What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the word "Creative?" My guess is that some of your responses were things like art, design, musical, and other qualities associated with art and design.
This is something that I'm battling. My first thoughts when I hear the word "Creative" is much like the list above; however, I'm trying to change my thinking on this. I want to break the association between the words Artistic and Creative. I am not very artistic, but I have found that I can be pretty creative.
An artistic person is a great writer, designer, artist, or musician. It is a skill--often natural, but still learnable--that helps someone create art. However, a creative person is someone who comes up with innovative solutions.
Yes, it is true, creativity can be applied to art, but that's not the only way it can be applied. What problem solving skills have you used? If you have trouble answering that question, first think about challenging questions you have answered, then try to think back to how you came up with the answer.
On any given day at my job, I will be asked to design, type, transcribe, do mail merges, manipulate Excel spreadsheets and Access databases, as well as performing quality checks on my work. I often get to be artistically creative, which isn't my favorite and analytically creative, which is a lot of fun for me.
How do you develop creativity for your work and hobbies?
