Becoming a More Creative Individual

Posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:00 am. 3 comments

Ah, creativity! Creativity is one of those skills that never fails to stop memorizing people. For some unknown reason, people tend to treat creativity as an elusive, inborn trait, like a six year old who’s an amazing singer. While there’s a grain of truth that - I do think a few people have a little more inborn creativity than others - I believe the steps in learning how to be more creative can be learned and applied by anybody.

Case in point: many of the world’s most creative individuals - such as Mozart - studied either past literature, art, and music to an in-depth level; discoveries those people made in those left a profound impact on their works. But when was the last time you read a classic novel? Or went to an art museum to gaze at Impressionistic paintings? Or worse yet, taken a trip to the… opera? =o (Did I just hear screaming? Opera isn’t that bad!) From looking at talented individuals from the past, we can infer that to be creative, you have to open yourself up to brand new ideas on a constant basis. Then, you have to connect those ideas to what you currently know to create solutions for your problems.

Connect those ideas is the main phrase you need to take note of. When people get blasted by their peers for “not being creative”, it’s often because those poor, non-creative folk got stuck in a very linear, one-way thinking scheme. Thinking as if you are on a one-way street makes creativity impossible. How many times have you personally used the excuse:

“Why can’t we used that idea? All of the good ideas are already taken!“

… or some (clever) variant of said excuse? It’s a silly statement when you put it into perspective. What do you mean all of the good ideas are taken?! (Personally, I didn’t know ideas could be stolen.)

But let’s be honest for just a split second, and think this completely through. Ideas do not appear from nowhere, ideas have to come from somewhere. Taking that logic a step further, if ideas come from somewhere… where do they come from? Other people’s ideas already out there! People never reinvent the wheel when thinking of creative solutions, they take what’s on the market and modify it to fit their needs. You see it all of the time in literature, pop music, movie story lines, and so on. (Think about how many times something catches on as a trend, in any area, and you think to yourself “Wow, I wish I thought of that! It’s so simple!”)

That means in order to become a more creative individual, you have to first expand your knowledge, then combine that knowledge with what you already know to solve your problems. Makes sense?

The bottom line is totally simple: if you want to be more creative, become more knowledgeable. Read a classic piece of fiction you’ve never touched before. Listen to a radio station that you would never dream of turning on, just for an hour. Browse through a magazine that’s furthest from your interest at Barnes & Noble. Dive into studying a religion that’s the opposite of what you believe in, just to know about it. Take a trip to an art museum, and think about the magnificent paintings decorating the walls. Go to the opera (… did I just hear screams again?! Opera is not that bad, folks!) …and try not to fall asleep. =)

More knowledge is more power. When you mix your newly learned knowledge with your old knowledge and attempt to solve a sticky situation, you’ll find more creative answers everytime. Guaranteed.