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Writer's pictureFehmida Chipty

What Is Creativity?

Updated: Dec 8, 2022



Creativity is a vital component of progress, growth, and change. It allows us to innovate, pivot quickly, and makes life more colorful. In order to reach our creative potential, we must start at the beginning and truly understand what the word means.


How do we define creativity?


Oxford Languages defines creativity as the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. I believe we can break it down even further.


Creativity is the process of creating something new, or the production of something new that is meaningful to the creator or to someone else.


Creativity is often about problem solving. It is just as important to be able to think outside of the box as it is to navigate within the confines of a box.


Creativity is all about process. The act of creating can be arduous, it is both the practice and process that define the creation. If the practice and process are persistent, the product will speak for itself.


Creativity can exist in the small changes and the large steps.


Creativity is interdisciplinary.


Creativity is the ability to take risks.


Creativity is making mistakes, learning from them, and trying something new.



"Creativity is all about process. The act of creating can be arduous, it is both the practice and process that define the creation. If the practice and process are persistent, the product will speak for itself. "

Can creativity be nurtured?


We are all born with innate creative intelligence and curiosities.


Children are joyful, playful beings. They are not afraid to make something new out of building blocks. They do not limit their imagination, as there are limitless possibilities for what those building blocks could become. They do not care what others think; they are playing, exploring, and creating. They trust themselves.


As we grow older and go to school, we start becoming afraid of criticism, afraid of being wrong, and afraid of being considered irresponsible or childish. We begin to value the final product over the process. We grow out of our creativity.


Traditional education systems today place art and creativity at the bottom of the education pyramid. This is because academic schools as we know them were created to fulfill the needs of the Industrial Revolution.


In a TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson stated that children will need creativity in the world of the future, as its needs are unimaginable now. He says that in fact “creativity is just as important as literacy”.


We are all innately creative. Telling yourself that you are not creative limits your creative capacity.


We all have vast quantities of untapped creative potential and with practice and nurturing, we can begin to access it.


"Creativity is a vital component of progress, growth, and change."

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