|
Albert Einstein believed that every child is born a
genius. Dr JP Guilford, a psychologist, and Paul Torrance,
a researcher, found that children between the ages of
2 and 5 have creative and original responses over 90%
of the time. These creative responses drop significantly
to 7% by the time the child is 7 and to a frightening
2% by the time the child reaches adulthood. So what
happens to our creativity as we get older? The experts
say, quite simply, pressure from society to conform
and fear!
We are the painters of our own lives
- however so often we use the same brushes, the same
strokes, the same colours, the same themes and the same
palette! We need to start to paint with different strokes
and colours and patterns. The key is to use our imagination
and open our minds to our own creativity whatever it
is we want to create - be it music, art, science, humour,
design, spirituality or just our ideas on the way to
do something. Why must it always be done in a certain
way… just because that's the way it's always been
done!
Creativity cannot be lost. What happens is that it
goes into hiding and becomes dormant from lack of use.
We need to understand that we still have what we were
given at birth however we need to re-kindle, feed and
nurture our creativity. Doing this requires patience,
concentration, focus and a confidence in the successful
outcome of whatever we have undertaken to create.
Researchers have found that a positive attitude is
directly linked to creativity. - i.e. the more positive
we are, the more likely we are prepared to take a risk,
think 'out of the box' and do things differently, the
more likely we will succeed in our creative thinking.
Dr Walter Doyle Staples in his book 'Think Like a Winner'
says that Creativity is one of the key factors of our
success. Edward de Bono says that creativity is a skill
which with practice becomes a habit and most importantly
the more creative we are the more interesting we become!
|
