Creativity is a process, not an event
In 1666, one of the most influential scientists in history was strolling through a garden when he was struck by a flash of creative brilliance that would change the world.
While standing in the shade of an apple tree, Sir Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground. "Why should that apple always descend perpendicular to the ground?" Newton wondered. “Why should it not go sideways or up, but constantly towards the center of the earth? Without a doubt, the reason is that the land attracts her. There must be a power of attraction in matter. "
And thus the concept of gravity was born.
The story of the falling apple has become one of the iconic and enduring examples of the creative moment. It is a symbol of the inspired genius that fills your brain during those "eureka moments" when creative conditions are just right.
However, what most people forget is that Newton worked on his ideas of gravity for almost twenty years until, in 1687, he published his groundbreaking book, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. The fall of the apple was simply the beginning of a train of thought that continued for decades.
Newton isn't the only one who has struggled with a great idea for years. Creative thinking is a process for everyone. In this article, I'll share the science of creative thinking, discuss which conditions drive creativity and which hinder it, and offer practical tips for getting more creative.
Creative thinking: destiny or development?
Creative thinking requires our brain to make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. Is this a skill we are born with or one we develop through practice? Let's take a look at the research to discover an answer.
In the 1960s, a creative performance researcher named George Land conducted a study of 1,600 five-year-olds and 98 percent of the children scored in the "highly creative" range. Dr. Land reassessed each subject in five-year increments. When the same children were 10 years old, only 30 percent scored in the highly creative range. This number dropped to 12 percent at age 15 and only 2 percent at age 25. As children became adults, they effectively exercised creativity in them. In the words of Dr. Land, "non-creative behavior is learned."
Other researchers have discovered similar trends. For example, a study of 272,599 students found that although IQ scores have increased since 1990, creative thinking scores have decreased.
This does not mean that creativity is learned 100 percent. Genetics play a role. According to psychology professor Barbara Kerr, "about 22 percent of the variation [in creativity] is due to the influence of genes." This discovery was made by studying the differences in creative thinking between pairs of twins.
All of this to say, stating that "I'm just not the creative type" is a pretty weak excuse to avoid creative thinking. Certainly some people are prepared to be more creative than others. However, almost all people are born with some level of creative ability and most of our creative thinking skills can be trained.
Now that we know that creativity is a skill that can be improved, let's talk about why, and how, practice and learning affect your creative output.
Intelligence and creative thinking
What does it take to unleash your creative potential?
As I mentioned in my article on threshold theory, being in the top 1 percent intelligence has no correlation with being incredibly creative. Instead, you simply have to be smart (not a genius) and then work hard, deliberately practice, and do your reps.
As long as you meet a threshold of intelligence, then brilliant creative work is within your grasp. In the words of the researchers in a 2013 study, "we got evidence that once the intelligence threshold is reached, personality factors become more predictive of creativity."
Growth mindset
What exactly are these "personality factors" that researchers refer to when it comes to boosting your creative thinking?
One of the most critical components is how you view your talents internally. More specifically, your creative abilities are largely determined by whether you approach the creative process with a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
The differences between these two mindsets are described in detail in Carol Dweck's fantastic book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (audiobook).
The basic idea is that when we use a fixed mindset, we approach tasks as if our talents and abilities are fixed and immutable. However, in a growth mindset, we believe that our skills can be improved with effort and practice. Interestingly, we can easily nudge ourselves in one direction or another based on how we speak and praise our efforts.
Here's a short summary in Dweck's words:
“The whole self-esteem movement wrongly taught us that praising intelligence, talent, and abilities would foster self-confidence, self-esteem, and everything great would come later. But we have found it to be counterproductive. People who are praised for their talent now worry about doing the following, taking on the difficult task and not looking talented, tarnishing that reputation for brilliance. Instead, they will stay in their comfort zone and get really defensive when they have setbacks.
