“… the paradox is one of our most valued spiritual possessions…” said Carl Jung and we can add that living this paradox makes us more creative. As humans we have two contradictory needs (between others), on one hand security, reliability, home feeling and on the other hand exploring, finding adventures, being curios. We need both these needs satisfied to feel well, to survive and also to succeed.
Creativity at the personal level can happen when we are in restrictive situations (when we are in danger or we do not have enough resources and we need to act fast) but also when we are in a comfortable situation, when all our primary needs are satisfied. Reading this phrase you may ask, then…how come we are not creative all the time? The reasons can be diverse but two main factors can make most of the difference: one is our own beliefs, the other is our decisions.
Like the saying goes “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t-you’re right”, it is important whether you think you are or not a creative person, when deciding if you are going to engage in creative endeavour opportunities.
As I pointed out in the previous articles, creativity is a process rather then a moment of inspiration, requires passion, work, focused attention, memory, knowledge etc but it is also a personal decision whether we engage or not in this process. Decisions are based on our thoughts and believes, therefore, if you think you are not creative the eventuality of your engagement in a creative activity will be low and if you think you have the capacity to arrive to creative outcomes the chances are you will engage in such an adventure.
In psychological research there are three key beliefs in focus (Begetto and Karwowsy, 2017) :
- Creative self-efficacy: the belief about the confidenceone has that (s)he can perform a certain task in a creative way. Depending on what the person thinks, (s)he will engage with the task or not.
- Creative metacognitionis a mix between the self-knowledge of the person regarding his/her creativity capacities and contextual knowledge.
- Creative self-conceptconsisting of general beliefs about one’s creative abilities.
It is easy to say, ok…then, starting from today, I decide I am a creative person and I am going to engage in creative activities. But, most probably this would not be enough, even though it is a first step.
Dr. Michele Root Bernstein, who studies creative imagination, declared in an interview “Creativity is not simply an inherent ability – it needs to be practiced and honed”.
She proposes three main possible strategies to enhance creativity (Keenan & Mishra, 2016). They are practical and easy and can help you also change your beliefs.
(1) Always practice creativity no matterif the resultof that creative activity remains at a personal level like a hobby or it has a wider influence over a certain domain or humanity in general;
(2) Copying as a way of learning, once you know how to do something well then you can extend, add or make it different;
(3) Playing as a way to connect to your inner child and allow creative ideas to come in the same natural way children do it.
Also, Csiksentmihalyi dedicated a chapter in his book describing his research on how creative people enhance personal creativity. Based on his observations of how creative people live and work, he prescribes many exercises or habits to develop:
(1) Acquisition of creative energy through cultivation of curiosity and interest, flow, habits of strength and certain internal traits;
(2) Application of creative energy by developing capacities of problem finding, divergent thinking and focusing on a certain domain.
Based on all the above, I propose you a simple exercise from my research that in time can boost your creative beliefs.
Important note: these exercises are better to explore in a coaching or counseling programme then alone.
| Experience something new everyday. Identify what you are doing every day in the same way for a very long time. Identify what opportunities are there to change and experience something new. For example: experience and experiment new food, different music, dress in a different way, spend time with people you do not usually do, take each day a different way to home, use a different type of transportation etcA 5 minutes journal to keep a record of the experience will make the exercise more powerful. You can choose its form: written, recorded, a picture, a drawing etc., but we believe the best performance will be reached by reflecting and writing about that moment, having a short description of the situation, the feelings, the thoughts, what was the new experience and why or how did you chose it etc |
Curiosity, openness to experience, shift form outside stimuli to inside reactions |
Stay tuned for the next article about creativity and way to improve it! Next will be about the role of emotions.
First article on creativity, second article on creativity.
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