Darren Rowse - 8:24 PM (edited) - Public
9 Attitudes of Highly Creative People
I'd love your opinion on this and what I've left out in comments
1. Curiosity
Learning to ask ‘why’, ‘what if’ and ‘I wonder if…’ are great questions to build into your life if you want to be a more creative person.
2. Seeing Problems as Interesting and Acceptable
One of the problems of the Western mindset is that we often see problems or obstacles in life as unacceptable parts of life. We avoid pain or suppress it when it comes and in doing so don’t often see and feel symptoms that are there to tell us something important.
Creative people see problems as a natural and normal part of life.
3. Confronting Challenge
In fact more than just seeing problems and challenges as 'normal' and not to be run away from - creative people often have a fascination with problems and are drawn to them because they present opportunity.
Many of the most creative ideas through out history have come from people facing a challenge or crisis and rather than running from it asking ‘how can I overcome this’?
4. Constructive Discontent
Creative people often have an acute awareness of what’s wrong with the world around them – however they are constructive about this awareness and won’t allow themselves to get bogged down in grumbling about it – they take their discontent and let it be a motivation to doing something constructive.
5. Optimism
Creative people often have a deeply held belief that most (if not all) problems can be solved. No challenge is too big to be overcome and no problem cannot be solved (this doesn’t mean they’re always happy or never depressed – but they don’t generally get stumped by a challenge).
6. Suspending Judgment
The ability to hold off on judging or critiquing an idea is important in the process of creativity. Often great ideas start as crazy ones – if critique is applied too early the idea will be killed and never developed into something useful and useable. (note – this doesn’t mean there is never a time for critique or judgement in the creative process – it’s actually very important – but there is a time and place for it).
7. Seeing Hurdles as leading to improvements and solutions
This relates to some of the above – but by ‘hurdles’ I mean problems and mistakes in the creative process itself. Sometimes it’s on the journey of developing an idea that the real magic happens and it’s often out of the little problems or mistakes that the idea is actually improved.
8. Perseverance
Creative people who actually see their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see them through – even when the going gets tough. This is what sets apart the great from the good in this whole sphere. Stick-ability is key.
9. Flexible Imagination
I love watching a truly creative person at work when they’re ‘on fire’. They have this amazing ability to see a problem or challenge and it’s many potential solutions simultaneously and they have an intuitive knack at being able to bring previously disconnected ideas together in flashes of brilliance that seem so simple – yet which are so impossible to dream up for the average person.
Is Creativity tied to Personality Type or Can it be Learned?
As I read through this list of traits of creative people – the question that I find myself asking is whether creativity is tied to personality type or whether it can be learned?
My own uneducated answer to this question is – ‘yes’ (to both options).
- Some people are just creative – they don’t train themselves to think like they do and they often don’t even know that they are any different from the rest of us – it’s just who they are.
- However I believe that we can all enhance our ability to be creative over time.
What Do You Think
What would you add to the list of attitudes/traits above of creative people?
Also - do you think creativity is more to do with personality or can it be learned?
7 comments:
Not to be disrespectful, but I'm ready to scream. We can talk about this later, if you'd rather.
It's true, sort of. Much of it is stuff I studied regarding how to be successful (usually business classes).
As I read, I have to wonder what is their definition of creative?
#2 Infuriates me. Having mucked up with #2, then the rest of the list is questionable. But I'll tackle it anyway, and no you don't have to publish this.
"Western mindset is that we often see problems or obstacles in life as unacceptable part of life." Excuse me? Whoever wrote this clearly has a bias against the Western mindset, or was raised by someone like my NM, and I wouldn't call her way of thinking the Western mindset by any stretch of the imagination. This is not only something my NM would say, she has said things similar, so she could feel superior to those mindless little people, like the blue collar worker. And yes, she thinks that the blue collar worker is inferior to someone with a college education. Probably why I refuse to go back to school, that and I can't sit through a class anymore. I digress, to help lower my blood pressure.
Okay, backing off. #1 is true. No surprise there.
#2 EPIC FAIL
#3 This is prettied up. Many of my challenges I face because I must, not because I'm fascinated. It's do or die, and I'm not alone in that. It's nice if it can be fun, but a lot of times it's figure it out or call it quits.
#4 Or destructive, as the case may be. I feel like I'm reading a horoscope; it fits anyone, from a certain point of view.
#5 If they haven't been stumped by a challenge, then it's because they've fluffed it. Not every problem is solvable. In fact, a lot aren't.
#6 The old term was brainstorming.
#7 The old way of saying this is : learning from mistakes.
#8 Sorry, but this is a "DUH." Years ago, I read this quote by an Olympic gymnastics coach: Throw your mind over the bar, and your body will follow.
#9 This actually is a repeat of #6.
The definition is so broad that anyone could fit under this definition. As an example, I've read about some really creative addicts in figuring out how to get their fix. How many incredibly creative artists have committed suicide?
You wrote your own Bill of Rights; write your own definition of what it takes to be creative.
Wow. This really hit a hot button.
10. Sensitivity to others and their environment that leaves them emotionally vulnerable in an almost child-like way. A kind of empathy that lets them view and depict things from a unique perspective. This particularly applies to the visual artist.
IMO Creative people are definitely born with these characteristics but they require a nurturing environment in order to develop and use their gifts. Many are labeled "odd" and stifled by society's demand for conformity.
All opinions welcome, Laurel. Interesting that I saw this from the perspective of working in the Art department at a university. I also joked that they could set up a counseling office on the first floor and be busy all day. More than NM view #2 the same way as Darren. Difference in experience is OK.
mulderfan I like the addition. I was amused at the art department when I would see the narrow mindedness of professors or other art students and watched as they labeled other student's work as "odd." What is interesting too is the number of times that creativity blossoms in the most unlikely places in spite of not because of a nurturing environment.
i've read this list before. in the end, i wonder what the purpose is. there is a general air of 'creative' and 'not creative' that i dont like. i think i have a lot of these things and take pride in it. however to me creativity has always been something i consider everyone is and can have. the child-like empathy thing...sometimes i think people mistake symptoms of child abuse as 'creativity' or something. the reason creative people kill themselves is because they have unresolved childhood issues. i don't like to equate creativity with suicide or mental illness and then have people go, oh they were just born that way or whatever. a lot of these things ARE things that everybody has, especially children. curiosity, imagination. etc. some of these things are sort of annoying, like #4. something judgmental and "creative people don't complain, so fuck you" type of thing. i dunno. there's something i kind of hate about the elitism in it and the sort of oddification, fetashization, objectificaiton and commoditization of 'creative' vs not, you know, the whole 'gifted' thing. to me its all part of the sphere of creativity, personal expression, emotions and honesty. this is coming from a viewpoint where i have been labelled as creative from an early point in my young life and thus identify with it. it is difficult though because creative is a wildly misunderstood word that has been used in all kinds of ways. but i do think everyone is creative and everyone enjoys getting creative.
i would throw this list in with the rest of those, 'eh' things. yeah, like laurel said, 'how to be a successful and effective person' type things. elitist. and objectifies humans. which is really quite sad really cause i do love being creative.
oh i guess the word is divisive. i think the list is divisive.
Lisa, you bring up some interesting points. I wonder how much creativity is a part of us a children then 'schooled' out of us as we grow up? I had no real purpose for posting this. At the time I read it, I just thought it was interesting. If you have read it before, I suspect Darren also posted something he read somewhere else.
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