Before we dive into what you think you know about creativity, we should probably first determine what creativity actually is.
Creativity (noun) is defined by the Oxford dictionary as ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness’. The Cambridge dictionary similarly defines creativity as ‘the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas’.
Now, there truly is nothing new under the sun. BUT, people are creative. We can all create original things – whether traditionally “artistic” works or developing novel solutions to old problems.
Each one of these myths about creativity is a barrier to reaching your full creative potential. If you believe them, they will hinder some aspect of your creative thinking and skill – from not even trying to stopping creativity, we need to unlearn what we think we know about the elusive idea of creativity.
Also, if you're not up to reading this comprehensive post, I've summarised it in a simple two page printable free download, click here and I'll send it to you!
Let’s jump in…
Myth 1: Creativity can’t be learnt
There’s this age-old belief that only some people are born with creativity. Like it’s a genetic attribute that can’t be acquired, like the ability to fold your tongue or wiggle your ears. This is so not true.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Countless studies demonstrate that creativity is a trait that can be increased with focussed work and dedication, a few of these I’ve summarised here.
This post from Psychology Today summarises several relevant studies on the question of whether creativity can be taught.
In one study, children were taught creativity through a range of methods. It found that over summer, if they didn’t exercise their creativity, just like their academic skills, it dissipated. The article put it this way: “Creativity is a muscle; it needs to be exercised to be preserved and grow. This suggests that teaching of creativity skills should be incorporated into prevailing school curricula.”
Even better news for adults, another study, which asked adults to focus on the emotions they believed were shown in artworks, found they were able to generate more original ideas than prior to the study PLUS these improved creativity skills were still present months later, as the adults were able to continue developing their skills.
In this article on the American Psychological Association website, psychologist Robert Epstein, PhD suggests four methods for making creativity a habit: capture your ideas, seek out challenging tasks, broaden your knowledge, and surround yourself with interesting things. Read more about these ideas here.
There’s also a great Forbes article about the methods IBM’s Executive School uses to create creative leaders. These include ideas such as asking radically different questions, unlearning old habits rather than learning new skills, experiencing things rather than simply reading about them, hang out with creative people, learn about yourself and give yourself permission to be wrong. It’s a great article that I recommend, and think is worth a read.
This myth that creativity is innate and cannot be learned is further fed by the general misconception of what creativity actually is – that it is specific to the arts. Read on to myth number 2.
Myth 2: Only people who paint and write music (aka “the arts”) are creative
This bring us back to the question – what is creativity?
Remember creativity is defined as ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness’ and ‘the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas’.
Since there’s nothing new under the sun, you might wonder how we can come up with original ideas. BUT, people are clever. We can continue to create original things by mixing old ideas and existing thoughts. Creativity can simply be about you adding your own touch or flare to something. Creativity can also be about applying existing methods in new ways, producing unique solutions.
Apart from art and music, I like to think of this other kind of “intellectual creativity”. It is often seen where there is a problem and no existing solution and often manifests as out of the box problem solving. Rather than making something original for the sake of it, there’s a specific need for something to be created or for something existing to be applied in a different way.
For example, Detroit faced this massive problem in 2009 when they discovered 11,341 untested rape kits in an abandoned old police evidence storage warehouse. Their problem was that along the way they’d lost track of these thousands of items of evidence. Lead prosecutor Kym Worthy said she knew they needed to put in place some kind of system so they could know where each rape kit was at any given time and to ensure something like this never happened again.
Like me, maybe your first thought would be to contact another police agency, find out what processes they use, or consider what methods various agencies around the world use and call in some specialists to tailor a solution.
Fortunately, Kym didn’t want to “reinvent the wheel”. So she did something that I think is the definition of out of the box thinking. She called UPS. Yep, the postal service. UPS applied their existing methods of tracking parcels and mail all over the world to track their rape kits. Kym says that “UPS had the technology, UPS knew how to use that technology to solve our problem, and we didn't.” The prosecutor’s office haven’t lost a single rape kit since. If you want to hear more about this crazy story, watch Kym Worthy’s TED talk here.
