“Creative” is not “artistic”
We don’t need to be more creative, just more confident to be creative
When you hear the word “creativity”, what do you think of?
If you are like many of us, you might think of artistic endeavours - drawing, singing, dancing, etc.
You might think that artists, designers and content creators are creative, while CEOs, lawmakers and office workers are not. You might think that being creative is an inherent trait - feeling innately “creative” or “artistic”, or like you were never born with the creative genes.
This is a myth. At our core, we are all creative. Because we all have imagination.
Human = imagination
Imagination makes us human. Imagination drives humanity through drastic shifts in the way we live, drink, eat, sleep, socialise - ever since the emergence of humanity to the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions.
I’m not endorsing the narrative of progressive civilisation here - implying that imagination is driving society “forward”. Neither am I reinforcing the notion of human superiority over other species - that possessing imagination somehow makes us “better” than the rest of the Earth.
My point here is, imagination is the force that drives macro changes in the many social, cultural, economic and political worlds humanity have seen and experienced. It led us from the hunter-gatherer society to the first farming settlements, from a desire to mechanise production to the Industrial revolution, from the desire to find information quickly to the World Wide Web.
We have been imagining since the beginning of time. Whether our imaginations have led us to the good or the bad, it is at the core of what it means to be human.
We can’t help but imagine.
It’s as simple as waking up and imagining what will happen today, imagining what might happen on a date, anticipating questions to be asked in an interview, or simply, thinking about what to have for dinner.
We do it all day long.
The act of putting together scenarios we have never seen or experienced first-hand is imagination. When we imagine, we are creating something, no matter how concrete.
Because everybody imagines and creates, the opinion that some people were born “creative” while others were not, is a myth.
Creativity is a muscle
Instead of a genetic trait, creativity is a muscle.
It can be strengthened through effort and experience. It can be diminished if not trained or left forgotten as we become convinced we are not creative.
We don’t need to be more creative, but rather to have the confidence to be creative.
However, when you have never been encouraged to explore your creative power, it is hard to believe that you are, indeed, creative. Your creativity muscle has never been trained. So,
how do you practice creativity?
To be creative is to create. Simple.
Practicing creativity is different for everyone, as it depends on what each of us is creating and which field we are working in.
If you are a product designer, creativity is understanding the people you are designing for and creating solutions for them accordingly.
If you are a content creator, creativity is being in tune with what you desire to create and acting in alignment, and understanding your audience to package your work in accessible and relevant ways.
If you work in strategy, creativity is deeply understanding your customers, the market and the business to create strategies grounded in that understanding.
Creativity looks different in different fields, but it all starts from a deep, empathetic understanding of the people you are creating for (whether for yourself or for a certain group), of what you do, and of the context you are creating in. Then, you create from this visceral understanding, which will be amplified and reiterated as you go on.
Creativity is not just the artistic expressivity that only a talented few have been blessed with.
Everybody is the creative type.
However, to quote Tim Kelly and David Kelly - the authors of Creative Confidence:
“The real value of creativity doesn’t emerge until you are brave enough to act on these values. That combination of thought and actions define creative confidence: the ability to come up with ideas and the courage to try them out.”
As long as we are persistent in trying to understand the people we are creating for, what we are creating, and the context we are creating in - and are happy and aligned with our true passions in the process - we owe it to ourselves to give it a go. To act on our ideas.
To fail magnificently and learn meaningfully.
To keep trying and improving.
To internalise creativity not as a genetic trait, but as a muscle to be trained.
To be confident to create.
You don’t need to drop your office job, become an artist, start a podcast, or go into big tech to become creative.
The world needs more creative policy makers, office workers, and accountants. The world needs people who are visceral in their pursuit of understanding, and courageous to deliver meaningful creations.
The world needs people who deeply care to create value.
We have been taught to stay within the frame, but there is much fun to be had coloring outside the lines.
Everybody is the creative type. We don’t need to be more creative, just more confident to be creative.
In the spirit of coloring outside the lines, I’m experimenting with more visual forms of expression. Courageously and anxiously dropping a link to the first vlog I’ve ever made: *too scared to show the thumbnail with my face, so click this text to see the video*
love this sis "We don’t need to be more creative, just more confident to be creative"
vlog đáng iuu qué, mỗi tội cô ấy khoá bình luận😌😂😂