Hey everyone,

This is the last entry on the “creativity series” of blog posts. The final two subjects were really so related I figured we would tackle them in one post. In the first two entries we defined creativity, and explained why it is important. So we know what creativity is and why it is important, but why should we strive to be creative?

Creativeness is a truly interesting trait. Creative people tend to look at the world in unique ways. For instance, you have a problem at work, no wait lets be more specific.

You need to build a presentation for your boss. The boss wants you to figure out a replacement for an aging piece of equipment, lets say a printer to keep it simple. You could just look up a few and pick a printer that matches your needs within a reasonable price. That is the direct way to replace it, but what happens when your boss asks ‘why did you pick that printer? I heard good things about x’ or something along those lines. Well that is where the presentation comes in.

Perhaps you should create a little 5 slide presentation that shows, review scores, price, capabilities, customer support options, and ease of use. All those slides would feature different graphs, like a few bar graphs to show price comparison, a line graph for review scores, etc. Now when you present that to your boss, he/she will know you actually did your homework and that a though process went into your selection. A presentation like this would be a common application of creativity in the work place. The building of something original, in order to present an idea, or thought. Also this is more likely to get you some positive points with your boss by just putting together something with a bit of creativity.

That is just one example. Creativity makes you stand out. Everyone is unique so that doesn’t really set us apart from one another. Demonstrating your ability to be creative, and use that as a positive force in your life will always make you noticed from your peers.

‘Okay, so I get why it could be helpful, so I should get me some more of this creative stuff. How do I do that?’

It isn’t easy to come up with ways to be creative if you don’t have a lot of creativity to start with. Funny enough, creativity is actually obtained only from the influence of others. Let me explain. Some people are born creative, they received it from God. Everyone else becomes creative by watching, taking note, and attempting to apply the things the creative people are doing. Why do you think more people don’t write books, creative masterful pieces of art, or design engineering marvels? Most of those people are born with a gift, but the rest of us can do it too, just not on our own.

To become more creative, you need to talk to people, read article/books written by creative people, seek artworks, look over technical designs (if you can under stand them), or even go into nature and look at a glimpse of God’s pure creativity. Creativity is born of inspiration, so everyone can get it since we all can be inspired.

As the old saying goes, great things are born of 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. I would argue that even though the percentages are so unbalanced that both the 1% and 99% are actually equally valuable.  Without the inspiration you just sit in the same spot spinning your wheels and not knowing where to go. Creativity is the action of taking inspiration and forming it into a use within the real world. This still leads to more work, but it is work with direction and purpose.

I hope this series helped someone out there. Next week we’ll be starting another series, I’m not completely decided on what to start. Feel free to suggest a subject and I will do some research and cover it as best I can.

See you next week, and may God bless you and keep you.