To be creative, it is not necessary to carry a guitar around with you, wear bright, mind-blowing scarves, and constantly be “in character”, portraying thoughtful and meaningful arrogance. Really talented people are alien to any kind of hypocrisy - pretentious attempts to create in order to "look creative" contradict the idea of ​​real creativity, which cannot be separated from life itself.

1. You are impulsive and irrational

Sometimes you tend to take risky and rash actions, not paying attention to the rational advice of others. Your own whims are quite important to you, so instead of the “reasonable” conformist “I need everything to be like people”, you more often say to yourself: “I will do it this way, because I want to!”. This can manifest itself in anything - in buying a hot pink car (“You’re the CEO, you have to be more serious! I’d rather take a black one”), the desire to do what you love (“You have a law degree, and you play in a rock band, you have to think about the future!”) or, say, at a dinner party for friends arranged with the last money (“It’s still two weeks before payday! Why did you have to spend everything on stupid gatherings with friends?”).

2. You see the difference between fantasy and reality.

Edgar Allan Poe once said: "Those who dream during the day understand much that eludes those who dream only at night." You probably often imagine the "ideal life" you are striving for - unlike dreams, your daytime fantasies are much easier to realize. You can think about your dreams, evaluate your options and understand what steps you need to take to make them a reality. The main thing is to realize where the flight of your unbridled imagination ends and what really can be done begins.

3. You don't hide your feelings.

Creative individuals are usually emotionally open and impressionable people. When your beloved child "pleases" with his antics, or you are denied the publication of your masterpiece manuscript for the fifteenth time, your thoughts on this matter can be seen with the naked eye - they are literally written on your face. Creators are not afraid of their emotions, whatever they may be - negative or positive. When a storm of feelings picks you up, remember what Martin Luther King said:

"Each person must decide for himself whether he will move in the light of creative benevolence or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."

4. You value your creativity

Even when the result of your creative efforts is far from what you pictured in your imagination, you will never say to yourself: “I did all this in vain.” You are firmly convinced that there is nothing in the world like your creation, which means that you can be proud of at least the fact that you have created something new.

Of course, every demanding creator strives for perfection, but if it was not achieved in any particular case, you should not, in despair, cut into pieces not the most successful picture or burn the manuscript that you yourself did not like. Eleanor Roosevelt had an excellent opinion on this subject:

"No one will make you feel inferior without your consent."

5. You see more than others.

For you, the world is one big festive dinner with many guests: whirling eccentric grimaces, a roar of expressive voices, a parade of bright bulging characters. You are able to notice the subtle nuances of the life around you and describe them, passing through the prism of your own thoughts and feelings.

Some creative people carry a notepad or notebook around with them in which they write down their observations and impressions, but by and large, this is not necessary. Your brain is your lunatic asylum, your straitjacket and your psychiatrist. All the most important things happen in your head, and even an unspoken and unwritten thought changes the world around you.

6. You create opportunities yourself.

You hate routine, the measured course of life and narrow-minded stability. At the slightest sign of stagnation, you tend to throw yourself off balance by creating opportunities for creativity. Your life is constant communication, the search for new sensations and gaining experience. If you do not know in which direction to move, you go randomly and sooner or later find the road that will lead you to the goal.

7. You learn from your mistakes.

Failure can't stop you. You know that a negative experience is also an experience, any fiasco is just an occasion to reflect on your mistakes and learn from them. Your motto: "Good is not the one who never falls, but the one who always rises."

8. You are not afraid of risk

The act of creation, the creation of something new, requires a certain amount of courage and you are indeed a courageous person! For what you believe in, you are ready to conquer any peak, and even the possibility that your efforts will not give results will not deter you from trying to reach new heights. Seeing an obstacle in front of you, you do not turn back, but resolutely rush to the assault. Stephen Kotler of Forbes writes:

“Creativity is not an occupation for the timid. Lost time, tarnished reputation, wasted money - all these are side effects of an unsatisfactory creative activity.

If it seems to you that there are too many unfortunate blunders, remember his other statement:

"All talented people often fail, and brilliant people fail even more often."

9. You surround yourself with beauty.

As you know, talented people are talented in everything and you are no exception. You try to find your unique style in everything, from decorating your home to cooking dinner. For you, life consists of means of self-expression and you remain true to yourself, regardless of the opinions of others about your activities. Moreover, criticism only motivates you, forcing you to bend your line even more confidently. As John Wooden, the famous basketball player and successful basketball coach, said:

“Whatever you do, surround yourself with smart people who will argue with you.”

