We’ve all been creative at some point

You think you aren't creative, that you have no new ideas or thoughts. You admire others who are creative.

The old saying that there is nothing new under the sun is really true. We are only co-creators. Being creative as we know it is simply combining ideas or concepts that already exist and then rearranging them to find a solution or to come up with something which is new and different. First, we want to try something new or we may want to change the rules a bit. In every phase of life, problems arise or routines need changing. Solving problems requires concentration, often persistence, and always study and analysis. In everyday life, we use our "creativity" to make out life better, by expressing ideas and following through on putting them into use. Rules may become ineffective or even obsolete. Change is in order. So if you think you aren't creative, take a look.

Here are some steps that you may recognize as ones which have led you to being creative and original.

• You want to do something different. Design a dress, paint a picture, write a story. Or you simply say, there has to be a better way of doing that.

• You begin to think about what you want to do. Or you begin to dwell on the problem, the very source of the irritation which bugs you.

• You gather information, as many facts as possible about the situation or the article, as well as similar ones which may have been studied or made by others.

• You break a few rules, rearrange or knock down the blocks of discovery.

• You begin to sort through the information, ranking, prioritizing, discarding, combining, separating and assimilating. Depending on the strength of your desire to accomplish this task, you become a sponge, soaking up all you can on the idea you have. You may discuss it with many others, or you may act independently as you ponder your plan.

• You have been persistent, have reached the point of absorbing all that you can, so now you can put the matter on the back burner, letting it simmer as you think about other things. You turn away from this festering idea and let it rest.

Then the creative thoughts come. It may be as a thought out of the blue or it may come to you when you are thoroughly rested and removed from the source of irritation. It may even come to you in a dream. Remember how Archimedes shouted "Eureka" upon his water replacement discovery, the result of a problem which bugged him into action.

In everyday life, think of the homemaker who "creates" a new recipe by stirring up ingredients of several familiar ones. Or the architect who takes an old design of shapes and forms, rearranges them, and draws a breathtaking new building. Or the CEO who recognizes that a problem exists and studies and analyzes it until a resolution is found. The one right answer might have stopped him from looking at other possible answers. Or a committee of people who seek to resolve and find a better way to perform a task. They find that sharing thoughts and bouncing ideas around can dislodge assumptions that "this is the only way to do it." There is usually a better way to build a mousetrap.

Being creative means seeing a different way of putting other ideas and forms and concepts together. We can all be co-creators.

Copyright c 1997 Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D.