So what is creativity and what makes it such a vital part of the change making process?
The definition of creativity varies depending on who’s talking. Some say creativity is independence, the ability to do the things you’d like to do.
Many people associate creativity with a chameleon-like ability to change with a changing environment. To some, creativity is what lies behind longevity and endurance-the secret to the cockroach’s staying power over millions of years. For those who believe there’s nothing new under the sun, creativity is the ability to rearrange existing variables into new combinations. To others, creativity is the act of “creating” or making something brand-new.
Some believe creativity is a bolt from the blue or something that appears unexpectedly in a flash of insight.
Others believe creativity results only from lengthy painstaking work, like the trial and error endured by the Wright brothers in making the first airplane. (Thomas Edison once said that creativity is 99 per cent perspiration and 1 per cent inspiration.)
However you define it, the good news is that all of us are creative.
Creativity is an inborn human faculty, one that we can nourish, cultivate and raise to extraordinary heights in virtually anything we try. Creativity is as much a part of you as your arms and legs.
What matters is not what you call it, but how you use it. As children, we allowed our creativity to flourish. We let our imaginations flow. We continually created new ideas and things. We delighted our parents with our freshness.
The “bad” news is that…
