We believe that we are all born creative. And that most people have it knocked out of them from an early age. Creativity is something that we unlearn. Evolution, society, education, the workplace, life, all do a great job in helping us to unlearn it. They tell us how to think, how to behave, how to fit in. As a consequence, there is a mistaken belief that creativity is the preserve of a few, or exclusive to people with creative in their job title.
It’s a narrow view of creativity that limits many industries. We should all be in pursuit of creativity, in whatever form that takes for us to flourish individually and collectively. Promoting creativity to the broadest possible audience is in everyone’s best interests.
If you know what you’re doing, stop doing it. The very essence of creativity is to embrace the new. New ideas. New concepts. New people. New ways of approaching familiar things. Sticking with what you know is never going to lead to a new outcome or fresh thinking.
A funny thing happens when we stick to what we know. While we might become faster and more efficient, we actually get lazy. Dangerously lazy. In fact, a third of all car accidents happen within a mile of home – the area that we know best. When we’re comfortable, our brains switch off, turning us instantly into creative wet blankets. To demonstrate, try counting the F’s in this sentence:
Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.
3? 4? NO. 6!
Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.
Well done if you got them all. But chances are you didn’t. That’s because we’re all so familiar and comfortable with reading that we often miss words like ‘of’. So, what else have you been missing?
Mick Mahoney and Kev Chesters are teaching an online masterclass Embrace your inner creative on Friday 30 September 2022, 2pm-5pm BST