I think we can all agree this was an innovative, creative solution. No one painted a portrait or wrote a sonata, yet we see some true ingenious thinking.
There’s also a fascinating TED talk by Chad Frischmann who works for an organisation that has come up with 100 solutions to climate change. They focus on an idea called drawdown: “Drawdown is that point in time when atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases begin to decline on a year-to-year basis. More simply, it's that point when we take out more greenhouse gases than we put into Earth's atmosphere.”
The organisation, called Project Drawdown, came up with 100 solutions to climate change.
When we think climate change solutions, most of us go straight to reducing coal, changing to wind energy, buying an electric car to reduce fossil fuels, that kind of thing. Chad and his team didn’t focus on these things. They started with numbers and a broad focus. By doing this, they came up with things no one would expect as solutions to reduce environmental impacts.
Only five of the top 20 solutions relate to electricity. Eight relate to the food system and a further four related to land management. Other solutions in the top 20 include family planning and educating girls, but the number one most impactful solution was refrigeration management – what? Check out the full TED talk here.
Next, one of my favourite books that isn’t about creative thinking but is one big demonstration of creative thinking is Freakonomics. An economist and journalist team up to use numbers to come up with explanations for some unexplained phenomena and to discover new things. From explaining the US crime drop in the 1990s to proving cheating is rife in Japanese sumo wrestling, it’s a whirlwind of interesting, completely out of the box thoughts.
Finally, some of my favourite movies that demonstrate creativity in non-artistic situations include:
Moneyball – applying economics to baseball to form a team that wins
Argo – finding a way to get a whole bunch of US diplomats out of Iran during the Iranian hostage crisis
The Big Short – a handful of people saw something no one else in an entire industry could and each made money off of it in different ways.
Creativity, innovation and human ingenuity are all around us; sometimes we just forget it can present itself in ways other than art.
Myth 3: You can run out of creativity
I recently watched this wonderful TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. She is a writer and wanted to be since she was a teenager. Elizabeth talks about how people will ask her:
“Aren't you afraid you're never going to be able to top [Eat Pray Love]? Aren't you afraid you're going to keep writing for your whole life and you're never again going to create a book that anybody in the world cares about at all, ever again?"
I think these questions hit on an artist’s greatest fear – that our best ideas and creations are behind us, that we might run out of ideas.
I sometimes look back at photoshoots I’ve done or wall art I’ve created and think I’ll never create something as good again. I have to remind myself that I made those things. I saw the image before I took the photograph and I created that wall art. I will never be able to duplicate them specifically (that’s not what we want to continue creating anyway), but I do have the skills to continue creating and to making new things just as good (in my humble opinion!).
Maya Angelou says it most beautifully:
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Sure, your ideas and abilities will change and evolve over time. The more you use them though, the more you’ll grow and develop in your creativity and the more you’ll be able to create.
Myth 4: Creativity happens in the right side of the brain
The left and right sides of the brain do perform different jobs, but creative thinking is a whole brain task.
This myth stems from the idea that creativity typically equates to artistic ability. This is because music and visual and spatial processing do primarily happen in the right brain while language, the sciences and logical processing tend to happen in the left. However, the functions of the right brain aren’t the be all and end of what creativity actually is. “Thinking differently” can be done in any field, see the industry example above!
The American Psychological Association wrote this small summary of research conducted in 2013 by a group of neuroscientists which proved, using brain scans, that creativity doesn’t show stronger pathways in either side of the brain. You can read the study findings in full here.
Researcher Ned Herrmann, who developed the Whole Brain Thinking Model, wrote this informative piece on the history of the left brain/right brain dichotomy and why we still believe it.
The truth is, some functions happen primarily in the left or right brain, but you need your whole brain to function, create links between various ideas, and to see the whole picture.
Myth 5: Kids are the best at creativity
Kids are definitely creative! They aren’t necessarily the best at effective creativity though. There are some pros and cons to the kind of creativity kids are great at.
