“The joy is in creating, not maintaining.” —VINCE LOMBARDI,

“Creativity is pure gold, no matter what you do for a living. Annette Moser-Wellman, author of The Five Faces of Genius, asserts, “The most valuable asset and resource you add to your life is your creativity which you can use both in work as well to keep yourself motivated throughout motivated in different ways. Have you ever thought as what is more important is it getting things done or activating creating thinking of people with whom you work ? Actually, more than what you get done, more than the role you play, more than your title, more than your ‘output’—it’s your ideas that matter. And the Ideas take birth because of your creative thinking attitude and habit which you develop. Despite the importance of a person’s ability to think with creativity, few people seem to possess the skill in abundance.

There is also some misconception with people who mislead the creative thinking with original thinking. Creative thinking isn’t necessarily original thinking. In fact, I think people mythologize original thought. If you’re not as creative as you would like to be, you can change your way of thinking. Most often, creative thinking is a composite of other thoughts discovered along the way. Even the great artists, whom we consider highly original, learned from their masters, modelled their work on that of others, and brought together a host of ideas and styles to create their own work. There is a term which called synthetic creative thinking which means you create and build something on existing thoughts. Study art, and you will see threads that run through the work of all artists and artistic movements, connecting them to other artists who went before them.

FIND A CREATIVE THINKER IN YOU

Perhaps you’re not even aware as how creative you are or is there a creative thinker insider you ? To start with and challenge yourself, at first it is important to know how creative you are ? Let me challenge with some questions which you can through to yourself to understand it in more constructive way

Do you embrace Failures and learn ?

Creativity demands courage. Courage to explore and the ability to be unafraid of failure because creativity equals failure. You have to be anxious to know more and do more and explore something different. Charles Frankel asserts that “anxiety is the essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation.” Creativity requires a willingness to look stupid. It means getting out on a limb—knowing that the limb often breaks! Creative people know these things and still keep searching for new ideas. They just don’t let the ideas that don’t work prevent them from coming up with more ideas and finally those work. Do you have that courage ?

Do you embrace New Ideas and Value them ?

You will have in abundance what you will value. Creativity is about having ideas—lots of them. You will have ideas only if you value ideas. .Annette Moser-Wellman observes, “Highly creative people are dedicated to new ideas. They don’t rely on their talent alone; they rely on their discipline. If you don’t compliment your knowledge and intellectual with new ideas, it can drain very fast. For creative people, their imagination is like a second skin. They know how to manipulate it to its fullest.

Are you open to Explore Options

Life always comes with questions and opportunities. When you are challenged by life do you try exploring new options or do you try to stay in box. Finding out multiple options is like giving birth to creativity in whatever you do. I’ve yet to meet a creative thinker who didn’t love options. Exploring a multitude of possibilities helps to stimulate the imagination, and imagination is crucial to creativity. As Albert Einstein put it, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Options provide the key to finding the best answer—not the only answer. You can reach to best answer only when you evaluate multiple options. Good thinkers come up with the best answers. They create back-up plans that provide them with alternatives. They enjoy freedom that others do not possess. And they will influence and lead others.

Are you one who Embrace Ambiguity ?

Ambiguous situations give us room to think out of box. Creative people don’t feel the need to stamp out uncertainty. They see all kinds of inconsistencies and gaps in life, and they often take delight in exploring those gaps—or in using their imagination to fill them in.”

Do you often Celebrate the Offbeat ?

Standards are good but opposite to Creativity. Creativity, by its very nature, often explores off of the beaten path and goes against the grain. Do you willingly take a path never explored to follow the past? To foster creativity in yourself or others, be willing to tolerate a little oddness.

Are you able Connect the Unconnected

Life is built on various knots and at times you need to connect the unconnected dots. Because creativity utilizes the ideas of others, there’s great value in being able to connect one idea to another—especially to seemingly unrelated ideas. Creating additional thoughts is like taking a trip in your car. You may not know where you are going, your road may be full of fog and vision is distracted, but only as you move toward your destination can you see and experience things in a way not possible before you started.

Do a quick check and find are you one among them, or you are a pack of standard life. If you feel lack of any of these we will come back with some valuable insight as how being creative is important in life and how you can built on these qualities thread by thread. Stay connected.

Inspired by “How Successful People Think.