One of the most common myths about creativity is that it’s something unique and only a
few selected people have it.
While we often think of creativity as an event or a natural skill that some people have and
some don’t, research actually suggests that both creativity and non-creativity are learned.
“Creativity and the ability to innovate are like muscles — the more we use them,
the stronger they get.”
We think that it’s only Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk who have creative genius.
In fact, that’s not true!
Today researchers are studying the heck out of creativity and much of what we think we
know about the topic is just plain wrong.
However, there are specific habits and traits which anyone can use to unlock their creative
genius.
Here are the six habits of exceptionally creative people.
From the theoretical perspective producing more work sounds like an easy idea, however,
it’s difficult in real life.
The main reason is that we don’t tolerate ourselves to create junk.
As James Clear says, in any creative endeavor, you have to give yourself permission to create
junk.
There is no way around it.
Sometimes you have to write 4 terrible pages just to discover that you wrote one good sentence
in the second paragraph of the third page.
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield explains this as follows:
“The amateur, on the other hand, over-identifies with his avocation, his artistic aspiration.
He defines himself by it.
He is a musician, a painter, a playwright.
Resistance loves this.
Resistance knows that the amateur composer will never write his symphony because he is
overly invested in its success and over-terrified of its failure.
The amateur takes it so seriously it paralyzes him.”
The problem is that we’ve been raised to think that our success and self-worth depends
on our wins.
For this reason, Pressfield says that we must turn from amateur to professional.
Only then can we produce truly creative work.
“Resistance wants us to stake our self-worth, our identity, our reason-for-being, on the
response of others to our work.
Resistance knows we can’t take this.
No one can.
The professional blows critics off.
He doesn’t even hear them.
Critics, he reminds himself, are the unwitting mouthpieces of Resistance.”
Resilience is practically a prerequisite for creative success, says psychologist Scott
Barry Kaufman.
Doing creative work is often described as a process of failing repeatedly until you
find something that sticks, and creatives — at least the successful ones — learn
not to take failure so personally.
“Creatives fail and the really good ones fail often,” Forbes contributor Steven Kotler
wrote in a piece on Einstein’s creative genius.
The way to become creative is to produce a lot, and the way to produce a lot is to give
ourselves permission to create garbage.
Eventually, everyone will forget the garbage we make but will remember the best works.
Commit to the process and you’ll become good enough, soon enough.
Put in a volume of work.
Close the gap.
If there’s one thing that distinguishes highly creative people from others, it’s
the ability to see possibilities where others don’t.
In the words of Steve Jobs: “When you ask creative people how they did
something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw
something.
It seemed obvious to them after a while.
That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new
things.”
One must realize that creativity is to make new connections with old ideas.
Bringing together two pre-existing ideas in a non-existent way.
Every new idea is just a combination of old ideas.
It’s why, Austin Kleon writes that “when people call something ‘original,’ nine
out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved.”
Hence his recommendation — steal like an artist.
Creative people are always on the lookout for something to steal.
To find something worth stealing, one must look in the right places.
Always look for the things that will connect and combine.
The quality of the information one consumes determines the quality of work one will produce.
One way of finding valuable ideas is by exploring the variations of an idea.
Kleon calls this branching: “Chew on one thinker...
Study everything there is to know about that thinker.
Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them.
Repeat this as many times as you can.
Climb up the tree as far as you can go.”
That’s not the only method of finding valuable ideas, there are multiple ways.
Always look for the things that will connect.
Creative people always actively seek out the best ideas from all places.
They’re always researching and trying to find something to combine.
James Clear says “No single act will uncover more creative genius than forcing yourself
to create consistently.”
Practicing your craft over and over is the only way to become decent at it.
Inspiration will not come to you while you’re waiting.
Do not wait for the inspiration to think creatively and to produce creative ideas.
Set a schedule for your work.
After working regularly for some time, something comes up.
Creativity is not just about the ideas that come to your mind, it is a process.
Be patient to be creative.
Don’t just wait for that moment when you go into the bathroom and shout “Eureka!”.
Creativity doesn’t come easily.
It’s very important that we create a schedule that we can rely on.
The painter, Chuck Close was clear on this point:
“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.
And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will — through
work — bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never
have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art idea’...
If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.”
Creativity is a process.
Never forget this.
Decide what you want to be good at, set a schedule for your actions, and stick to your
schedule no matter how difficult it is.
Many of the most iconic stories and songs of all time have been inspired by gut-wrenching
pain and heartbreak — and the silver lining of these challenges is that they may have
been the catalyst to create great art.
You have to be more creative when you have fewer resources because you have to do more
with less, and it kind of spurs the creativity process.
David Burkus writes in his book: “Many of the most prolific and creative
people understand how stifling a blank slate can be...
All creatives need some constraints.
All artists need structure.
Some of the most creative poetry comes in fixed forms such as the Japanese haiku or
the English sonnet.”
According to Austin Kleon: “Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea
of infinite possibilities.
The best way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself.”
He goes on to explain how having less, helps us:
“One, getting really good at creative work requires a lot of time and attention, and
that means cutting a lot of fluff out of your life so that you have that extra time and
attention.
And two, creativity in our work is often a matter of what we choose to leave out, rather
than leave in — what is unspoken vs. spoken, what isn’t shown vs. what is, etc.”
Constraints are not the enemy.
Many creatives understood that and went on to produce masterpieces because of constraints,
not despite them.
Dr. Seuss was challenged to write a children’s book with only 50 words.
The result was Green Eggs and Ham, which went on to sell over 200 million copies.
Imposing simple constraints in our own lives can lead to well-designed and more effective
lives as well.
Creative thinking should be followed by creative doing.
Give your idea, answer, or insight the opportunity to live outside of your imagination and notes.
The more often you ship your ideas, the less it bothers you when it doesn’t work out
as planned and the more often you succeed.
You are never more than one great idea away from achieving a major breakthrough.
It’s entirely possible that you have already had a breakthrough idea, but you won’t see
the breakthrough until you become a real artist… because, as Steve Jobs reminded us, real artists
ship!
Picasso painted over 20,000 works.
Bach composed at least one work a week.
Most of these works were garbage.
No one on the street would have taken a second look at it.
However, when you produce so much work, that one piece will inevitably stick.
If only one idea for every ten that you come up with is good, all it means is that you
should be working on a hundred ideas to come up with ten good ones.
The same goes for all creative endeavors.
It’s widely assumed that there’s a trade-off between quantity and quality.
But quantity breeds quality.
The act of creating something, no matter how bad it is, is practice for creating a better
one.
Just don’t forget: “Creativity and the ability to innovate are like muscles — the
more we use them, the stronger they get.”