Creativity! What’s That?

“ Imagination is more important than knowledge.” ---- Albert Einstein

“Imagination properly employed is our greatest friend; it goes beyond reason and is the only light that takes us everywhere.”
----Swami Vivekananda

What does creativity mean?

I think creativity means thinking out of the box. Now that sounds cliché. ;) If you want to be creative you have to be original. I feel one can be creative with ideas, thoughts, and with anything around. Being creative does not necessarily mean thinking something new, but it can also mean tweaking an existing idea or a thing to make it better. Creativity means breaking the walls of one’s imagination. Creativity means manifesting ideas into reality. Creativity means envisioning that does not exist and how to bring it to pass. People have tried to be creative with things around them. The German artist Joseph Beuys claimed that "Every human-being is an artist", with the implication that we are all creative beings.

There are numerous instances to cite as apt examples of creativity. The best example of creativity is the famous Rock Garden in Chandigarh. The material used to set up the whole garden is glass bangles and things which people might have considered waste. Another example could be to make use of a day to day object differently.

A sales woman or a sale man who manages to sell a product or any article can be said as a creative person, in terms of the way he persuades the customer. A teacher who teaches in a class of fourty students manages to get her or his point across at least to a handful of students, that’s being creative. Another teacher teaching the same thing may not be able to do so with even 2 students. Being creative does not necessarily mean one should have aesthetic sense but how differently a job is carried out. The images below can be considered as live examples of creativity.

So how to keep the creative lamp burning?

I read somewhere that if one wants to become creative one has to spend a lot of time in learning about the subject one wants to show one’s creativity. I completely agree with this statement because if I don’t know how to say make paratha (Indian bread) on the first place I won’t be able to try and make various kinds of parathas (Indian bread). To wrap up I would say that creativity is a skill that is developed over time and with practice.

Inspiration and the quest for knowledge, to keep learning things that I do not know seems to be my main source of creativity. I believe everyone has the potential to be creative, but certain people seem to be more in tune with that part of themselves than others.

Credits:

Creative Ways to Recycle Ordinary Objects posted by ecoble