Creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. It is a special ability to bring something totally different from an already existing product, material, or idea. Creativity is man’s foremost skill when he gathered sticks and stones since the paleolithic era and turned these materials into special tools for hunting, farming, and other domestic and social activities.
Creativity and innovation are the twin abilities that drive the growth of any business venture or otherwise, from insignificance to abundant successes.
Imagine a stranded man somewhere in the thick Amazon forest with no other living human within his vicinity but would constantly enjoy the graces of the monkeys and baboons, skimming through the shrubs and enjoying what life has to offer them. But to that man, there has to be a way for survival, be it as it may. But what is he going to do?
Creativity is the ability to focus on what you have and turn it into what you need, ignoring what you didn’t have. It is the first means of survival man ever applied.
Creativity is a function of curiosity and imagination, which would jointly increase your knowledge base. But it doesn’t stop anywhere near, it grows with you as your knowledge increases. The greater your knowledge base and level of curiosity, the more creative you ultimately become.
However, no matter how easy it may try to paint it, there is more to enhancing your creativity than just admiring works of creativity done by others. Or even, having the knowledge about a thing or area of application does not automatically translate to being creative. There has to be a combination of knowledge, curiosity, and the desire to apply oneself, and with time, you get better and more innovative.
Curiosity is the mother of all inventions. If you are curious, you are definitely going to try to get whatever knowledge you want to acquire. And with some efforts, you will end up with it. But simply learning all the know-how of a field or subject isn’t going to make you a creative person overnight. You would have to understand the process of putting that information together to make something better and bigger out of them.
The aim of this post is to show you practical and conscious ways to enhance your power of creativity in your business and other life activities alike. And it is important you know that creativity is the single ability that distinguishes the two closest mates in any profession, occupation, or venture in the world today.
Be a musician or writer, anything you choose to be but until you get to the point when you are able to turn your knowledge and information into something you can work with, more like raw information materials, you might not be so celebrated in the world today.
To better understand the concept of creativity, it is important to understand the three levels of creativity and innovation;
- Discovery
- Invention
- Creation
Discovery is the lowest level of creativity and implies the unfolding of a once-hidden item or material. When used in the archeological or arts and cultural areas, you could refer to these as “discovered art” in which case it could be a piece of precious stone or artwork. But in actual sense, discovery is usually the first step to the greatest inventions and creations. But this little step of discovery could also be so evasive if you do not properly learn what it takes. A close word to this is “founding”.
Invention is a higher level of creativity. It is basically a process and ability to fabricate something usually a process, device, or methods, etc. Invention is the fundamental outcome of creativity. In other words, invention is what is most frequently referred to when they say that someone is creative. It is the ability to know how to apply raw materials to produce what was only mentally discovered.
Ideas come and go in the heads of so many people but many people do not even get to discover those ideas, not to talk of inventing them.
This new terminology of “inventing ideas” is the same thing invention is about; making those ideas real, palpable, visible, perceptible, and useful to other people in the world.
Then, thirdly we have creation as the highest level of creativity. Creativity is the coined from the word “creation” and that could explain why it has to rank as the ultimate level of creativity. Creation may seem very close to invention but in creation, the creator makes inventions something that is genuinely original from the rest of them. The originality and distinctiveness of a creature are what make it the highest piece of creative work. In very basic terms, creation involves using very minimal raw materials to make something so sophisticated that it is seen as an original piece of creative work.
But after all these, why do we have to know all these about creativity? Creativity is not only essential to our survival and development but it is something we are all born with. According to the Christian Bible, we were created by God and He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. That breath has been interpreted by many to mean our essence and even additionally, it has been regarded as an ability to create.
In support of this, it is important to emphasize that you have the creative ability and why let it waste? That shows that there is every need to find ways to develop and enhance your power of creativity.
Before we delve into the effective tips to enhance your power of creativity, let us first answer the question. How do you know creative people?
How Do You Know Creative People?
Everyone possesses a certain level of creativity within them but there are some people in the world you would specially label as creative. But they are only more creative because they have given themselves up to exercise their power of creativity. Do you want to know if you are one such creative person too? One good sign to prove that is your curiosity at being more creative won’t stop just here. You are going to work on yourself in areas relating to the effective tips I am going to talk about shortly in the next session.
Surprisingly, everyone has demonstrated creativity more than they could ever imagine. But in the majority of the cases, necessity was the bedrock. In other words, they realized how much they needed something but they do not have the means to get a “proper one“. So they had to devise a means to get it from alternative but more available options. You remember the handmade toy you made when you were just a child? What about the little bean seed you had to put into the ground to grow it? There is always a part of us that yearns to be creative.
However, on the contrary, there are many people who have given up on the desire to be creative. They just would not even raise a finger to try to solve some problems on their own. They simply bask in the creativity of others but that does not take them anywhere. The only way you can truly make an impact in your world around you is if you engage your power of creativity.
