During January the spotlight is directed towards International Creativity Month. Created by Randall Munson, the purpose of International Creativity Month is to find time to explore creative ways to re-energize yourself and your colleagues, family and friends.

So what is creativity? Creativity is defined as a process for bringing something new into being. The creative person makes connections between one situation, object or thought and another, and this involves thinking, analyzing and then producing.

Created Creative?
Munson promotes that we were ‘created’ creative, giving the example of how creative young children are: “A center for creative learning studied the creativity of children and found that during the first five years 90% of children are highly creative. The next two years, ages six and seven, the percentage of highly creative children dropped to 10%. By age eight or nine, the percentage of highly creative children fell to only 2% and stayed about that level from that time on,” said Randall.

Creativity is not complicated. Kids do this all the time. And adults can too. You need to start from a place of imagination and free association.

Whether you’re a creative novice or expert, here are a few tips to help power up your creative juices during creativity month (and all the time!)

Creativity and Exploration
As adults take the time to play and explore. Go on a hike and collect random objects for the sake of this creative exercise.Base your collections on what feels interesting to you or spontaneous. With your collection of items, make various associations and categorize:

• color-add elements with similar color
• shape-find common shapes
• texture-look for consistent textures

So what’s the point? Observation! Observation is one of the key strengths in becoming more creative. It’s noticing, comparing, finding similarities and new combinations.

Curiosity
Curiosity is one of the drivers of creativity. When you stop asking ‘why’ or ‘what if’ or ‘how’, then you definitely need a creative boost. Creativity is all about discovery! Discovery is all about questions, curiosity and passion for knowing, understanding and expressing. Take the time to notice the details in nature, listen closely to the things around you, be alive to the world.

Observation

The action or process of observing something or someone carefully or in order to gain information.

Careful observation from a non-judgmental neutral position leads to stronger creative skills. Through observation you can understand and observe subtleties, patterns, and discover solutions to problems through trial and error (which starts with observation). Through awareness of your surroundings you gather information that is valuable for creative combinations. Go back to the exploration phase of finding and categorizing. Observing is paying attention, understanding and again categorizing what you learn so that you can make new and creative combinations. After all creativity is bringing something new into being. Before you can do this you have to have thoughts, objects, inspiration, ideas and more which result from exploration, curiosity and observation.

Of course there are many more factors to creativity.  It’s not black and white and you can find your own ‘formulas’ to enhance your creative growth. Make it a point each day to either explore, ask questions, observe with curiosity and express your thoughts and ideas and be sure to keep a visual journal of your ideas.

The best way to jump start your creativity is to get started.  Stop thinking, forget about processes and procedures and unleash your stream of thoughts.

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There is no doubt that artists, whether self-taught or otherwise, are creative, emotional, and often sensitive people. Did you know there are certain traits that most creative individuals share in common? Much of an artist’s success depends on the degree to which he or she develops these traits.

Here are a few of the traits those who are creative are believed to share:

Mental mobility – Is your mind mobile?

If you’re able to approach problems with a different perspective from most people, you’re mentally mobile. Creative types seek synthesis of new ideas, thinking in terms of contraries and opposites when it comes to problem solving.

Type T personality, or the “Big Trait.”

A willingness to take risks is a trait shared by many artists, and is a trait made up of three distinct characteristics: the ability to learn from your failures, understanding that your quest for creativity often involves failure, and seeking stimulation and excitement on an almost constant basis.

Persistence

Are you persistent? Artists get good at art by being persistent. Look at any great artist and you will see persistence and tenacity. There is something about the repetition and discipline of practicing art and the persistence of not giving up, that leads to success. Stay the course. Practice makes perfect.

Inner Motivation

As an artist or creative individual, you likely find developing your art a challenge which is completely satisfying and fulfilling; you thoroughly enjoy what you do, and find it a welcome challenge rather than “work.”

Passion

Being an artist is a work of passion. You feel excited about what you do. You find meaning and purpose in your artistic expression. Being passionate about your work brings fulfillment to your life. As Oprah Winfrey famously summed it up:

Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.

The Ability to be Objective

Are you objective? Seeking criticism from others is something most artists do, particularly those who are objective. You are able to judge your own ideas and concepts, and examine your projects without ego getting in the way. If you’re a seasoned artist, you likely test your own ideas, reinforce your ideas and analyze them with the help of trusted colleagues and peers, and look at your ideas through honest eyes.

Free to Just Create

Creating a painting or drawing is an inherent force inside you, simply for the creative process and not necessarily for reward. In fact, it has been found in research that an artist’s creativity and motivation are often stifled when his or her art is under evaluation, or the artist is supervised.

Don’t Let Failures Get in Your Way

Many artists historically have been those some would call geniuses. Did you know that some psychologists claim genius and failure cannot be separated? Geniuses have many failures, but they don’t let those failures get in their way; they keep on and increase productivity, driving forward fully motivated to the point they achieve their vision.

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