10. You follow your dreams.

Truly creative people are only happy when they are doing what they love. It does not matter how much money creativity brings and whether friends and relatives understand this obsession - as in love, in creation there are only two: the Creator and the offspring of his genius. You can write imperishable novels on scraps of paper, create amazing sculptures from plastic bottles, and use the walls of your own entrance as a canvas for your pictorial masterpieces.

If you are one of the creators, you do not need fans, recognition, awards, and conditions for creativity, the main reason for the realization of your fantasies is life itself.

We often write that a dude should follow his heart, realize his ambitions and generally try to go his own way. Especially if his path is to be a creative person. Professionally creating original texts, drawing, doing art and what is commonly called a hobby is the dream of many, many people. Unfortunately, it is not given to everyone to implement it. Having lived the life of an artist or an indie programmer, our hypothetical creative person realizes that it is not as attractive as it seemed before: there is not much money, the deadlines are running out, the customer is a fool, no other customers are expected, and something is not recognized. Was it really necessary to choose a more mundane profession? And mom said!

The life of a creative person is unique. A creative person, a truly creative person, and not one who considers himself to be such, deserves respect. Unfortunately, the very term "creative person" has been corrupted by second-rate writers, bad artists, and other pretentious dudes. A truly creative person is close to the archetype in the sense that his values ​​are very different from the generally accepted ones. There are few such people, because not every person is seriously ready to go this way. It has a lot of advantages, but it will be painful for you from your dissimilarity to others. More often than not, society puts pressure on us, but we ourselves.

Since childhood, when we studied "stable" and "respectable" areas of human activity, such as biology, mathematics, chemistry, law, languages, business, programming and economics, we have absorbed the belief that any art as a profession is a risk. Most dudes still believe that recognition ONLY comes after death. It seems that society dislikes a person who wants more to be realized in creativity than to get a stable prestigious profession.

This is partly true: life is unstable, there are many risks in it. This memo will help you in choosing the path. Who are you: a creative person or an ordinary worker who creates at his leisure?

Can you withstand all adversity?

The life of a person who wants to make money on creativity is more difficult than that of everyone else. Creativity must be sold, inspiration disappears, there is no customer. Of course, in the life of the “inhabitants” there may also be no work and the salary may not be satisfactory, but this happens much less often for them. The big problem with many traditionally creative people is that they don't know how to market themselves. You look at some and understand: a person is talented and really draws, sews and makes something with his hands in an original way. But you look at another and you see that he doesn’t know how to do anything, that his paintings are a second year art graph, the horizon in the photographs is skewed, and the articles are complete crap, but his main difference from the first one is that he knows how to interest his abilities and praise them. Therefore, it is more successful than the first.

Can you try again and again?

A person of a creative profession has in common the need to take risks. This means that he needs to try again and again to make his project. Did one thing burn out? Start doing something else. Didn't work out? Start over. The modern dude is too fond of throwing everything halfway. Make sure you're not one of them.

Can you do without luxury?

Since you will receive little and inconsistently, luxury will not be your companion. Of course, if you are lucky and you learn how to make money on art, you will bathe in luxury like Nikas Safronov, but this is rare. If the money is barely enough to pay the room rent to the hostess, what about buying a new iPhone or having dinner at a nice place? They won't even let you spend money on such things. Sometimes a creative person has nothing to eat, but he drinks tea, dipping a weekly bag into boiling water. This is also not uncommon.

Can you be lonely?

We wrote more than once that. Let's face it, being single is hard and scary. In order not to be afraid, you need to be able to be alone. Can you? Even well-meaning people can distance themselves from you if they see how you do not fit into the generally accepted norms. Be prepared to lose most of your comrades. You can't even blame them!

Can you handle criticism?

The most unpleasant thing that can happen to a young talent is criticism. Somewhere deep down, many creative dudes consider themselves exceptional, creative and true innovators who believe that all the rules of painting, photography and text construction are outdated boring crap. They do not understand that their drawings fail, that the critic wants to push them on the right path, and not offend. If you don’t know how to adequately respond to criticism, accept suggestions for improving the work and seriously think about them, it’s better for you not to go into creativity. Why breed unprofessionalism?

Can you keep learning?

Can you constantly learn new techniques, tirelessly practice and improve? Without progress, you will not be able to attract new customers and move forward. You yourself will soon cease to be satisfied with your successes, but in order to develop something new, you often need to learn something old. Not everyone can come up with something from scratch.

Can you do this without a reward?

