On Creativity: 6 Factors To Be More Creative

Creativity. That's a word that is getting thrown around a lot these days. If you consult the dictionary, you would see a definition like this one: the ability to create. Well, creativity is simply that —and, of course, much more.

So, what exactly should you do if you want to create something unique? What are the things you should have in mind if you want to be a creative maestro? 

Mary Lou Cook's definition of creativity has it all. Here's it: Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun. 

Let's take the actions one after the other.

Inventing 

To invent means: to design a new process or mechanism. It also remotely means to find out or discover. To create is to design or discover a novel process or mechanism. It's to find a new way to achieve something. Inventing is all about coming up with something new, something that's not been before. 

Plucker. Beghetto and Dow (2004 ) posit that creativity is "The interaction among aptitude, process, and the environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as defined within a social context".

A creator is essentially an inventor of some sort. Inventing is synthesising old knowledge to form something new; it's finding a connection that has hitherto remain unknown. Being the ultimate artist, therefore, means having the capacity to find and make links where no one else has or does. It means being able to come up with new styles, ways and solutions. 

To create then is to seek, find and identify the possibility of a novelty emerging from current cognition and present experience.

Experimenting 

To experiment means to try something new; as in order to gain experience. Inventing comes about by experimenting. You design or discover a new way, solution or style by trying out something — method, form, idea, tool, combination —  previously untried. 

In the sciences, new discoveries are made by way of experimenting. The same applies for most if not all forms of creation. [bctt tweet="The creative process is one suffused with a lot of experimenting. If you want to create anything worthwhile, you must be ready to experiment." username="@Olaidozen"]

Growing and Taking Risks. 

[bctt tweet="If you are not ready to take risks, you can as well forget about creating anything worthwhile. New is unknown and the fear of the unknown is real. Plunging into the unknown takes courage as it entails taking risks." username="@Olaidozen"]

If you want to do any real creative work, you must not be afraid of the unknown; embrace it instead. As Seth Godin once said, “If you’re willing to do something that might not work, you’re closer to becoming an artist.”

You might end up creating something spectacular or an outright disaster and that's where the thrill is. That's the interesting thing about creativity. There's the possibility of failure and that's a big motivator for the alpha artist. 

So, it's either you go hard or you don't go at all. In the words of Dr. Edwin Land, "an essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail". There you have it. And what's more, it's a simple truth of life that we grow by taking risks. 

Breaking Rules

This is akin to taking risks. To always obey the rules is to not take risks. The best of the best creations have stemmed from the willingness of creators to break rules. To continue to do things the same way and expect different results is what Einstein famously termed madness.

Not much creativity happens when you operate within the confines of the rules. To create something unique and spectacular, you must break the rules. Rules put a ceiling on experimentation and by extension, creativity.  Learn the rules if you must, but break them anyways!

Making Mistakes

If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying something new. So the saying goes and it cannot be truer. If you are not trying something new, it simply means that you are not experimenting; it means you are not inventing and you are not being creative.

With striving to create comes the constant committing of blunders. The creative process is characterised with the artist making several mistakes as he toils to design something new, as he strives to discover something novel.

Having Fun

For the ultimate creator, creating is in itself having fun. The thrill of creating is in the creative process. Yes, creativity rarely occurs if the artist does not enjoy the process they engage in. ''Creativity'' according to Robert Greene, is a combination of discipline and child-like spirit. 

[bctt tweet="The child-like spirit is essential for creativity to happen. Having fun as you experiment and seek to design something novel, or discover something hitherto untested or unknown is part of what ultimately leads to creativity.  " username="@Olaidozen"]

If you question many an ace artist or maven inventor as to how they came about a creative breakthrough, they would most likely tell you they were just trying to have fun. They would inform you they set out to enjoy themselves as they sought and toiled to create.

Creativity is almost impossible without the fun part. The creative process is fueled by the existence of fun for the artist in the particular process. The creative process is driven by interest, by the derivation of enjoyment and fulfillment in the process of creation.

Think of this quote from Einstein, the genius physicist: "Creativity is intelligence having fun". 

Let me now redefine creativity.

Creativity is daring to take risks and break rules, without the fear of making mistakes, in the process of fun-filled experimentation geared towards designing something new, towards coming up with something novel and useful, and towards the discovery of worthwhile things previously unknown. 

There you have it!

Did you find this post helpful? Let me know what you think in the comment section. Don't hesitate to ask questions or express your opinion on the subject. Cheers!