You know, growing up I had this strange idea that people were born into things and their environment and personal development wouldn’t have much of an impact on who they were or what talents they would possess. I was convinced you could only be intelligent, or creative, but not both. You could be a musician, but then you’d be terrible at maths. If you were athletic, you would be a failure in the classroom. If you were a nerd, you’d have no social skills.
My thinking was very black and white. Perhaps it was a product of the niches formed in the average schoolyard. People clump together into groups. Nerds stay with nerds. Social outcasts stick with social outcasts. Popular kids group together. Athletes hang out together. This can give the false impression that people are one-dimensional and either-or. You’re either smart or athletic, but not both. Nerdy or popular, but not both.
In school, I was intelligent, a bit of a social outcast and very much a computer geek. Those things were what I defined myself by. Being called anything different would have felt like an attack on my (fragile at the time) ego.
I was so invested in my self-perception as “one of the intelligent kids” that any time somebody praised me for doing something creative, I took it as an offense. I couldn’t fathom the idea you could be different things at the same time. I’m intelligent, who the heck are you to call me creative? Everything in life seemed very black and white to me.
Funny thing was, I was creative in so many ways back then. I was one of the funniest people in my year group. Witty too. I spent hours a day playing around in Photoshop, creating website designs, experimenting in Flash and building crappy little games I was proud of. I loved working on things – it almost didn’t matter what the project was, as long as I was building something. I had a very active imagination and it came out in lots of creative expressions.
But still I held onto this concept that I was intelligent but not creative. Hell, I shunned creative “arty-farty” types. I looked down on people who were good at music, art, photography, really any form of creative expression. What a dick.
I had no concept of brain neuroplasticity.
I assumed the way you were now, was the way you would always be.
This all changed a few years ago, when I started enjoying more creative outlets like photography and writing. When I first picked up a camera (and for the next few months) it felt so strange to be embracing my creative side. And the more I practiced being creative, the easier it became. Creativity started to feel… natural.
I’ve come to realise that, much like everything else, creativity is a skill. It’s something to be exercised, worked on, improved through continual use. Just like being fit, being funny, being a social person, being good with the opposite sex, etc – all of these are skills that can be learned and improved.
Most creative and successful people got where they are through hard work, determination and continual practice (save for the extremely rare cases of the naturally-gifted).
Creativity is a skill. Creativity is a muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it becomes; the more creative a person you become.
Go work that creativity today.