So what should we praise? The effort, the strategies, the tenacity and perseverance, the courage that people show, the resistance they show in the face of obstacles, the recovery when things go wrong and knowing what to try next. So I think a big part of promoting a growth mindset in the workplace is conveying those process values, giving feedback, rewarding the people who are involved in the process, and not just a successful outcome. "
—Carol Dweck
Shame and creativity
How can we apply the growth mindset to creativity in practical terms? In my experience, it comes down to one thing: the willingness to look bad when doing an activity.
As Dweck says, the growth mindset is more about process than outcome. This is easy to accept in theory, but very difficult to accomplish in practice. Most people don't want to deal with the accompanying embarrassment that is often required to learn a new skill.
The list of mistakes you can never recover from is very short. I think most of us realize this on some level. We know that our lives will not be destroyed if that book we write does not sell or if we are rejected on a potential date or if we forget someone's name when we present it. It is not necessarily what comes after the event that concerns us. It's the possibility of looking stupid, feeling humiliated, or dealing with embarrassment along the way that keeps us from getting started.
To fully embrace the growth mindset and enhance your creativity, you must be willing to act on these feelings that so often deter us.
How to be more creative
Assuming you're willing to do the hard work of facing your inner fears and overcoming failure, here are some practical strategies to get more creative.
Check yourself. Carefully designed restraints are one of your best tools to spark creative thinking. Dr. Seuss wrote his most famous book when he was limited to 50 words. Soccer players develop more elaborate skill sets when they play on a smaller field. Designers can use a 3-by-5-inch canvas to create better large-scale designs. The more we limit ourselves, the more resourceful we become.
Write more. For almost three years, I posted a new article every Monday and Thursday on JamesClear.com. The more I became attached to this program, the more I realized that I had to write a dozen average ideas before I discovered a brilliant one. By producing a volume of work, I created a larger surface area for a creative spark to hit me.
Not interested in sharing your writing publicly? Julia Cameron's Morning Pages routine is a great way to use writing to increase your creativity, even if you don't intend to write for others.
Expand your knowledge. One of my most successful creative strategies is to force myself to write about seemingly disparate topics and ideas. For example, I have to get creative when I use basketball strategies from the 1980s or old word processing software or Zen Buddhism to describe our daily behaviors. In the words of psychologist Robert Epstein, "You will do better in psychology and in life if you expand your knowledge."
Sleep more. In my article on how to sleep better, I shared a study from the University of Pennsylvania, which revealed the incredible impact of sleep on mental performance. The main finding was this: Sleep debt is cumulative and if you sleep 6 hours a night for two weeks in a row, your mental and physical performance drops to the same level as if you had been awake for 48 hours in a row. Like all cognitive functions, creative thinking is significantly affected by lack of sleep.
Enjoy the sun and nature. One study tested 56 backpackers with a variety of creative thinking questions before and after a 4-day backpacking trip. The researchers found that by the end of the trip, the backpackers had increased their creativity by 50 percent. This research supports findings from other studies, which show that spending time in nature and increasing exposure to sunlight can lead to higher levels of creativity.
Embrace positive thinking. It sounds a bit fluffy for my taste, but positive thinking can lead to significant improvements in creative thinking. Why? Research in positive psychology has revealed that we tend to think more broadly when we are happy. This concept, known as the extend and build theory, makes it easy for us to make creative connections between ideas. On the contrary, sadness and depression seem to lead to more restrictive and limited thinking.
Send it. The honest truth is that creativity is just hard work. The best thing to do is choose a pace that you can maintain and consistently deliver content. Commit to the process and create a schedule. The only way creativity becomes a reality is by submitting.
Final thoughts on creative thinking
Creativity is a process, not an event. It's not just a eureka moment. You have to overcome mental barriers and internal blocks. You have to deliberately commit to practicing your craft. And you have to go through the process for years, maybe even decades like Newton did, to see your creative genius flourish.
The ideas in this article offer a variety of approaches on how to be more creative. If you are looking for additional practical strategies on how to improve your creativity habits, read my free guide called Mastering Creativity
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