The Creative Mindset: Can it be Taught or is it Innate?

Creativity is a combination of different qualities and skills that can be learned. We were all creative as a child. It was when we grew older that we lost parts of our creative skills.

There are people in the world who genuinely believe they are not creative. As if in the past, they never as a child had a huge fantasy and never made a beautiful – sometimes meaningless – drawing. Everyone is creative by nature.

The problem is that some people have suppressed some of the characteristics of creativity in such a way that their creativity doesn’t come to the surface.

If you believe that you have lost your creativity, it is essential first to understand what creativity is. Most encyclopedias describe creativity as the ability to invent something new. It is not incorrect, but it is incomplete.

Creativity is also often only linked to artists and advertisers. Again not incorrect, but incomplete. Therefore below is an overview of what creativity consists of.

The essential qualities to use your creativity

Creativity is a collective term of various qualities. That is why it is difficult to get a grip on the concept of creativity. We usually use examples of the outcome of creativity instead of describing what it is.

Creativity consists essentially of the synergy between the following qualities:

• Originality The ability to come up with original ideas, thoughts, and solutions from scratch.
• Innovate The ability to improve something that already exists through small or large adjustments.
• Concept thinking The ability to think thematically and give meaning to a whole of factors.
• Being able to put concepts into practice The ability to convert thematic ideas into concrete elements.
• Mental flexibility The ability to view objects, ideas, words, and thoughts from different angles without taking your truth as a fixed fact.
• Can switch quickly The ability not to get stuck in 1 range of ideas and to be able to release your truth and opinions quickly.

To be creative (again), a combination of the above qualities and skills is needed. These are all qualities that an average person has little trouble learning.

Creativity | You are not what you create!

As mentioned before, creativity is not something you never had, and you have to learn now. You have unlearned it yourself. Almost all children score a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 when it comes to the combination of skills needed to be creative.

As a child, you could proudly present a jumble of pen stripes on paper as if it were the most detailed reflection of your beloved teddy bear. You had no shame about your creation that only you understood. You did not identify yourself with what you created.

Anxiety by obstructing beliefs can hold you back from showing creativity

By identifying yourself with what you create, you risk taking feedback on the creation and see this as criticism of you as an individual. Most of us do not speak openly about or present our creations because of the fear of rejection.

The belief that you are what you make, say, or fantasize about is what is called obstructing beliefs. You are much more than just your creation! Many people who do not call themselves creative have a form of reduced resilience. It is the art of dealing with setbacks like negative feedback or not even experiencing a setback.

People who are resilient will never take feedback personally and ventilate their ideas, creations, or fantasies without any fear or shame. They understand that not every creation works out. These are often referred to as creative people and creative people fail the most.