Who doesn’t like the word creativity? Who wouldn’t want to create something new, innovative, and beautiful? Most of us admire those who consistently generate high-quality creative ideas and solutions, but this admiration often leads us to misunderstand what creativity truly is. We tend to believe that it’s some magical ability, a stroke of genius bestowed upon a chosen few. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Creativity is not a talent that you’re born with. It’s a product of consistent effort, hard work, and a deep curiosity about the world.
In my years as an art instructor, I’ve had countless parents approach me, asking if I could help make their child more creative. I always welcome this request with enthusiasm, but I often need to manage their expectations. Can you make someone creative? The answer is yes—but not in the way many people imagine. Especially with very young children, creativity as a structured, high-quality result isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s a long-term process built on a foundation of skills, memories, experimentation, and practice. And this process is not limited to children. The same applies to adults who want to develop their creative abilities.
Creativity vs. Imagination: Understanding the Difference
Many people often confuse creativity with imagination. Kids, for example, have vivid imaginations. They can create stories, worlds, and characters based on what fascinates them—whether it’s cartoons, toys, or games. But imagination on its own isn’t creativity. When we ask children to create something outside of the context of the activities they’re interested in, the result often falls short. Why? Because creativity, unlike imagination, is a combination of many factors, including knowledge, observation, discipline, and experimentation.
Imagination is an essential component of creativity, but it’s only one part of the equation. Children have the capability to imagine freely, drawing from their limited life experiences. They can conjure up entire universes filled with talking animals, magical lands, or heroic battles, but this imagination is usually based on things they are familiar with. Creativity, on the other hand, requires not just the ability to imagine, but the ability to combine different ideas, solve problems, and bring something new into existence. This requires a level of skill, experience, and memory that children simply haven’t built yet.
For adults, the challenge is often to get beyond imagination alone and focus on the process of combining ideas, experimenting with techniques, and arriving at a solution. This process requires persistence and the willingness to embrace failure, which is where many people stumble.
The Misunderstood Nature of Creativity
Creativity is often misunderstood, especially in today’s fast-paced world. Many people think of it as an innate, divine talent that some people have and others don’t. This perception has been perpetuated by media, marketing, and even social networks, where we often see only the polished end result of someone’s creative process, not the long hours of work, failure, and iteration that went into it.
But here’s the truth: you are not born creative. You may have certain natural inclinations, such as a talent for drawing, music, or storytelling, but that alone is not enough to sustain creativity. In fact, those with talent can sometimes fall into the trap of relying too heavily on it, without putting in the necessary work to refine their skills and ideas.
Creativity is not a magical gift that you either have or don’t. It’s a process. It’s the result of years of observation, experimentation, and practice. Just like you wouldn’t expect to run a marathon without training, you shouldn’t expect to produce high-quality creative work without putting in the time and effort to develop your skills. This applies whether you’re painting, writing, designing, or coming up with solutions to everyday problems.
Creativity as a Process
I like to think of creativity as a result, not a talent. It’s the consequence of many factors: observation, experimentation, intuition, discipline, knowledge, and more. It’s something you build up over time. When you put in the work, you’ll start to see creative results—ideas and outcomes that work and are new, either by combining existing elements in a fresh way or by creating something completely original. But those results don’t happen by accident. They are the product of hours of work, countless experiments, and often many failures.
In my experience, it’s more helpful to think of working towards a creative solution than it is to label someone as “creative.” When we label people as creative, we tend to draw conclusions about their abilities that may not reflect the reality of their process. For example, when we see a creative product, our minds often build a story around how that product came into being, and that story is usually far from the truth. We imagine the artist or creator having a “lightbulb moment,” an effortless stroke of genius that led to the final product. In reality, most creative ideas are the result of trial and error, revisions, and countless small decisions made along the way.
Social media and marketing often contribute to this false perception of creativity. We see the polished end product, but we don’t see the hours of hard work and frustration that went into it. We don’t see the failed attempts, the discarded ideas, or the revisions. We only see the success, which can make creativity seem like something that’s out of reach for ordinary people. But that’s not the case. Creativity is not about perfection or genius. It’s about persistence, experimentation, and a willingness to keep trying, even when things don’t go as planned.
The Path to Creativity
So how do you develop creativity? The answer is simple: through work. The more you practice, the more you learn, and the more you experiment, the more creative you will become. There’s no shortcut to creativity. It’s the result of hard work, curiosity, and a willingness to take risks.
You don’t have to be born with a special talent to be creative. You just need to be willing to put in the effort. Creativity is a process, and like any process, it takes time. The more you work, the more you’ll start to see connections between different ideas and experiences, and the more you’ll be able to combine those ideas into something new.
The key is to keep pushing yourself, to keep experimenting, and to keep learning.
If you think creativity is out of your reach, think again. Creativity is not a gift. It’s something you earn through hard work, perseverance, and practice. So give yourself the time and space to develop your creativity. Take risks, accept challenges, and don’t be afraid to fail. With time, your creative results will speak for themselves.
Let’s redefine creativity as a process, not a talent. The more you work, the more knowledge you acquire, the better your creative outcomes will be. Creativity is not some mysterious force that some people are born with and others aren’t. It’s the result of dedication, experimentation, and persistence. So if you’re waiting for that lightbulb moment, stop. Get to work. Challenge yourself, experiment, and trust the process. With time and effort, creativity will come.
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