Perspective on Creativity

There are some that argue that creativity is a gift bestowed on some individuals without rhyme or reason. There are others that argue that there is no such thing as creativity; instead, it is an uncovering of information that has always been there waiting patiently to be discovered.

Self-help programs, guides and literature abounds with how to create more love, create your dreams, create wealth, and so on. There is a $10 billion industry just waiting to help us create whatever we want. I wonder how we got so many geniuses or social scientists to repackage age long secrets able to help us in our hour of need. 

I believe that creativity is a fundamental birth right of being born human. As I have stated in previous posts that no one else has our unique blend of experiences, emotions, health, beliefs, truths, knowledge, thoughts and perspective on life and self.

Everyone on earth can look at the same sunset and what we see and feel will be different as seen through the filter of our experiences and concepts. The way in which we express all aspects of our life is uniquely ours. Some find that expression in the arts, some in the sciences, some in their work, hobby, parenting and so on.

How we express our life is creativity in action; our fundamental birth right.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: creativity, perspective, personal growth

 

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Deliberate Creativity

This is the fourth and final post of this mini series on deliberate creativity.

1. Creativity and Thinking
2. Problem With Problem Thinking
3. Useful Ideas Concept

Many of us have a preoccupation with being happy and seeking to  banish unhappiness in our lives. We will use this as an example of the deliberate creativity process.

We have a problem; unhappiness, and we use our problem solving tools (logic) to find the source and stop it. We try something and it doesn't work and look around to see if anyone else has a better problem solving routine and attempt to copy it with varying degrees of success.

But the problem keeps coming back and we once more start out to solve the problem thinking that we missed something in the last attempt. Something was not right in our logic. What if the issue is the way we create the problem to solve?

If instead of starting with the concept unhappiness is a problem we changed our perspective by starting with a different idea or a different question. For example: When is unhappiness a correct feeling? We might say when we do something without thinking and hurt someone. Or when reality does not match our expectations.

Then we might say to ourselves that we can reduce but not completely eliminate it as we are not perfect. We might decide that when it happens we will first check to see if it was something we had control over and correct our behavior or realize that expectations and actuality are rarely a match and accept it and let it go. And so on.

Could we say as a useful idea that an artist is someone who sees the world with a different perspective than we do. Creativity then is seeing the same things with a different perspective and perspective can be changed if we chose to.

Then we can use our usual problem solving tools to create actions based on this new perspective and use our resulting experiences to confirm our new perspective and develop a new belief that eventually replaces the old one if appropriate.  

If we always start with the same idea then we shouldn't be surprised when we always reach the same answer. To get different and better answers we need to change the idea we start with. All problems and ideas can be approached creatively by changing the initial idea we start with and then letting our logical solving routines go to work.

Creativity then is a skill and can be learnt and mastered by practice.

If our life is our ultimate creative endeavor then how skilful do we want to be?

[RELATED POSTS]

Our Perceptions and Reality

Thinking About Beliefs Part 1

Value of Unpleasant Feelings

Technorati tags: creativity, personal growth, perspective, thinking skills

Useful Ideas Concept

This is the third post in a mini series on deliberate creativity.

1. Creativity and Thinking
2. Problem With Problem Thinking

One of the creative concepts that I use for thinking I call Useful Idea. This is an idea that I can use that doesn't have to be truthful, make sense or be defended but I use to find a different perspective that will change how I look at a problem or solution. 

For example Jennifer at Goodness Graciousness has a post about Truth and Reality that illustrates a useful idea that as we get older our description of the same item gets more specific and detailed and both our answers and thinking reflect that and limit us. There can  only be one truth.

Next useful idea is that we define a problem with our truths. That is our beliefs, past judgements, arguments, perceptions and methods of solving problems determines how we define the problem or solution we are seeking. 

Example adapted from Edward de Bono's books on thinking.

At a drag race there are 73 racers entered. You are the Marshall and have to determine how many races have to be run. How would you go about finding this number?  Most of us would pick up a pencil and paper and start to chart out the number of matches. However, there is another method which will solve this in less than 5 seconds. If instead of looking at winners we asked the question how many losers would it take to have 1 final winner. The answer is 72. (73-1). There would need to be 72 matches. Also works for an even number of players. A shift in perception of the problem.

Useful Idea: We see information through the filter of our perceptions; our truths. The way we hold and use our truths creates the problem of seeing new ways of looking at the problem.

Useful Idea: A child does not have a complex problem solving methodology based on truths to limit them. They are free to create and use any idea with any other idea and thus easily find new ways of looking at the world and data.

Useful Idea: The ability to suspend the need for every step to be true has allowed a possible new belief to be generated.

Perceptions are the glasses through which we make sense of the world and how we choose to deal with it. If we change our perception we change the problem.

Now we have a possible tool for solving those problems that resist our normal methodology.

Tomorrow we will see if this works.

 

Technorati tags: thinking skills, perspective, problem solving, useful ideas

The Problem With Problem Thinking

This is the second post in a mini series on deliberate creativity.

Part 1: Creativity and Thinking

Most of us would agree that children display creativity at early ages as they are busy discovering the world. While they are learning about the world they are focused first on the why question until about age 5 and then the why not question until about age 10. Creativity abounds throughout this stage as any parent can tell you.

Then they start into a lifelong stage where the ability to understand and solve problems effectively becomes an important skill to master. The educational system supports this viewpoint through it's program of learning information, applying analysis and producing solutions that can measured by exams. In school and in Life people are rewarded and applauded for demonstrating this skill. No question it is an important skill to have. Creative thinking is mainly left to the Art and Design programs but treated more as a gift rather than a skill that can be learned.

Although mainly successful the problem solving process does have limitations. Once we start down the series of steps for solving a problem based on our past judgements, arguments, truths and analysis skills our viewpoint is narrowed to seeing the next step from the step we are on. If we cannot see the next step then we cannot progress to an answer. We are stuck and need a creative solution to move forward.

We are often stuck because we are locked into the way we defined our problem. There are techniques such as brainstorming etc. that we can apply but usually we use them more for trying to find the next step than it is about reexamining our problem definition.

Are we left hanging in the breeze until a flash of creativity comes out of the blue to solve our problem?

We will examine this question in the next post.

Technorati tags: creativity, thinking skills, perspective, personal growth

Creativity and Thinking

Someone creates a new idea that becomes a fad or a new approach that gets implemented as a better solution to problems. We simply  adopt the idea and make it our own.

We are all very good at thinking about and solving problems. A problem is something that requires a decision on action to be taken. Where are we going to go on vacation? What to watch on TV? How to pay our bills? How to get the kids to practices?

We then make a judgement as whether or not we need additional information based on our knowledge of the problem. What kind of information? Where do we get it from? When do we have enough information? What are our time constraints? And so on. Then we make a choice if we have alternatives based on whatever criteria we choose to apply. This is usually what we mean by thinking.

We admire the results of creativity and usually call it a gift. One that we either have or not. We delegate it to the arts such as literature, music, sculpture or to designers from buildings to toys to clothes. There is an aura of mystery and an almost mystical quality to it that we cannot understand; just admire.

What if creativity is just a different type of thinking skill that we could learn and practice?

This is the first post on a mini series on deliberate creativity.

 

Technorati tags: creativity, thinking skills, perspective, personal growth