Innate creativity is the norm

In Creativity, Insight

I was at networking event recently in Geneva and a consultant there was pitching his change management consultancy and asked everyone in the room who thought they were creative.  Half the hands went up.  And then asked us in 30 seconds to come up with 20 things to do with an elastic band, which we all did.  OK, I thought.  It was the next thing he said that really pulled me up: he said ‘did you know, we all come up with 2 or 3 creative thoughts every day’.  Err, no. I thought.  My figure for each of us is 50,000 – 60,000 thoughts a day.  And every single thought is creative.  And that creativity is innate in all of us.  For example:

  • Do you ‘mind read’ or predict someone else’s actions or behaviour?
  • Come up with reasons why people do stuff?
  • Try to explain your own thoughts and behaviour?
  • Guess why someone hasn’t replied to your text/email or if they do, ‘read’ between the lines?

You see, this innate creativity is working whether you’re looking for new products or innovations, working out the office politics, or working out the latest plot line of your favourite TV soap opera.  It’s all creative.  And it’s all not real.  Or rather these thoughts never come from the email, text, other person, or office politics, they all come from you.  Independent of your circumstances.

And by the way, don’t try and control your thoughts.  It’s not possible.  They happen all by themselves.   Have a go – see how long you can hold the same thought before it’s replaced by another one.

The key thing is: it’s not what you think that’s important.  But, the fact that you think.

The creative genius within and around all of us is innate.  It’s already there.   There’s no need for creative techniques, 5-step processes, strategies to ‘create’ it.  All they do is get in the way.  It’s like shaking a snow-globe in your mind.  More techniques, strategies, ‘thinking about’ just keep

We are all just a thought away.

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