is an innovation.
Let’s say you have to give a speech in one minute and a
strap of your sandal pulls out. What do you do? You pick it up, then look at
your surroundings, pick up what you can find and as you try you dump what doesn’t
work till you find something able to hold the strap in place without being
noticed from a distance. The process of trying and picking is a creative
process. Whatever finally solves your problem is your innovation.
Imagine you have to get a large couch through a quite small
door. You know you can’t pull down the wall so you try different angles till it
actually gets in. That’s creativity and innovation.
I could go on and on about different everyday situations
we’ve all encountered where we exhibited creativity and came up with an
innovation.
Creativity is not a trait dropped on special people, these people only become so because they chose to
be deliberate in putting it to work. They don’t wait for problems and they
don’t attempt to solve only their problems. It’s the innate ability of every human being.
Our creative instinct will always find expression but often
because we don’t know it we think it takes something more special to make a
plane fly. The Wright Brothers did a lot of try and error just like you do with
you sandals, only theirs was a plane.
To create innovations that meet the needs of others beyond
ourselves we have to be more deliberate. We have to say in loud affirmative
voice that “Yes I am creative. You might
think so, but I am and I will make an effort to solve this problem, fill this
gap or take away this inconvenience.”
We have to deliberately push boundaries every day. All you
need a resilient spirit. If you can’t find the standard tool, who says you can’t
accomplish that task with another tool?
When we say do not give up we mean if one way doesn’t work,
never stop; there is a way that will work and you have to try a lot of ways to
find that one because someone else will definitely find it only with less time
because you already showed him 300 ways that won’t work. Quitters never win.
Again, do not fear rejection. The perception of creativity
is relative.
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