We live in a time when technology has advanced beyond the shores of its origin. True! The earliest inventors would marvel at the sophistication of the recent stuff we have today. But these are but a product of the imaginations of people who wanted to make things better for themselves and every one by putting their knowledge together to make something out of them.
It requires an attitude of creativity to be creative, a mindset of responsibility for what you need to be able to convert what you have to what you need. This is the “creative mindset” or the “creative attitude“.
It requires an attitude of creativity to be creative, a mindset of responsibility for what you need to be able to convert what you have to what you need. This is the “creative mindset” or the “creative attitude“.
In the next session, let us look at some effective tips to enhance your power of creativity.
Effective Tips To Enhance Your Power of Creativity
Here are some effective tips to enhance your power of creativity;
- Understand that what you seek is around you
- Value things before discarding
- Be solution-oriented – focus on solutions more than problems
- Be open to learning new methods
- Reduce your frequency of buying
Understand That What You Seek is Around You
Some of the world’s most creative people have one major thing in common. They recognize that what they need to get things done is already within their vicinity. All they need do is to find it out in the process of discovery. It could be just a piece of nail, or some wood, or some information somewhere.
Creativity begins with an idea in your head, after which you begin searching for the tools and materials with which you can make your ideas a reality. However, these tools may not always be obviously presented somewhere, in fact, some useful tools would just lie useless to a non-inquisitive mind. And some times, you could marvel at what creative people put together to make their object(s) of creativity.
The bottom line is even before you look very far away or consider some expensive alternatives, try looking around and within you first. The requirements may be within reach already.
Value Things Before Discarding
One great attribute of highly creative people is that they have learned to determine the value of things before discarding them. For example, used-plastic bottles could be recycled into many different beautiful and useful products. Check here for some. And if you are someone who is interested in them, you could make a fortune from them really.
What I am trying to say here is that there is still value in some of the things we discard and it is your job to be able to look forward to the future if, by any means, that item would be useful. This does not mean you should just stack up some junks that you won’t get to never use. Creative people do not just keep or just throw stuff away, they try to determine the usefulness of something before deciding to keep it or throw it away, but not stocking piles of similar and potentially useless materials in their stocks.
Be Solution-oriented
Great leaders are creative people because they are solution-oriented. Creativity stems from the need to solve a problem with the available means, or to simply do something differently.
There are many people who let the problems cloud their creativity. These people simply value the problems greater than the solution and we can just predict what happens next; they break down in disappointment and hopelessness that they do not have what it takes to surmount the problems.
However, creative people look beyond problems. The mere perception of a problem instantly triggers a reflex search for a solution in creative people. I had once converted a LED bulb to a standing reading lantern when mine was missing. But why was this important? I could have given up on reading that night all because my reading lamp was stolen and that would have been one missed night.
Instead of seeing problems as excuses to lapse into inactivity and hopelessness, look to the bright side and turn them into solutions that could benefit you and the world around you. That’s creativity.
Be Curious to Learning New Methods and Information
It is no strange thing that you may not have all it takes to enact your creative ideas. This insufficiency could be in the form of tools, materials, knowledge, and methods. In your search for these requirements, you must learn to be open to learning new methods of doing things and embrace new information.
Curiosity is the mother of all inventions and knowledge. If you are cold to learning new stuff, it is a sign that you will always get stuck when you are trying to express your creative ideas because you will never have the required information, method, or knowledge to put things together.
For example, if you are uninterested in learning how to connect two wires to a battery with an appliance at the end, you may never get to be able to DIY(do it yourself) a lantern from few LEDs bulbs and a battery when you really need to.
Reduce Your Propensity to Purchase When You Can
One thing I have learned about creativity is that you actually get better at creativity as you keep exercising your power of creativity. For most people, they’d rather just discard any raw materials or tools and buy their converted products instead. They’d rather hire someone to do everything for them when they can actually do some themselves. Creative people are interested in trying some things out by themselves because sometimes, the financial resources and other requirements may not be available in the desired amount at such times. Hence, the need to get their hands into the job. That way, they build their knowledge-base and be even yet creative.
Why People Don’t Care About Creativity
There are some important questions that influence people’s decisions about being creative or not. Creativity is often relegated by most people because they are either too uninterested in the stress of thinking through ideas and/or problems or influenced by one of these questions below:
- Why should I worry about being creative when I can afford all the creative works of people that I need?
- When should I be interested in some inferior handmade products when there are better products out there in the market?
- Why is it so difficult to be creative? I’d rather keep buying and hiring.
- What if I am naturally trained to be dependent?
But in all these, one thing you must remember to yourself is that the world only values people who create values for it. The more creative you become, the more value you will have for yourself and the world around you. And you know one thing about value? Value is indeed valuable!
Hope your desire to get more creative heightens after reading this.
