Our creative ability is very difficult to measure because it can manifest in so many surprising and unexpected ways. As we go about our daily lives, our creativity comes to the forefront to assist us to overcome the problems and challenges that bring excitement and new experiences into our lives. Every time we successfully break through these obstacles we grow and expand our awareness about ourselves, others, circumstances and the world around us. Within this branch of the IQ Matrix we will delve into the dramatic influence that our creative capacity has on our quality of life and daily undertakings. We will also touch upon the evolution of creativity and how it grows and develops through childhood and eventually begins to decline as we grow older, and supposedly wiser. Finally we will quickly touch upon the concept of creative inspiration, and pinpoint some methods that will help you to identify your bursts of creativity.
Our Creative Capacity has a Wide Circle of Influence
In a lot of ways, I feel that we as a society underestimate the value and influence that our creative capacity has on a variety of different aspects of our lives. Our creative capacity is in fact so far reaching that you could effectively come to the conclusion that the quality of our lives is basically determined by the quality of our creative thinking. Let’s now look into this in a little more detail:
Determines Academic Success
Your creative capacity effectively determines your academic success, ability, effectiveness, efficiency and your flexibility of thought. There is no doubt that at school our Logical Intelligence is looked upon with high regard. The better capacity you have to remember key concepts, ideas and make sense of the information you are learning, the better marks you will achieve. However, in the classroom, creativity is in fact as important if not more important than your intellectual capacity. Your intellect might help you to understand key concepts and ideas, however it is your creative capacity that will help you to think in unorthodox ways, – somewhat outside the box – helping you to learn more efficiently, effectively and flexibly at the same time. Intellectuals are somewhat like computer programs that are fed information and data. On the other hand, creative individuals shift, change, expand, and alter this data in ways that will help them to improve their effectiveness and efficiency of learning. To put it another way, an intellectual will follow the instructions of the book to the letter without wavering or making a mistake. However, a creative individual will come up with brilliant ideas and methods that will help them to improve their speed of learning, reading, comprehension and proficiency.
Determines Career Advancement
Your creative capacity effectively determines how quickly you will advance your way up the career ladder. Almost anyone with a passion for a specific niche area, can learn and develop the skills to become proficient and reliable. Companies like to hire these types of people because they have a good sound knowledge base and understanding of their work responsibilities. However, in order to advance up the career ladder it takes a little more than a solid base of knowledge and experience. It actually requires the creative capacity to think outside the box about methods, tactics and strategies that will improve efficiency, effectiveness, grow profits, and enhance customer loyalty. It essentially doesn’t matter where you are currently positioned within your company. If you develop enough creative momentum you can climb up the corporate ladder in very quick succession with only a few groundbreaking creative ideas.
Determines Quality of Life
Your creative capacity effectively determines the quality of your life. First of all, the success you experience within any segment of your life is based upon the flexibility of thought you utilize to overcome daily life challenges. Secondly, your happiness is a direct reflection of the fulfillment and satisfaction you obtain from attaining your life’s goals and ambitions. So effectively, our success, happiness, fulfillment and living out our true full potential as human beings, builds the groundwork and foundation for the quality of our lives.
Determines Quality of Thinking & Idea Generation
Your creative capacity effectively determines the quality and process of your thinking. Our whole lives are build upon the foundations of idea generation. The more creative we are in coming up with clever ideas that will help us get what we want most in life, the better off we will be. The greater the creative capacity we cultivate and grow within ourselves, the better the ability we will have to expand our understanding and awareness about everything that life throws our way.
Determines What we have Access to
Your creative capacity effectively determines your access to information, opportunities and resources. As we expand our minds and begin thinking outside the box, we start to understand and comprehend things from unique angles and perspectives; that we probably never considered before. As a result, this naturally brings forth into our field of awareness new pieces of information, unexpected realizations and opportunities that were previously hidden from our sensory experience.
Determines Our Intrinsic Ability
Your creative capacity effectively determines your intrinsic ability to learn and effectively overcome problems that confront your daily reality. Because of our “web-like” interacting society, it is easy to understand that people will not always agree, that things will not always go as planned, and that unexpected surprises may be lying behind every corner. Given this, we must learn to adapt and adjust our daily tactics and methods of behavior in ways that will get us what we want despite the challenges and obstacles in our wake. This essentially requires a period of learning and adjustment that can only come through our creative thinking process and capacity. Hence, the more creative we are while tackling our daily life problems and obstacles, the faster we will learn and master the challenges that life throws our way,
Evolution of Creativity through Childhood
Science has shown that we are all indeed born with the capacity to think creatively about the events and circumstances of our lives. However, over time this capacity seems to diminish and decline. Why is that? Are we doing something that naturally pushes our creative expression out of our daily life and interactions with others? Or is it something that is done to us by others? Let’s take a look at this in a little more detail:
Expansion of Creativity through Pre-School
For most of us, pre-school was a place where we predominantly had fun and played games. Yes of course, there was no doubt that it was also a place for learning, however the learning didn’t seem difficult or arduous as we were always entertained and involved within a myriad of clever and unique activities that got our creative juices flowing. We also tended not to suffer from the stress, anxiety and overwhelm that riddles our life experience today. Why is that? Maybe it was because we had a childlike approach to every new sensory learning experience. Or maybe it was the encouragement, support and freedom for creative expression that brought about our stress-free existence.
Decline of Creativity through High School
As we grow older and more mature we progress through to high school where suddenly we find our creative capacity squashed against a wall of criticism, judgment and punishment. One of the biggest drawbacks of our current high school system is in its inability to help students develop and expand on their creative capacity and intellect. Within the high school system students are punished for their mistakes, they are judged for their thinking and processing of information, and they are criticized for their weaknesses. All of this leads to a stressful learning environment that predominantly provides group attention and limits learning to only the visual and auditory sensory organs. Psychological studies have revealed that during pre-school 9 out of every 10 kids show a capacity for creative thought. However, as they progress through to high school, that number drops to 3 out of 10. What in the world is happening to our creative capacity? What are we doing wrong? How are we hurting our kids with our teaching methods? This is a long, deep and thought provoking topic that we may discuss in further detail another time.
Identifying the Creativity Spark
Creativity is something that at times seems so very illusive and out of reach. It is something that can come to us without a moments notice, and yet it can also instantly be lost if not harnessed in the correct manner. We will discuss strategies on how to stimulate creativity a little later on. however for now it is important to become aware of our creative tendencies so that we are better prepared for the messages that they send our way. For starters it is important to understand that creativity comes to all of us in a variety of different ways. For some people it comes as a burst of joy, excitement, inspiration or energy, while for others it may come through a subtle means that is more difficult to recognize. In the end, it doesn’t matter through which methods or mannerisms creativity comes to you, the most important thing is to learn to recognize and understand your body’s patterns of communicating the subtle messages that often get obscured by reality. Many creative ideas are lost before they even have an opportunity to harvest within our minds, because we simply fail to recognize the obscure patterns of their subtle messages. The solution lies hidden within our habitual patterns of thinking and behaving. By learning to watch and observe these subtle patterns, you will naturally condition your body to take notice of the creative messages that are coming your way.