what is creativity?
According to the Cambridge dictionary, creativity is “the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas.” In reality, creativity is much more complicated than that. If you go around and ask a bunch of artists what they believe creativity is, almost everyone will have a different answer. Why is that? Well, that’s because creativity is a deeply personal aspect that means something special to each of us.
So, what does it mean then? Well, I can’t give you some divine answer that is somehow more valid that anyone else’s or is somehow “more correct,” but I can give you my own personal definition or meaning. To me, creativity is the thought process before creation or the way you view the world around you.
To be creative is to notice things in the real world and to slow down and take note of them, storing them away for later and then eventually taking these small ‘noticings’ and combining them to form connections and ideas.
It’s the processing of the world around you in that grounded way, noticing the way light bounces off certain objects and taking note of it. It’s not just the act of noticing, we notice everything around us all the time, it’s the slowing down and taking time to retain that information and possibly even do something with it.
Creativity for non-creatives
So many people talk themselves out of being creative because of insecurity or self-limiting beliefs. People tell themselves “I’m not creative” merely because they weren’t good the first time they tried whatever they tried.
They tried drawing and only managed to draw a stick figure and decided then and there that they would never be creative. I think so many people consider themselves to be “not creative” because of insecurity about their own skills or because we as a society are often taught that we’re either good at something or we aren’t.
Creativity isn’t being good at art, that’s a whole separate thing. Creativity is the ability to slow down, notice patterns and connections between things and gain ideas because of it.
Sure, creativity is typically paired with some of level of skill in an artistic field or something similar, in reality, because creativity is the processing and thought behind or before creation, it becomes an entirely separate thing from creating. You can be creative without ever really creating anything.
creativity without creation is pointless
I know I talked a lot of game earlier about creativity being separate from creation and that you can be creative without any art skills … but in reality, while creativity and creation may be different things, they’re still both important.
I think the distinction between the two allows for some barriers to be broken and for some people to reassess their limiting beliefs, but I also feel that creativity without creation doesn’t add up to anything. Sure, slowing down to process the things around you can be a healthy behavior, but it doesn’t add value the same way creating does.
I’m not saying you have to be good at creating in order to add value, just that you should do something with the ideas you have. It doesn’t have to be good or grand in any way, even a mere sketch is more valuable than the idea itself.
According to Gary Vaynerchuk, βIdeas are worthless without the execution; execution is pointless without the ideas.β
Both play an important role in the creation process, but one without the other means nothing. No one cares that you had a really good idea unless you plan too actually do it.
steps to becoming creative
The first step in becoming creative is to stop believing in the idea that you aren’t creative.
It’s like Peter Pan said, “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
You have to stop thinking that creativity is this all-or-nothing, black-and-white thing you either achieve or you don’t achieve. If you keep believing this, you’ll never become creative.
The second step is to consume. I know, how controversial of me to promote consumption in an article about creating, but I truly believe that creativity cannot happen without it. I’m not saying that you have to doom-scroll for 30 minutes every day, I’m saying that you should be watching movies, listening to music, looking at art, reading articles, etc.
You need to engage with the things you consume as well, okay? Not just mindlessly scroll past videos after the first five seconds. I’m not trying to be mean, I do the same thing, but for you to be able to actually create something you need to be processing and engaging with the things you view.
Finally, the last step is to actually create. This part may intimidate you, but I promise it’s not as scary as it sounds. You don’t have to be good. In fact, there are so many benefits to creating bad art, more so than good art.
When you create good art, you may feel pressured to continue to create good art and may develop an unhealthy relationship with art.
When you create bad art, however, you eventually lose that same pressure and become free of those limiting beliefs. You have to be okay with creating bad art to ever create good art. We all know that practice makes perfect, so stop assuming you have to be perfect in order to practice.
final notes
All in all, creativity isn’t some big, unachievable thing that you’re either born with or you’re not. In fact, creativity is usually built over time with repeated practice and discipline. Most of the best artists in history were dedicated to the craft. They weren’t born being amazing at art; they stuck with it through the hard parts and continued to create. I believe that’s something we could all do with learning a thing or two about.