Creativity Everywhere?

Ask 100 people to tell you what they think of when you say the words creative or creativity, and more than 80% will likely say  it has to do with painting, singing, writing, sculpting or something else related to the end products of the arts.

The first impulse -- the conditioned response -- associated with creativity is that it is something apart from "serious" work or learning. But creativity is a process, a way of seeing, a way of engaging the world with out-of-the-box-ness.

Famed psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi researched creativity and defined one of its central components as the flow state.  This is a state of being completely absorbed in what you are doing.  It is a state that any creative person shares with all creative people, regardless of degree or type of talent, or medium with which one is working.

Again, creativity comes down to a way of being.  In this case, it's almost a kind of trance or altered state of consciousness.

Contrary to the idea that going with the flow is a lazy ride wherever circumstances take you, Csikszentmihalyi's flow is a focused attention that drives you to keep going no matter how many obstacles are put in your way, no matter what the momentary challenges may be.

We all have the capacity to go with the creative flow.  What will you focus your flow state on today?

29 Lifestyle Habits of Creative People

If you'd incorporate just 3 of these a day into your normal way of being, you'd see your creativity increase dramatically.

And don't forget -- when you're more creative, you're a better problem solver, less fearful, more confident.  It's a great self-coaching challenge to set.

Creativity is a Lens

When I talk about creativity, most people reflexively claim to not be creative.

But then in conversation it turns out that they made up a new recipe that tastes great and avoids sugar, soy, wheat and dairy.

Holy cow, who would have thought that would be possible?

Or someone who thinks they aren't creative bends my ear for an hour with how amazingly beautiful  are the visual patterns on a downtown street that I see only as annoyingly grimy.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, creativity is certainly a way of seeing, a way of paying attention.  The product produced in oil, marble or music is the outcome, but not the creativity itself.

Creativity starts -- I think -- with seeing difference within similarities, and similarities within differences.  We all have the capacity to be creative in some way, in some realm of our lives.

What it takes to BE creative is to really look, really see, and then to ask how could this be different, how could I use this for something other than its original purpose?

I want to encourage you, dear reader, to give yourself a creativity challenge today.  Maybe try  this exercise to strengthen your creativity muscles:

1. Take a walk out in nature, and really notice what is in the shadows, what's in the corners, what seems overlooked.

2. Then sit or stand for a few minutes and let some within you field of vision call your attention.  Without moving, examine it with your eyes. Notice all its qualities and make a mental note.

3.  Next let something else call your attention, and examine all the qualities of that.  Compare it with the first thing that caught your attention -- what are the differences, what are the similarities?  How could each of these things be used?  By whom?

4.  Imagine how you could facilitate the use of one or both of these objects.  Don't limit yourself to human uses.  Widen your lens to include use by everything that is non-human as well.

Now, how can you put more creativity in your daily life?    What do you need -- tools, resources, guidance?  Where will you decide to focus your creativity lens?  I'd love to know.  Leave a comment and share your creativity plans.