Learner's Delight: September 2016

“A creative person is both, more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.”- Frank Barron, a World War II veteran and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California

It’s often very difficult to describe a creative person. Their personality is guided by a multitude of characteristics and it often becomes hard to comprehend their behaviour. However, if we observe closely there will be several common traits that guide the attitude of creative people. This article will help you to understand and resolve this conundrum of creative behaviour!

Here is the list of top 7 typical traits of highly creative people:

Boredom

“The life of creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.”- Susan Sontag, American writer and filmmaker

Creative minds avoid being bored by being engaged in creative activities. They cannot work on tasks which do not stimulate their mind. They are always ready to tackle new challenges and they don’t mind delays if they believe that they are progressing in the right direction. In fact, driving away boredom is the primary reason behind their creativity!

Creative Imagination (Daydreaming)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”-Albert Einstein

Creative people do not restrain themselves on the pretence of being practical. For them, anything is possible because they clearly visualize their goals. Most of their time is spent on getting their vision right. Once they see what they want, they become relentless! Moreover, most of the time their vision is so massive that practically cannot be accomplished in their lifetime. Yet, they commit themselves to their vision with complete conviction.

Love for solitude

“In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.”-Rollo May, author of the influential book Love and Will

Creative people love spending time with themselves and most of them are introverts. They find their answers in the silence of solitude. They are not afraid of being alone. They try to get away from the noisy world to think in peace. All their creative ideas are the products of the time which they spend alone!

Self doubt

“The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.”-Sylvia Plath, Poet and Novelist

Yes, creative people are critical about their ideas! They are the first ones to doubt themselves. However, the immense self-belief and trust in their own abilities drive them to continue with their ideas. Moreover, the greatest weapon which they possess in their arsenal is the trust they have in their own instincts.

Lost in time

“Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.”-Austin Kleon, author of the book Steal like an Artist

Albert Einstein used to spend most of his time in the evenings staring out of the window in his room. Doesn’t that sound weird? The minds of creative people wander in the world of infinitely possible solutions to the problem they are working on. It might look to the outside world as if they have lost the contact with the reality. The truth is that their minds might be working towards unimaginable, unpredictable and awesome ideas!

Craziness

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”-Apple Think different ad campaign

Call them crazy, mad or maverick; creative people tend to possess the quality of grabbing public attention with their bizarre thoughts and actions. They have their own whims and fancies, the opinions of others matter very little to them, and most importantly they carry with them the attitude which may not be appreciated by all. Yet, they have their own circle of aficionadi!

Intuition

“Creativity is about play a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?”-Frank Gehry, Architect

Creative people trust their gut. And more often than not, all the laws of logical reasoning and careful analysis go berserk in comparison to the decisions made by creative minds. Their ability to take risk and trust in their intuition is often accompanied by astounding success!