| ||
| ||
|
||
|
|
|
Creativity Stereotypes - Are They Holding You Back?
Here's a quick quiz: 1) When I see a see a sunrise, I'm moved to: A. Compose a poem. B. Try and capture the beauty with my paints and brush. C. Stumble drunkenly into bed -- boy that party was a lot of fun. D. Cover my face with my pillow and go back to sleep. Who in their right mind gets up early enough to look at sunrises? 2) At work, I'm the person my coworkers go to when they need someone to: A. Think up a new theme for the office party (especially if they want it to be a bit wild and off the wall). B. Get people excited for the party. C. Organize the party. D. Clean up after the party. 3) In school, I was considered one of the: A. Brains. B. Jocks. C. Nerds. D. Nothing. I was kicked out my sophomore year. Now take this test again and write down what you think a creative person would choose as his or her answer. Scoring: Well, there's no real scoring here. The point is to get you thinking about creativity and stereotypes. In another creativity article I wrote, "Quiz: Are Your Creative?", I pointed out that the biggest difference between creative people and those who aren't is creative people believe they're creative and uncreative people believe they aren't. But, it's one thing to say it and something completely different to live it. I believe one of the things that prevent people from fully realizing their creative potential is the idea of stereotypes. They think they cannot be creative because they don't look, act, live, etc., a certain way. And, unfortunately, that belief can become so powerful it truly does cripple their creativity. Let's take a closer look at these three stereotypes. 1) When I see a sunrise? You can still be a creative person and not be moved to paint a sunrise or write a poem about it. Everyone is different and everyone draws their creativity from different things. Me, you couldn't catch me anywhere near a sunrise without an IV drip of coffee in my arm. And even if that did happen, I'd be lucky if I could reach the creativity level of a turnip. The point is every muse is different and every muse dances to a different drum (or maybe it's not even a drum, maybe it's a French horn.) Sunrises make you yawn? So what? Find what gets your muse dancing and go with it. 2) At work? You don't have to act like a Bohemian to be creative. In fact, that image of a black-clad, beret-wearing, long-cigarette-smoking Artiste has been the bane of many would-be artists. I can't tell you how many people I've run into who don't have time to BE creative because they're too busy trying to LOOK creative. Creativity comes in many shapes and sizes. It also dresses in a variety of outfits -- from t-shirts and paint-splatted jeans to suits and ties to cocktail dresses to, yes, the all-black look. Don't worry about how your creativity relates to how you look or act. There's no correlation between the two. 3) In school? Again, there are no studies linking creativity to getting bad grades or being a social misfit. Creativity is just as likely to have been class president as it was to have been caught smoking in the bathroom. Or kicked out of school altogether. (Now, whether those schoolyard memories are fodder for creative pursuits is a topic for another day.) Basically it comes down to this -- creativity doesn't fit into any neat box. Whether that box may be unconventional or conservative. Whether it's covered with clay and furiously spinning pots or impeccably dressed and churning out million-dollar deals. Whether it's dressed in black and discussing Satre in a coffee shop or pushing a stroller in small-town America. Creativity is just that. Creative. It doesn't care what package it comes in. It only cares that you use it. Creativity Exercise -- Take Away The Power of Stereotypes Go back to the quiz. Look at the answers you chose for yourself. (If one of my answers didn't fit -- which is entirely possible -- turn your answer into fill-in-the-blank.) Look at the answer you instinctively felt a creative person would have selected. I'm going after instinct here -- don't worry about what you read in the article. Or go back and see how you answered before you read the article. Do you have two different answers? Describe what makes the answers different and why. Do you describe yourself in completely opposite terms as you would someone creative? Why is that? Do some journaling on the answer. Now try describing yourself again and this time add the statement "and that makes me creative" or "yet I still am creative" at the end. For instance: "I hate sunrises and that makes me creative. I was a model student yet still I am creative." Write these out ten times each day until you begin to believe it. (Source: Freeing Your Creativity: A Writer's Guide by Marshall Cook) Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Creativity - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
