Insight #90 - Being a Creative Person

Being a Creative Person

Do you consider yourself a creative person? If not, you are wrong.

It is a matter of how, when, and where.

Everyone is created in the image of God. God was a creative person. Therefore, we are creative people. If you doubt this, let’s take a trip to the local restaurant salad bar. You start with some iceberg lettuce, but no spinach leaves. Then you add carrots, tomato, peas, mushrooms, and some bacon bits, but no olives or hard-boiled egg. You top it off with croutons and one of six delicious salad dressings. You have created something unique and new. No one has ever made a salad exactly the same as yours.

The creative process begins by coming up with as many ideas as you can. Here quantity counts, not quality. The next step is to go back and evaluate each idea, deciding whether to delete it, or improve on it. Here, quality counts, not quantity. If you evaluate each idea as it comes to mind the process will not work. It is difficult to avoid passing judgment on ideas when they are first presented or come to mind, but it is important to separate these two steps, as they each require a different kind of thinking. Making a judgment restricts the creative process, and will leave you with fewer good ideas to work with.

Your personality type usually determines “How” or in what way you are creative. Builders and Leaders (see my article on Understanding Yourself and Understanding Others) think linearly - as a straight line. They create by extending the line through logic. Most of their ideas are modifications or an extension of an existing idea. Thomas Edison was a linear thinker. He created the light bulb by trying 1,600 different materials to make a light bulb that would pass his test.

Artisans and Actors think more like people playing a game of “Pickup Sticks.” They pick up a stick, and then another stick, which they place in a relationship to the first stick. These types of people are more likely to come up with something completely novel. They think outside the box because there is no box. Albert Einstein used this method. He started by picking up the first stick, which was energy. Then he added the second stick, mass, and followed with the third stick, light. By putting this combination together he came up with his famous formula: energy equals mass times the speed of light squared (E=mc²). By creating this new understanding of how the universe works he changed the world.

There are essentially three kinds of creativity: intentional, contemplative, and instantaneous. All of us can use all three kinds. Thomas Edison was very intentional about his creativity, carefully recording the results of each test. Albert Einstein was contemplative – reportedly thinking for long hours in front of his fireplace, watching the flames. Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, on the other hand, said he got the idea for his book “Killing Jesus” when he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night with a flash of insight. NFL quarterbacks are also known to be instantaneous creators. When the ball is given to them by the Center, they fall back waiting for the play to develop. If the play does not develop as planned, the quarterback has to come up with a new plan within seconds. This capability separates a great quarterback from a good quarterback.

So, if you are at home planning and preparing a meal, or at work solving some problem, you can be creative. When you wake up tomorrow morning, try something new- use your imagination. Creativity is a fun experience. Try it.