What do we mean by Success – Blog 19: Your Creativity?

Creativity – the ability to create, invent and produce original, new & useful ideas. Creativity is something that lives inside all of us, with each person taking their own creative tendencies. We use creativity frequently in our day-to-day lives, whether it be for work, education, free time or more! A question arises here for me, if we do all have some form of creativity, then can we use it as a measure of how successful we are?

That’s what we’ll be looking at in today’s “What do we mean by Success?” blog!

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is the nineteenth blog in the “What do we mean by Success?” series, which is going to focus on our creativity and if that has an impact on how successful we are in life. In the blog, we are going to be taking a look at what we mean by the term “creativity”, a brief look into the impact that your creativity can have on your life, & then finally, the relationship between creativity and success.

What is Creativity?

Creativity is a term that dates back hundreds and hundreds of years. If we were to ask different people what creativity means to them, then it is pretty much guaranteed that there will not just be one singular answer that each person gives, as creativity means something different to each and every person. This is where the difference between the word “creativity” and the term or concept of “creativity”come into play.

Now if we were to simply look up the definition of creativity in The Cambridge English Dictionary, we would find a definition that states “the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas”, which to some degree is a very correct and true definition of the word creativity, some would dispute that it does not rightly define the concept.

The difference between the terms creativity and imagination can be brought in as a factor here. If you were to simply have ideas, but do nothing with them, then it can be argued that you are imaginative and not yet creative. This is a very big area for debate as some believe that the two terms coincide and heavily tie in with each other, where others prefer to think of them as two stand alone elements.

I define creativity as the ability to create, invent and produce original, new & useful ideas, which is what I used in the introduction of this blog, as it does not only capture the process of making and coming up with the ideas, which closely ties with imagination, but also brings in the points of producing and inventing them, taking action on the ideas that you come up with.

What effects does Creativity have on your life?

When I first thought of this question, I was not 100% sure which way I was going to go with it. You see, when you look at a term as broad as creativity is, there are so many different routes that you can go down. What I could have done is break creativity down into each part of your life and then describe them each in turn, but upon reflection, all that would really do is distract us from the question at hand and the whole purpose of this blog.

What I may do is start a series which is tailored around Creativity in Life in a few weeks that looks at the relationship that creativity has with each part of your life. That idea is only a quick thought at the moment, but if it sounds like a series you would like to see me do, please do let me know, and I will get to thinking about how I can go about planning it!

Back to Creativity and the impact that it can have on your life:

Being Yourself – I mentioned at the start of this blog how creativity means something different to everybody, so embrace it! You will find the areas in which your creativity flourishes, use them to your advantage, make the most of them!
Developing your Confidence – when you let your creative influence flow, it is only natural that you may want to share your work with others, which can be a very nerve-wracking experience for people. When you share your creativity, you can receive feedback on the areas which you have done really well, as well as some fields of potential improvement. This opens you up to developing your work and learning how to be proud of the things that you create – boosting your confidence.
Reflection & Relaxation – a lot of people use their creativity to help them reflect and relax on the events that are going on in their lives. Some people like to journal down their thoughts, paint, write poetry and even tell a story – these are all forms of creativity which we can use to help take a step back, reflect and relax.
Solving Problems – your creativity is very heavily linked to the way in which you solve problems. If you embrace the areas which you are the most creative in, then when you encounter a problem, it can seem so much easier to resolve. Your creativity helps you see things from a different perspective and due to that, allows you to be a lot more prepared in the face of uncertainty. It has been found that more creative people are much better at living with uncertainty, as they can adapt and modify their mindset to best fit whatever problem they are encountering.
Thinking outside of ‘the box’ – this is when you think about things in an unconventional manner, you think about a question in a different way, or with a different perspective. Thinking outside of the box is essential to a vast plethora of the different parts of life & is usually where the best ideas stem from!
The list goes on and on!

The Relationship between Creativity & Success

To bring back the main purpose and question that this blog is asking, can we form a connection between one’s creativity and success? In all honest it is quite a tricky question to answer, but is one the can make quite an interesting debate! In my opinion, there are a few variables that we need to consider here before answering the question.

For instance,have we looked at what type of creativity we are going to be looking at? Some people may like creative writing, others more creative design, some more creative speaking, the list keeps on going! For the sake of this question, do we somehow work out an overall “Creativity Score” and use that as a determiner factor of a persons success? Would that be a fair and just thing to do?

What if you are looking at somebody who is extremely talented at Creative Writing, but really struggles with things like Creative Design? Would it be fair to mark them down, and consequently say that they are less successful, due to this scenario? Personally I would say that is unfair, but how else can we compare creativity and success?

Are we going to factor in what type of success we are going to look at even? Are we doing somebody’s overall success, or are we going to break it down to personal success, career success and what have you? We can see from just these few paragraphs that the main question can be broken up into a lot of different parts, each of which is worthy pf their own debate in their own right.

Would there ever be a way to compare somebody’s creativity against someone else’s, subsequently comparing their overall success? If so, how would you do it in a balanced and neutral way? Is this a question that is going to mean something different to each person, but if that is the case, then how do you even ever compare with others?

In my opinion, similar to several a blog in this series, the answer to the question of what success means to you. If your version of success is ultimately tied to creativity, then clearly you will have a different opinion compared to somebody who bases success off of someone’s qualifications. Whatever way you see success is correct in your own right, success is a small word which has a lot of different meanings to different people at the end of the day.

To me, Success is a word that has a lot of contributing factors to it. If I were to say that i value a persons success off of simply their creativity then I would be lying. I do think it has a factor in a persons overall success, but it is not the be all and end all, by any counts, from my opinion anyways.

That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Thank you all so much for reading! What do you think? Do you think we can determine somebody’s success off of their creativity? What does success mean to you? Are there any topics that you would like to see me cover on the page? Let me know your answers to the above questions and any questions or queries you may have, either in the comments below, on through our Facebook page!

Thank you all for reading and i hope you have a great day!