Pros
Children aren’t hindered by the barriers of society and fear that we adults are. They’re happy to just get messy and make things without worrying about what other people will think of their work. In fact, they know their parents will always say “it’s beautiful, we’ll have to hang it right here”.
I think we’d all be happy to get a bit messy like the kids if our brains weren’t tied up thinking about rent and groceries and cleaning and work.
They also don’t have the thinking limits to problem solving that adults have learnt over time. The most well-known psychological barrier to creative thinking is called functional fixedness. It’s where we can only see something as one thing – what it does.
The start of this thinking was the two-string problem developed by Norman Maier in 1931. Participants were placed in in a room with two strings hanging from the ceiling and given a screwdriver, some matches and cotton. They were told they needed to tie the two strings together, but the strings are placed greater than arms-width apart. Fewer than 40% of participants could find the solution without being given a hint by the researchers. The solution is to use the screwdriver as a weight and tie it to one of the strings, creating a pendulum. You swing it, grab the other string then the screwdriver as it swings back. Many people couldn’t see past the typical function of the screwdriver to see it as something else – a weight.
If we translate this thinking to painting, kids are happy to paint with potatoes, kitchen sponges or marbles. As adults we are often stuck with the idea that we need to use a paint brush.
Cons
When it comes to creative thinking and novel problem solving, we’re not going to call a kid in to fix climate change or the problem of missing rape kits. They don’t have the knowledge needed about various industries and methods to apply them differently.
Sadly, over time we are taught that we need to grow up and be adults. Perhaps only those with strong inner creative drives overcome this misguided education which may be why we continue to believe only those in “the arts” are creative as they possess strong creative drives. You can watch a fascinating TED talk on how our education systems are killing creativity here.
But only we as adults possess industry knowledge in order to creatively solve grown up problems.
In my opinion, one final factor that makes kids so easily creative is that they are always learning. They brains are continuously absorbing information and growing. They spend all day every day learning – this is wonderful for the brain! When we make it out of school and start work, sure we can be intentional about continuing to learn, but the reality is our jobs are more about applying what we know. We don’t have the freedom to spend our days reading books or playing sports (unless of course you’re a book editor or a professional athlete). Learning new things is a fantastic way to increase your creativity.
Myth 6: Creativity is messy
There are two aspects to this – physical mess and mental mess.
Any paint studio is going to look a bit crazy. Personally, I like to have everything at my fingertips when creating so I can see what I’m working with. Making a collage or new skirt might appear chaotic – ripped paper and pieces of different fabric spread everywhere. It can look messy.
But, you don’t have to get messy to get creative. Remember there are small things you can do to be creative. This could be as simple as taking a pen and paper and doing whatever is your thing – writing, drawing, lettering, planning a photoshoot or writing music.
Physical mess doesn’t necessarily mean mental disorganisation.
Of course, for me, my mind feels like an un-sortable mess of spaghetti most of the time. I feel like sometimes I can’t think straight as there are ten thousand things going on in my brain at once. As I write this blog post I also have four others going in my word doc below, because although I’m doing my best to focus on this one, there are ten other thoughts and ideas running through my head at the same time. But getting my thoughts down on paper is how I personally find organisation. Once I can then see my thoughts I can rearrange and organise them.
This certainly isn’t the case for every creative or every person. Everyone thinks differently. Some people think in orderly steps or processes, some can sort things out in their head without picking up a piece of paper, some find it easy to give their full focus to one thing at a time (which is also something that I believe can be practiced and improved!).
Any creative that is making money from their art has to have some kind of business skill and any creative in the workplace has to have basic organisational skills to function in the workplace.
Myth 7: Creativity is easy (for some people)
You know those people we see on Instagram who are always making something new. Artists and photographers who seem to have an endless supply of ideas and content. It’s easy to be jealous and compare ourselves to them. I look at Morgan Harper Nicholls who creates upwards of 100 pieces a day and think “I will never measure up, I couldn’t do that”.
Sure, it might appear more natural to some to create new things, but they have undoubtedly built this practice over time and honed their skills.
