Growing up I never labeled myself as a “creative” person. My young, naive mind, up until last year, associated creativity with knowing how to draw and think of cool ideas for group projects in class. But the definition of creativity goes deeper than that.
According to Robert E. Franken, the author of “Human Motivation”, ‘creativity’ is “the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.” Nothing in that definition correlates learning how to draw with creativity, yet the art of drawing or sketching is an outlet for one’s own creativity, being that it is a form of communication with others and it entertains us and the creator.
One of the best things about creativity is that it is not predestined. With a solid work ethic, passion, and a vision, you can cultivate creativity. This type of mindset is called a “growth mindset,” a term coined by Carol Dweck, a researcher at Stanford University known for her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”. This book may have been a textbook for your psychology class. In the book, Dweck explains the two types of mindsets that shape our lives: growth and fixed. Particularly with the growth mindset, Dweck found that it encourages a passion for learning rather than a desire for approval. To me, this is what “progress over perfection,” a well-known mantra that I claimed for myself for 2021, encapsulates. It is the overall idea that mistakes lead to growth, not failure and that as human beings we will never reach perfection on this earth; that instead, all we can do is progress. In fact, doing things perfectly all the time is a roadblock to growth. You can’t learn and grow from doing the same thing.
We currently live in this world of hustle, where saying you’re always “busy” is something to be proud of, or makes you seem a more productive and even worthy human being. For many people, including the college student at Andrews University, it gets up to a point where that word stops being a way to describe how we are doing, to a descriptor of who we are. People who are like this tend to have a “fixed mindset,” striving for constant gratification and avoiding failure at all costs as a way of maintaining the sense of being smart, skilled, or even feeling valued. Fixed beliefs like, “I’m a procrastinator,” or “I’m not creative,” will cause us to never try things that we could fail at, and can act as an excuse to avoid grabbing the paintbrush.
As I sat at the end of last year, reflecting on the crazy 366 days we all had in common (it was uniquely enough a leap year), I began to wrestle with the question, “what does success look like?” For the majority of my life, I credited success to the grades I got in school, getting the highest positions possible in the organizations I was involved in, and even in the compliments I got from others. Obtaining success like this meant multitasking and planning each and every minute, getting to the point where nothing was spontaneous and all the checkboxes on my to-do list had to be filled each day, or else I failed. When March 11, 2020 came around, all planning and perfectionism ceased. I soon realized I needed this change, because this was the year I decided I was creative.
Variation is how I identify creativity. It is the different, the unique, and the unexpected. Never in my life did I envision myself enjoying oil painting and starting a small embroidery business almost one year after the world changed (which, shameless plug, you can find on Instagram @threadswithmegsco). We all had to find alternatives to our time and entertain ourselves, going back to Franken’s definition of creativity. This sudden change forced out my inner creativity, healing and inspiring me deeply. I’m not sure I would have ever identified myself as a creative person if it wasn’t for the moments during quarantine where I chose not to fill a checklist, and instead filled my canvas.
It seems as if 11 years of piano lessons, 5 years of voice lessons, owning a blog for the past 4 years, and even dabbling in the French horn in the 5th-grade didn’t solidify that creative identity in me, so why now? It’s not because I know how to draw, because I still don’t. I’ve come to the realization that I was a perfectionist, and in none of those creative outlets was I perfect. I had a fixed mindset, thinking that if I couldn’t be the best at those things then there was no point in claiming the characteristic. James Clear, in one of my favorite books of all time, “Atomic Habits”, states, “When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy.” I know now that perfection doesn’t qualify a creative person–or a happy one.
Here is another great quote by David C. Burns that reiterates this idea: “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make yourself a happier and more productive person.”
Every morning for the past six months, the first thing I’ve done is write down an affirmation for myself, something such as “I am capable, worthy, loved, strong, brave, etc.,” depending on what I need for that day. Dweck found in her research, that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value. Clear concurs with this idea: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” It is not the huge accomplishments that solidify one’s view of themselves, but the consistent actions one takes towards that outlook. One last “Atomic Habits” quote: “The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows strong…The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us, the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” When you overcome bad habits and outlooks, you can master a solid mindset, and cultivate your creativity.
Creativity lives in all of us. If we take small actions towards identifying our creativity and live out our values, we can manifest what is already within us, cultivated by not just any creative, but the ultimate Creator.
References
Burns, D.D. (2021). “Aim for success, not perfection.” Goodreads, Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/101172-aim-for-success-not-perfection-never-give-up-your-right
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits Quotes. Goodreads, Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/62221762-atomic-habits
Clear, J. (n.d.) How Your Beliefs Can Sabatoge Your Behavior. James Clear.
https://jamesclear.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset
Popova, M. (n.d.) Fixed v.s Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives. Brain
Pickings. Retrieved from
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/
What is creativity? (n.d.) California State University, Northridge. Retrieved from
https://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm
Popova, M. (n.d.) Fixed v.s Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives. Brain
Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/
Clear, J. (n.d.) How Your Beliefs Can Sabotage Your Behavior. James Clear.
https://jamesclear.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits Quotes. Goodreads, Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/62221762-atomic-habits
Burns, D.D. (2021). “Aim for success, not perfection.” Goodreads, Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/101172-aim-for-success-not-perfection-never-give-up-your-right
Popova, M. (n.d.) Fixed v.s Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives. Brain
Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits Quotes. Goodreads, Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/62221762-atomic-habit
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