Creative thinking - a sport metaphor

Creative thinking is a skill that can be acquired, cultivated and refined over time.

Despite the over-simplistic idea that some of us are more creative than others, we are all born creative; the question is: how much creativity have we lost along the way?

It’s persuasive to think that creativity, in a way, is like youth - we lose it by ageing. The good news though is that there is no DOB on your creativity cert!

I’m prone to think about creativity as a muscle; it can be weak or strong based on the use we make of it. So, you can be young but not creative, or mature and well able to think differently.

Along these lines, creativity is closer to Tai chi rather than Kung fu.

Tai chi requires fluidity of the movements and creativity involves fluidity of thoughts. Too frequently though, in our effort to become better at creativity, we play Kun fu, and it should come as no surprise if we get hurt.

Another important observation is that fostering our creative thinking requires us to stop thinking about competitors as the enemy that must be defeated, and accepting that the worse enemy is within ourselves.

We are slaves of our current interpretation of the world.

To conclude, creativity, like any other skill, requires dedication and commitment, and we must cultivate it to reach our potential as creative thinkers. To become fluid in our thinking.

When are you going to give a Tai chi a go?