In life, many of us tend to think of creativity as something we're either born with or without. In this article, you’ll explore three powerful shifts to help to release limiting beliefs around creativity, so that you can harness your full creative power.

Some people believe that creativity is a trait, like agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and so on. Furthermore, they believe that it is a binary trait, meaning one is either creative, or not. That was me. In the past, I held the most detrimental self-limiting belief one could have: ‘I’m not a creative person’.

The words most commonly used by others and myself to describe myself were reliable, efficient, and productive. At work I learned and worked fast, and was great at executing what was tried and tested, and doing it to a high quality. But things like blue-sky thinking, coming up with fresh ideas and reinventing the wheel were not my strong suits.

Imagine my surprise when this year, in March, I was asked by a participant during one of my workshops, ‘What is something that has helped you remain confident in your creativity?’ At that moment, I felt incredibly proud, because the intentional practice and commitment I put into becoming a creative person had been witnessed and acknowledged by someone else.

If you believe you’re not a creative person, you’d likely either avoid things you consider ‘creative’, or attempt them while feeling afraid you’ll fail, which affects how you do them. Then you have a negative experience from such situations, other people observe your behavior, and they may think or say that you’re not creative, which reinforces your belief that you aren’t a creative person. In psychology, this is called the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Alternatively, you might list examples of scenarios or situations in the past that demonstrated your lack of creativity. As a result you feel convinced by yourself that you are indeed creative. This cognitive bias, when people tend to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. is called confirmation bias.

Many of us mistake being creative as being artistic. Though there is a significant overlap between people who are artistic and people who are creative, these are not the same. Britannica defines creativity as: the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.

Believe that creativity is inherent within you

Within the creative cycle, when we water a seed, it sprouts and grows into a tree, water. Creates wood. When we chop the bark of a tree, we have logs that we can use to start a fire. Wood creates fire. After the fire is extinguished, in the ashes and remains we find earth. Fire creates earth. And within the soil of the earth, we can find precious minerals and metals. Earth creates metal. We extract this metal to forge containers. And on the cool surface, condensation occurs, and droplets of water form. Metal creates water.

The creative cycle is proof that creativity is inherent within all living beings and things, and by virtue of being a living being, you have creative potential.

If you want to step into your creative potential, the first thing to do is to stop telling yourself you’re not creative. Remind yourself that creativity is a process and skill you can practice intentionally, something you can learn and get better at.

If you catch yourself thinking, I’m not creative, rephrase it to, I’m learning to become creative. I’m getting better every day.

Practice becoming more creative

And this brings me to my second point. Once you start seeing creativity as a skill, you realize that being creative is something that you can get better at with intentional practice. And so the second shift is to stop being passive about your current level of creativity, and instead intentionally practise to become more creative in your own way.

Because creativity is something valuable that I think I can get better at, it’s something that I intentionally sought to embody through my words, thoughts, and behaviors. 4-5 years ago, I picked it as one of my top 3 values to embody through my daily actions and in my career. Meaning, I was committing to a life of being creative (as opposed to stability or efficiency). In a given situation when, for example, there was a tried and tested method which I knew was fail-proof, instead of taking that route, I often asked myself these questions:

  • How can I innovate? How can I continue to grow?
  • What is a better way of doing this that hasn’t been discovered yet?
  • How can I solve this annoying problem I’m facing (that others are probably too)?

You don’t have to do it like how I did. You can intentionally practice to become more creative in your own way. Maybe you set aside ‘creative time’ each week to read a book by a creative thought leader you admire. Or you do another activity that makes you feel creative, like experimenting with a new way of doing things, or trying a new sport or activity.

The most important thing is that you set the intention, and you dedicate time to practice.

Creativity is a skill, and like all other skills we can all get better at it, it just takes mindful practice and time.

Take a few moments and ask yourself, "How might I practice becoming more creative?" "How might I have fun in the process?"

Embrace non-linear growth

When I first started doing research on the creative cycle and cyclical learning, I came across the book Lifelong Kindergarten, written by Mitch Resnick, professor of learning research at the MIT media lab. Within his book, Mitch introduces a great model for learners of all ages: the creative learning spiral.

Professor Resnick spends an extensive amount of time observing and conducting research on preschool children. He noticed that preschool kids are constantly designing, creating, experimenting, and exploring, following a general trajectory.

For example, Jess imagines a vehicle, for example, a tractor, for her Lego character. Then Jess creates the tractor using the material that is available (e.g. Lego). She then plays with her creation. She shares it with friends. While playing, the tractor isn’t stable and falls apart. The teacher shows pictures of tractors, and Jess understands how she can make it more stable, and embarks on imagining and creating her new and improved tractor.

This process, what he calls the creative learning spiral, happens to also be the journey you have taken, the creative cycle, through the five elements or phases of receiving insight and ideas, creating a clear vision and plan, taking action, sharing and celebrating, and reflecting and refining.

Because there are phases within the creative cycle, you might think that they are steps, which you can complete one by one, like things on your to-do list that you can check off as ‘done’. In a similar way, it’s easy to think of personal growth as a series of linear decisions – a process of taking one clear-cut step after the other, in a predictable and sensible way.

The truth is, however, that though there is a framework and process for the creative cycle, your learning and growth is not linear, it’s multi-dimensional.

Growth and transformation may sometimes be invisible, and only show itself at the right moment. The growth beneath the surface is equally, if not more important than the growth that is visible. For example, we may see our hair and nails grow, but we don’t see the new cells emerging every day within our body.

Going back to the example of Jess creating her tractor, we might see the moment when her first tractor falls apart as a moment of anguish and disappointment. She might cry, throw a tantrum, or refuse to ever come into contact with tractors again.

Conversely, we might witness her beaming in a moment of triumph when her 10th tractor glides smoothly across the tracks as her classmates cheer her on. All the crying, tantrums, falling apart, mistakes and failures led to this pivotal moment.

The third and most powerful shift you can make is to remind yourself that growth is not linear. Though there may be a framework or trajectory for learning, your growth is not linear.

Conclusion

Unlocking your creativity isn't about being perfect or following a straight path. It's about believing in yourself, practising a little every day, and embracing the ups and downs along the way. Remember, creativity is a journey, not a destination. So let's embrace the messy, beautiful process together, and see where it takes you!