In my experience, creativity is hard. It is a field of fear. Sometimes even sitting alone in my room writing in my notebook that no one ever sees I’m afraid it won’t be good enough.
Overcoming this creative fear is something I’m still not great at, but I have two favourite videos I like to watch on this topic.
The first is the talk by Elizabeth Gilbert mentioned above. In it, Elizabeth also talks about overcoming the fears of creativity and specifically failing at creativity. She posits the idea that maybe creativity and ideas don’t come from inside ourselves, but someone or something else out there in the universe which has chosen us as their vessels. She calls this a creative distance, which then takes the pressure off ourselves to create.
The second is this TED talk by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His talk focusses on getting versus giving attention. He talks about how he is at his best creatively when he is paying attention – to the task, the job, the art. But his creativity falls when he stops giving attention and focuses on getting attention for his work. In my opinion, the fear of creating is really a fear that other people will think your work is not good enough. It’s about other peoples’ opinions. I find that when I sit down and decide that I’m am creating something just for me and no one else, it always turns out a lot better than if I focus on what the people who see it will think of it.
I also love this quote by Andy Warhol…
Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.
Myth 8: Creativity is expensive
Look, it can be. Paint is pricey, so are calligraphy pens, DSLR cameras, and musical instruments. The good news is, creativity doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
For any form of creativity, there are cheap versions of things that will let you dabble in the art and decide if you are committed. In my opinion, some of these cheaper versions are actually the best.
My favourite brush pen costs $3.50 AUD from Officeworks. You could also start off with a larger Tombow brush pen for $7 AUD. There’s also this calligraphy pen for just $6 AUD. Add some paper or an art book and these would all give you a start in lettering and calligraphy for less than $10.
When I started thinking about buying an iPad to improve my lettering and wall art, I tested out a friend’s first to see if it would meet my expectations.
Most smart phones these days have high quality cameras in them. You can learn the basics of photography with what’s already in your pocket.
When it comes to paint, rather than hitting up a professional art store, I also like to head to Officeworks, or even Big W or Kmart. They often have very small basic starter sets or at Officeworks I bought a tube of acrylic of each of the primary colours plus black and white like this one for less than $20. Add a couple brushes and canvas/art paper and this cost less than $30.
I’ve found some of my favourite scrapbooking, bullet journaling and collaging supplies from op shops and recycling centres. Every collage I make is built with upcycled old books, magazines, and paper. I keep wrapping paper from gifts I’ve been given and the ribbon holders I cut off new clothes. Sometimes I even keep the tags if they’re colourful! These all translate to low-cost or free supplies as opposed to the $30 you might pay for a scrapbook set in a craft store.
You can also think about borrowing something from a friend or family member. I made my first piece of clothing on my grandma’s sewing machine. I paid $3 for an old patterned doona cover in an op shop and turned it into a pair of culottes with my grandmother’s help. This creative adventure and piece of clothing cost a grand total of $3.
For me, starting small was a cheap way to have some fun while discovering that painting wasn’t something I wanted to pursue, but lettering, photography, collaging and sewing were. You don’t have to spend big to get started. If you’re heading towards working in the field or selling your artwork, you’ll of course need to invest a bit more, but you can save in the meantime!
I have an expensive DSLR camera, an iPad for lettering and my own sewing machine now because I started with cheaper versions and tested and realised I loved those fields. What I don’t have is a fortune of untouched paints.
Remember though, these aren’t the only types of creativity, you can practice all types of creative thinking with simple exercises or just your brain and a pen.
Myth 9: Creativity comes and goes and you have to wait for creative moments or inspiration
There’s this idea that you have to wait for inspiration or ideas to strike. David Burkus terms this the ‘Eureka Myth’. The truth is you don’t have to wait for creativity to come to you. In fact, you definitely shouldn’t! Creativity is a practice that can take hard work. Eureka moments can sometimes pop up in the process, and when moments of creative flow do arrive I am of the opinion that you should embrace them, but this isn’t the only method of coming up with ideas. The best place to start is to actually come up with bad ideas, this brings you one step closer each time to the best ideas.
