creativity for dummies

This is just too good.

Creativity Something has published "The New Rules of a Creator's Life".

This follows the 2011/12 edition of their "Rules of a Creator's Life", which I had included in an article that you may have read.

Needless to say, all these "rules" speak directly to my soul.  Even though I do not always succeed in applying them, I am glad that I know them.  They just make sense to me.

So why bother anyway with creativity, or the power of creation?  A simple reason is that it occupies the mind.  Another simple reason that I find more important is that it can enrich lives, and not just that of the creator.

There are several popular beliefs regarding creativity.  For example, some people think that something that is not original cannot be a sign of creativity.  I beg to differ.  One can argue that creativity and originality are related, but they mean two different things.  Originality is concerned primarily with new things.  Creativity, on the other hand, implies creating something, whether new or not.  I could say "Hello!" 10 times each to 10 different strangers over the course of the day, and I would believe that I was creating something each time: an interaction that had not existed before.

Also, there is the misconception that creativity is mostly reserved for artists or people in art-related industries.  I imagine that this idea is based on the assumption that art is about things like drawing, painting, sculpture, dancing, photography, etc., even though art is much broader that that (I should probably not even try to define what art is).  Again, creativity implies creating something.  It does not matter whether you are a painter, a factory worker, an engineer, a secretary or even an occasional daydreamer.  As long as you are spending your time producing something that did not exist before, you are creating.  At least that is what I think.

In a way, we are always creating.  Our lives, for one thing.

While we are all generally capable of creating things, there are different levels of creativity.  Some require little effort whereas others require much more.  Also, some have an impact on an individual ‒ possibly the creator ‒ and others have an impact on society, as noted by the psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "Creativity", where he distinguishes creativity with a c from creativity with a C.  Whatever the case may be, if you are looking to bring about more creativity in your life, you can check out the rules above or simply read no more than the message below.

"Everything I needed to know about creativity I learned by making mistakes"