‘I’m creative’

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Too often, I meet people that are unable to utter these 3 words. When they think of creative ideas, they’re never the source; when they think of creative persons, they leave themselves out of the equation.

I was in the middle of a deep discussion with a former colleague about work, ambitions and how to give it all meaning. At one point I told her that she was creative. Tears started rolling down her face. She realised that I was hitting the nail; that she always underrated her capabilities to come up with creative ideas.

Creativity is not a gift; it’s a skill, a way of acting and behaving that can be learned. And there are circumstances that will enable your creative pursuit. These circumstances will help you into an open mood that is conducive for creativity.

My resources, what are yours?

So here are four resources I discovered last year and got quite fond of:
Ans also let me know: what are your favorite resources?

–       Talk by John Cleese. A beautiful talk in which John Cleese explains the 5 conditions conducive for creativity. These 5 conditions do not guarantee creativity, but without them you’re much less likely to be creative.
https://youtu.be/PQ0lck7oo4A

–       TED Talk by David Kelley, founder of IDEO. Great talk on the how to regain creative confidence, how to turn fear for creativity into familiarity and then surprise oneself. It shows that creativity can be learned.

–       Group Genius by Keith Saywer. Great book that shatters the myth of the lone genius. New ideas can always be traced back to a web of persons in space and in time. So all great geniuses could only come up with their revolutionary ideas because they built upon similar ideas that already existed. Refreshing view. Read also my interview with Keith.

–       ’29 ways to be more creative’. A simple yet effective video that went viral by to-fu design, a design firm in Japan. It sums it all up being a mix of simple tips (e.g. ‘carry a note-book everywhere’) and harder to implement personal changes (e.g. ‘stop beating yourself up’).