Many people rate creativity as something “different,” something “someone else” has, or a “natural” ability they were born without. They rate a specific creative form as art and other forms of creativity as work or producing product or not good enough. This kind of thinking minimizes the value of everyday creativity and elevates singing or dancing or painting (art) to an unattainable level. But creativity is a spectrum.
The Spectrum of Creativity
My post, “You Don’t Have to be an Artist to be Creative,” explains different ways you may be creative in your personal life and your business life. There are many, many more, more than anyone can count. Why? Creativity is a spectrum.
The spectrum is not from bad to good or untalented to gifted. It’s a nonlinear line with as many off-shoots as there are people in the world—probably more. Much more.
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.
Earl Nightingale
Think about that. The things you are enthusiastic about, whether it’s sports, or cars, or computers, or music, are areas along the spectrum of creativity. Each of those areas also has a spectrum. Not from bad to good, but from practical to fantastical, or from simple to highly detailed. And the “talent” you possess in each of these areas ranges from unused to highly original. It doesn’t matter where you fall in the spectrum. Where ever you are, there are skills you were born with and skills you learn and skills that are your unique twist on something.
Unused Creativity
Few people can develop more than one or two areas of creativity. Those who cannot often interpret this as meaning they are not creative. Far too many people use a broad brush and abuse themselves by thinking this. They limit themselves and leave their creativity at the unused end of the spectrum. If you call yourself uncreative, change your way of thinking about creativity. Imagine what you could do if you leaned into your area of enthusiasm, your passion. Lean into your passion areas.
From Chaos to Creativity
At first, when you follow your passion, your creativity in that area is chaotic. You may be unfamiliar with the guidelines or the tools that help your creativity make the leaps from what you know to what you create. As you read more about it, watch videos about it, play with it, your creativity is gathering the tools that will help you make that leap. Learning is also on a spectrum, from very rapid to very slow. Neither is good nor bad.
There is another interpretation of from chaos to creativity. There are some that believe chaos causes creativity as we humans crave an order we can understand. Perhaps that is yet another spectrum for us.
Open Yourself to Creativity
If there are only two things you take from this, I hope you broaden your definition of creativity in all its aspects and get rid of the idea of good and bad ideas or creations. Your creative output or the creation of another may not be to your taste or expectations, but that does not mean it isn’t an expression of creativity.
If creativity is an extension of your enthusiasm, what are you enthusiastic about?
Image Credit
Image by Hands off my tags! Michael Gaida from Pixabay
References
https://www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2018/arts-contribute-more-760-billion-us-economy
https://www.geenamatuson.com/blog/2019/8/creativity-is-a-spectrum-everyone-is-creative