How to become more creative
In my quest to understand better what makes people more creative I found the Netflix documentary of David Eagleman that helped me better understand the definition of creativity.
For me creativity has always been a bit of a struggle. I always wanted to be more creative and though that creativity cannot be taught however through the year I found out that creativity comes from many different things. I noticed that through other experiences I had I could apply these to new challenges in other area’s. The silly thing is that I never thought this is creativity and brushed it off as “stealing” idea’s. After seeing the documentary I started to see the broader picture and got to understand the real definition of creativity.
So having said that what does creativity mean? David uses the documentary to explain this to us and splits creativity up into 3 elements that are common among most if not all creative people:
- Try new things – All your experiences will help you learn methodes, procedures, solutions for problems you might not yet have encountered. The more you learn, the wider your experience, the more experience you gain in life, the more tools you have to come up with creative solutions in other field. Although I thought this was “stealing” it does make sense now that this IS creativity. A simple example is apply nature to construct a building.
- Push boundries – Find the limits of what you are trying to accomplish. Make it extremely big or minicule. Apply used forces or make it weightless. Throw it up in the air, give it ears, make it black (and blue), take it completely apart and put it back together in a completely different order. Do something different that what others do and have done to find the answer you have been looking for. Who says you need to use a pencil for drawing if it can also be used to prevent a door from dropping in the lock? Think out of the box and you will get closer to the solution you are looking for.
- Don’t be afraid to fail – If something doesn’t work that doesn’t make you a failure, Each failure brings you one step closer to the solution. Failure will help you gains experience as well to what not works and how to overcome this with a solution. As applied to everything in life this also is a crucial element of creativity.
Creativity mostly does not come with luck, it comes with doing, pushing hard and keep on trying.
Have a look at the trailer The Creative Brain:
