Imagination & Creativity
Ok so that is kind of two, but they are part of the same thing. Will you let me off? World Building is one of those very creative pursuits. After all, the creation of our world and universe is known as ‘The Creation Story’ – quite a creative name if you ask me. So if we lose creativity then we become stale and boring. We no longer have our ability to think of a brilliant twist to the history of our world or draw the elegant curves of an archipelago. I must admit I did recently go through a moment of doubting my own creativity. Thankfully it was just a short lived period of doubt caused by essay stress. I had to visit Uncle Google for some reassurance. He opened his loving arms and pointed me in the direction of Psychologytoday.com. There’s no need to run off in fear. I’m not going to start using big scary psychology terms or do that freaky analysis thing Psychologists do. However, I will point you to the article Uncle Google gave me. The Creative Personality is an article that was written by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the 1st of June 1996 and reviewed in 2008, so it’s not too old.
The Creative Personality
I love the tag line to the article as it strokes the ego of all creative people out there:
“Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.” – Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , The Creative Personality, Psychologytoday.com
I think that Professor Mihaly really taps into the essence of the creative person, but then he has been studying creative people for over 30 years. Reading the article reassured me that I’m not the only one that thinks as I do. It gave me the confidence to pick myself back up and get on with being creative.
“When we’re creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. The excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab comes close to the ideal fulfilment we all hope to get from life, and so rarely do.” – Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , The Creative Personality, Psychologytoday.com
Practical Steps
As I established above in this article it’s important that you keep your creativity and imagination in peak performance. Like an Olympian your brain requires training so here are a few little practical steps to take towards keeping your superpowers fresh.
1# Rest
Sleeping has to be the most amazing place to do large amounts of your creative thinking. Taking naps on the couch, snoozing in the chair, you’re a creative person so this is not being lazy, you are simply working. Just remember that you do need to actually put your ideas down on paper at some point. That last point is as much to myself as to anyone else, but I’m teaching myself to be better… slowly.
2# Be Positive
I find that an optimistic outlook on life helps me find creative solutions to problems. Look at each issue in your life as a little game that has more solutions than a maths prodigy playing with a Rubik’s cube. What Now?
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