Creativity: What Is It, Anyway?

People talk about creativity in all sorts of contexts—it’s used in reference to everything from ”scrap booking” to advertising, sculpture to physics, writing to teaching.

In other words, we associate creativity with an “otherness” that gives the impression that the creative idea isn’t grounded in anything in particular—like it’s floating around out there and we have to find it (or worse, invent it).

“Creativity is the ability or process in which someone identifies the rules or traditions of a set paradigm and then goes about interpreting, breaking, or bending them to bring about a new or previously unexplored connection.”

Simply understanding that creatively solving problems is making new connections between older ideas can kickstart your creative process and help you develop your creative capacities, no matter what you’re working on. It’s absolutely something you can cultivate.

Truly, creativity is the natural reciprocal of critical thinking. Read more at stayoutofschool.com