If this myth were true, then industries and professions which require creativity on demand wouldn’t exist – marketing, graphic design, branding, many forms of consulting.
There is of course the dreaded creative block (aka creative rut, artists block, and writers block) which can make it feel like all your creativity has grown legs and run away. This can always be worked through, especially by creating a daily practice of creativity.
Myth 10: Creativity takes time I don’t have
Sometimes it can feel like it takes forever to “get in the zone”. But, you can practice creativity in just a few minutes a day. You also don’t have to create something all at once. You can do just a little bit over as many days as you need.
I like to try and take at least one photo a day – even just on my walk to work or in the backyard. This can take less than 5 minutes. I also try to open my iPad every day for just a few minutes, often finding ideas and staying on it longer, and open my notebook at least once a week.
There are many other practices you can do to improve your thinking and focus which don’t take much time at all or can be worked into your daily schedule. Parking a bit further away to get a walk in before work, listening to a podcast or TED talk along the way, taking a few minutes after work to meditate or setting a timer for 5 minutes and forcing yourself to write or draw non-stop.
Myth 11: Creativity won’t earn you a living
Creative thinking is actually an attribute that will improve performance in your everyday employment. Plus, although it’s statistically unlikely you’ll sell your next painting for $100k or be the next Tom Cruise, you can apply your creative thinking to your own creations to brainstorm various income streams and methods to profit from your art. Keep in mind, monetising your creativity can turn your hobby into work which can make it feel like work instead of fun.
Myth 12: You have to see the end result, and know what you’re doing, before you start
I am a big picture person. I like to be able to see the end result before I start planning the steps to get there. I have found this to be one of my own greatest barriers to creativity.
Sometimes when I pick up my Apple pen I have a plan, I know exactly what I want a piece to look like. The problem is it never turns out that way. So for a time I stopped creating. Now, I find it far more freeing to just start. I start with one colour and one brush stroke. Then I decide on the next, then the next. By giving up the need for a plan and a big picture, I’ve created things I never could have thought of without the process.
Maybe you have the opposite problem. In any event, switching up your method and not having to know the end result or the step by step before beginning will let you keep creating.
You also might think you have to know everything about the art form before you start. While it can be easier to get the result you’re going for if you know what you’re doing, you will never become an expert without experience. When I started in photography, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew what I wanted to be able to do, but no idea how to get there. So, I started by taking photos in automatic mode. Pointing and shooting. Once I mastered the skills of auto, such as framing and focus, I moved to Aperture Priority mode – you change one setting and the camera adapts the rest. From there, I started being able to produce on the camera what I could see in my head. Finally, I moved to full manual and one by one experimented with changing other settings I had always been afraid to touch such as white balance and manual focus. Now, I can see something in my head, or an idea on Pinterest, and know exactly what camera setting I need to recreate it. If you never start, you will never improve.
Myth 13: Creative people are all “tortured geniuses”
Creative people seem to have a reputation for mental instability. Musicians have their “27 Club”, many of them facing mental struggles that lead to suicide. Painters have Van Gough, Salvador Dali, and Edvard Munch. Highly successful CEOs have a reputation for sociopathy and psychopathy. Writers have the isolated hermit stereotype.
Some people who face mental health struggles are creative, but not all creative people face mental health struggles and not all people who face mental health struggles are creative. Just like everyone thinks differently, everyone has their own unique creative process and ways of interacting with the world.
Some of these creativity myths come from grains of truth, but it’s important to understand their full contexts. Remember, if you’re reading this, you’re creative! You can grow and increase your creativity and practice creativity every day in a short amount of time for a small amount of money.
I know, as soon as you close this tab you will easily forget every one of these myths, and maybe after a little while go back to believing them. So, I made this pretty, one-page printable pdf for you to print or keep handy on your desktop to remind you of your creative talents when you’re feeling uncreative.
Click here and I’ll send it straight to your inbox.
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