Normalizing Creativity
Creativity is inseparably associated with the arts. To, unfortunately, a fault.
Naturally they attached themselves, but we can take their partnership too seriously. And evidence of who we are and who we are not comes out of their attachment. We can now believe that the creativity inside someone, like a writer, artist, or performer, is completely unlike ours. That it’s something of an entirely different nature or substance. The evidence can’t be taken at face value.
Few have distinctive gifts. But all of us, even those gifted few, have creativity of the same form. It is a part of us the same way we have hearts that pump blood and thoughts in our minds. How we grow our creativity is what distinguishes it. All someone who we’d call a creative person has done is train their creativity to have depth, be responsive to, or be sustained for longer periods with a certain subject.
If we limit our understanding of creativity to subjects like literature, paintings, and music, we impede the application of creativity we’re capable of right now.
Creativity is turning ideas into something new and real. Turning ideas into new ideas is included. That’s all.
At its most practical, creativity is problem-solving. It’s how after thinking you’ve found a treatment for your health condition only for it to be ineffective, you can think of another treatment to try based on what you’ve researched. It’s how you can recognize what your business or workplace needs and determine how your unique abilities will solve them, advancing your career in the long run. It’s how you decide what to do with confusing emotions, whether heartbreak or triumph, and choose wise decisions that deal with them. Tapping into creativity might be the very thing that creates good health.
“Creativity is not just for artists. It’s for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it’s for engineers trying to solve a problem; it’s for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.”
― Twyla Tharp, renown American dancer and choreographer
What we’re often doing with our disbelief of creativity is comparison. We look at what these gifted ones do and position it against ourselves. We cement a distance between them and us.
Disassociating from creatives then goes as far as making conclusions about what we can do, ones that we say aloud or in our heads. Quickly it becomes “I’m not like them, so I can’t do this.” It’s “I’m not an artist, so I can’t be creative,” similar to “I’m not an athlete, so I can’t run that hard,” “I’m not intelligent enough, so I can’t understand this,” etc.
It’s important to be honest about our limitations. We’ll otherwise put ourselves in positions where we’ll encounter disappointment when we can spend our time advancing. It’s also important to invest in our abilities as they are rather than elevate our shortcomings.
Acknowledge and accept our shortcomings, then commit to an action dealing with them. Mitigate what they affect or seek out methods to change them for example. It's jarring, however, for them to have more attention than our current abilities if we're only going to let them repeat as thoughts in our heads. What good does it do to repeat self-talk about what we’re limited in? It debilitates our confidence and keeps our focus on something that interferes with us. And if we can’t pay attention to the strengths that carry us instead, we are better off saying nothing at all.
Creativity takes faith, courage, and endurance. It’s believing you see something that might as well be illusionary and can rarely offer clear feedback that it is real. It’s applying energy to the idea time and time again without guarantee it will be fruitful. It is choosing to keep standing or getting up on your feet when the belief the idea is fruitful is damaged.
Fear, shame, and our energy often step forward as adversaries to our creativity. But seeking it regardless puts you on a path that reveals what you wouldn’t know had you not walked — the unknown and the possible.