Overcome fear to have creative confidence
From when you were a child until now, how creative have you been? If not, why not? You are already a creative person full of ideas that you are not using to your advantage.
The book I recommend is Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom and David Kelley. These brothers, partner and founder of the IDEO organization look at the idea that people are creative even though many do not consider themselves so.
The bottom line is where you may have experienced a negative event as a child trying to be creative and innovative when other people made judgments or criticized your work. So you became sensitive to what was said and took it seriously. That may have been enough for you to stop showing how creative you wanted other people to see.
On the other hand, at school when your classmates gradually stopped being creative and innovative, you stopped too. This is where Gordon McKenzie, creative director of Hallmark Greeting Cards, documented the fading work of creativity in schools. He observed that children in both kindergarten and first grade felt they were two-handed artists when McKenzie asked “How many artists are in this room?” He found that starting in fourth grade, the number of creatives dropped to about 50 percent. Then, in sixth grade, the number of creative artists was reduced to just 2 or 3 in a classroom of 25 to 30 children.
Since everyone is creative, most people don’t use their creative thinking to push themselves to come up with ideas they can work on. Instead, they believe that they are not creative and keep that inside themselves as a fear. Fear is the biggest obstacle people face to creative success.
In order to reduce and even eliminate your fears regarding creativity and regain your creative confidence, Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura developed Guided Mastery. This problem helps you analyze your beliefs, their effectiveness, and how to improve through gradual successful activities. These creative activities become more difficult over time. They also address the fears you have and help you move forward. Understand that if you are not confident, your fears will prevent you from being confident.
Creativity and innovation are widely accepted as a driving force behind your business that thrives beyond survival mode. Most employers today hire people who are creative and innovative. They must demonstrate this during job interviews with various creative questions put to them. These go beyond the question that Microsoft posed when they started with Why is a manhole cover round?
By understanding Creative Confidence, you will begin to understand how you can create a better version of yourself by unleashing your creative potential beyond your expectations.
“Creativity is a great motivator because it gets people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there might be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives everyone the possibility of some kind of achievement. Creativity makes life more fun and interesting.
-Edward deBono