A Quick Course in Creativity This quick course in creativity is designed to give you a platform to stand on as we look at the various ways you can handle home, social and workplace situations, job-search details and career-path decisions. Let's examine what creativity might look like. Lucid Dreaming: Discover a Whole New World Did you know that all of your most cherished dreams are just a good night's sleep away?Lucid dreamers share one of the greatest secrets of modern living. They have discovered a whole new universe-a universe within. True Power: Understanding the Source of All Creation and Creativity "True Power" is a series that will focus on proven techniques to accomplish any goal. Each exercise is designed to enlarge your ability to believe what you want is possible and will actually happen. Take Time To Think I recently saw a program on television wherein the participants discussed the degree to which present day computer technology has contributed to our economy, well-being and our ability to communicate. They pointed out the many ways that this technology was already obsolete and that further refinements will impact our future in ways we dare not imagine. The Elements of Creativity: What-ifs? What if there is no toilet paper and I am halfway through doing the "do"?What if one of my team members decides to leave the project halfway and he happens to be the most knowledgeable guy there?What if I turn colour blind, how should I adapt to the environment?What-if, what-if and more what-ifs?The technique of asking What-ifs provokes an individual to think and to produce something new. At times, in order to find original solutions to old problems, one must take the leap of faith and ask 'crazy' and imaginative questions to get us out of the rut of stale, conformist routine. Creativity Management - Finding Your Voice Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Creative Thinking versus Critical Thinking The process of creative thinking is often, mistakenly, intertwined with critical thinking. There is a tendency to write and edit simultaneously, couple hypothesis generation and evaluation, combine problem identification with solution. Characteristics: Creative Types VS Clods! Here are some odds & ends I have observed in creative-expert-genius types:Direction of Motivation: creatives move toward what they want in all areas of their life while the clods move away from what they don't want.Time Orientation: creatives look forward to completion. Are You Inventive Enough to be an Inventor? Some Guidelines to Invention Success! Inventors make a ton of money when the invention is needed and when the process is done properly. There are different types of inventions. How To Let The Subconscious Mind Do The Creative Work From time immemorial mankind has wished for an Aladin's lamp, which would make wisheds come true.The closest thing to this magic lamp is the subconscious mind. The 7 Simple Steps To Harnessing Your Creative Power And Achieving Incredible Success Let me repeat what I believe is the most powerful and fundamental knowledge available to man:"YOU CAN CREATE ANY ACTUAL PHYSICAL REALITY YOU WANT THROUGH THE INTENSE DESIRE, BELIEF AND PERSISTENCE OF YOUR MIND"Your desire for success brought this knowledge to you at this very moment, there is no doubt of that. But do you know how to harness it? To wield the power it makes available?Every great man and woman to ever walk the Earth harnessed this knowledge and wielded a power that allowed them to exceed the limitations of regular humanity. Codifying Creativity Can we codify creativity? Within these few words are a number of principles that must be identified and resolved before we can really answer the question.The first question is, what is creativity? What are we trying to codify?One useful definition of creativity is that it is problem identification and idea generation. Why Do We Need Creativity? Creativity is central to the management of our individual lives, but in modern times few people are able to access this as a resource. Alan Watts writes in The Wisdom of Insecurity:"We have allowed brain thinking to develop and dominate our lives out of all proportion to 'instinctual wisdom'; which we are allowing to slump into atrophy. Sharing Our Creative Work with Others In my "Roadblocks to Creativity" e-course, I ask the question:"What's your first thought if someone hesitates before giving you their opinion about your creative project?"One artist wrote: "When some one hesitates before giving their opinion of my work, I think it is going to be negative; I recently showed some work to my boss and her criticism was so harsh that I now won't show her anything, but the worse part is--it made me even more conscious of showing my work to others as well. She was going through some hard stuff at the time, so my timing was way off. Creativity Management - Synergy of Craft and Art Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Why Creative Visualization Works Experience has shown that creative visualization works. It is quite possible to prove that circumstances and events follow thoughts. Make Yourself Creative: Two Easy Idea-Generating Methods Here are a couple of exercises to force yourself to come up with some brand new ideas. These methods can be used to give your business an edge, to overcome creative blocks, or just for fun - to prove to yourself that you can have some great ideas. Achieving Limitless Creativity There are many out there who wish to help individuals achieve limitless creativity. Such a noble endeavor to help fellow man; some creativity coaches are indeed working to set out simple principles which can help any individual get to that space. How To Get In The Zone And Blast Your Marketing To A Higher Level This may come as a surprise.. Our Limitless Quantum Reality Modern science tells us that on a sub-atomic level -- nothing is solid. That the entire universe is really one big web of vibrating "energy stew.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
