Stop Believing These Myths About Creativity
When you think about creativity, who do you represent? Maybe a tortured artist? A child without preconceived ideas about the world? A group of people brainstorming, or someone who comes up with a mind-blowing idea while high? These are all myths we tell ourselves about creativity. If you’re not one of those people, the good news is that creativity is for you too.
Last year, a group of researchers asked people about their ideas about creativity. They found that a few wrong beliefs were very popular. The paper states: “The results highlight the need for better dissemination of evidence-based knowledge to better support creativity.”
In other words, many of us have convinced ourselves that creativity is for other people, when in fact it is for everyone.
Myth: Creativity is only for art
Before we can talk about where to find creativity, we need to define it. Of course, there are disagreements, but it can be said that creative ideas are both new and, according to others, useful. Another definition states that creativity is “the ability to go beyond traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, etc. and create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.”.
New ideas are certainly welcome in art, writing, and other traditionally “creative” pursuits, but creativity isn’t limited to them. When a scientist or engineer comes up with a new innovative idea, this is creativity. When you’re negotiating a contract and come up with an unexpected idea that makes both parties happy, would you agree to it if we also gave it to you? It can also be creativity.
Myth: Creativity comes from the right brain
The idea that we use our right and left hemispheres for different tasks does have a basis in neuroscience, but this concept has long since slipped out of the lab and has become one of those things that people repeat without understanding where it came from.
Most brain functions do not reside exclusively in one or the other part of the brain . And it is impossible to tie something as vague as creativity to just one side. Moreover, there is no significant difference between “left-brained” and “right-brained” people. You need both hemispheres of your brain to do your best creative work , as well as do math or other activities that supposedly involve the left hemisphere.
Myth: Creativity is innate
We often associate creativity with tortured geniuses, people whose creativity is either the result of, or contributes to, mental illness. This allows us to think of creativity as a kind of curse, something that most of us don’t have, and if we had, we wouldn’t want it.
On the other hand, it is sometimes believed that creativity is something we are born with (children are creative, right?), and that when we become adults, most of us lose it.
But neither of these is true. Research on creativity has shown that coming up with new and useful ideas is a skill that can be learned, and we get better with practice. For every great composer, chef or engineer, there are thousands of others who work in the same field as a hobby or job and are not short on new ideas. For every great award-winning writer, there are plenty of bloggers who are doing just fine.
How to be more creative
So how can you develop creativity if you’ve never considered yourself creative?
One way is to find time for hobbies or activities where it’s all about creativity. One study found that people were happier on the days they were creative. These include making crafts, playing music, writing fiction or poetry, and preparing new recipes. The results show that simply making time for these activities can benefit you, even if you don’t have some kind of creative breakthrough every time you sit down with needles and yarn.
Another thing is to go for a walk. We already know that exercise is good for mental health, and there are studies that show that walking can help with creativity in particular . Being outdoors will give you the opportunity to see and experience more, which can give your brain some exercise as well as your body.
Also heed this time-honored piece of advice from creatives across the board: To do well , you have to work hard. Early in my writing career, I was advised that if I ever got stuck on a headline or title, I should write ten different variations. Even if your third idea seems perfect, the exercise requires you to continue and complete seven more. Often one of these later ideas ends up being the custodian.
Another variation on this idea is the 30 circle exercise . You have 30 small circles on a piece of paper and a timer set for three minutes. During this time, fill in as many circles as you can with whatever ideas come to mind. In addition to looking at your individual drawings, you can also reflect on the similarities and differences between the things you’ve come up with and search for a theme. We often don’t know what ideas we actually have until they’re on paper in front of us, so get creative and see what happens.