If you plan to do something for recognition, you will lose. Recognition will pass if you, of course, achieve it, and you will again be left with nothing. You need to do this only in order to realize your creative potential and because of the love for this topic. In this case, your creative career will be many times more tolerant and enjoyable. Because of the love for your work, you can endure the absence of a woman, life prospects and money. Let success be a by-product.

Human civilization is a product, so creative people are always in the spotlight. Not only philosophers and psychologists, but also people far from philosophizing, thought about who all these creators of masterpieces and talented scientists are, and how they differ from ordinary people. Maybe these are endowed with a divine gift, or madmen whose brains work with serious deviations? Or maybe they are ordinary people, and available to everyone?

Despite serious research in the field of the psychology of creativity, which was carried out throughout the 20th century, there is no unambiguous answer to these questions. But I will try to introduce you to the most common approach to understanding the essence of a creative person.

When it comes to people involved in creativity, they usually immediately think of artists, musicians, poets, writers, less often scientists. And since these abilities are not available to everyone due to their specific abilities, it seems that creativity is some kind of unique gift.

But is it? Try to answer the question yourself: is creativity possible in other activities? For example, in pedagogy. Can't a teacher be creative? And the cook? What about a manager, an engineer, a plumber? Agree that creativity is possible in a variety of activities, and it is available to everyone. The question is: will everyone take advantage of the opportunity to be a creative person? To understand this, it is worth understanding what creativity is.

Psychological characteristics of creativity

In psychology, creative activity is defined very simply. This is the creation of something new: paintings, music, scientific theories, buildings, mechanisms, culinary recipes, teaching methods, methods of activity, etc. That is, creativity is not a special activity, but its form or level. There is a reproductive activity - replication, performance of operations according to a model learned by a person in the learning process. And if a person invents something of his own, does it in a new way, then this is creativity.

Yes, there is artistic creativity associated with specific activities that are united by the general concept of "art". But a musician can also play in strict accordance with a score written by a completely different person - a composer. And the painter can masterfully make copies of paintings. And it doesn't count as art.

But, being possible in any field of activity, creativity requires special qualities and abilities from a person. First of all, these abilities are associated with the cognitive, cognitive sphere, especially with.

The cognitive sphere of a creative personality

Area of ​​interest

How are new ideas born and new solutions to complex problems found? In fact, our brain cannot come up with anything absolutely new, for example, we cannot imagine something that we have never seen if there is no description of it. Creativity is a combinatorial activity, that is, the transformation and combination of elements of previous experience, knowledge in memory, ideas, etc. The information stored in our memory is a building material, and the more it is and the more diverse it is, the better the conditions for creativity .

For a creative person, not only the volume, but also the diversity of knowledge is important. This allows you to connect them to solve a variety of tasks. And if associative thinking is also well developed, then the combination of information creates almost unlimited possibilities for creating something new. Thus, creatives are distinguished not only by their creative abilities, but also by versatile interests and erudition.

Now the time has come when, it would seem, there is no need to memorize and store large amounts of information. After all, there are colossal Internet databases where you can find everything. Yes, but they are outside our brain, which means they do not participate in the creative process, which is largely spontaneous and unconscious. And this means that erudition and versatile interests have not lost their significance. Unless, of course, you want to be creative.

Biological and social in the structure of a creative personality

The debate about what determines the ability to be creative - innate characteristics or social environment - has not subsided so far. And it's not just curiosity. After all, if the biological factor is of decisive importance, then creative people are indeed the chosen ones, and education does not play a significant role. And if the social factor is in the first place, then every person at any age can develop their creative abilities, the main thing is that the conditions are suitable.

I like the second point of view more, but I cannot help but recognize the obvious connection between creativity and the innate, genetically predetermined features of the brain and the body as a whole.

Biological prerequisites for creativity

Studies of the biological characteristics of creative individuals were carried out by serious scientists and research teams. Higher nervous activity, brain biochemistry, metabolism, and much more were studied. Based on these studies, the following biological features of creatives were identified:

• The peculiarity of the activity of the brain, which is expressed in the predominant activity of the right hemisphere, which is responsible for figurative thinking. True, his increased activity is characteristic precisely for periods of creative upsurge.
• The production by brain cells of an increased amount of certain substances that improve performance, increase the tone of the nervous system, stimulate memory, attention, etc. For example, these include the hormones acetylcholine, glutamate, dopamine.
• Increased levels of uric acid in the body, the action of which is similar to known mental stimulants such as caffeine.
• Peculiarities . The mobility and sensitivity of the nervous system, which provides creative individuals with susceptibility to external stimuli, the ability to quickly switch attention and flexibility of thinking. On the other hand, the same feature is the cause of frequent mood swings, increased emotional excitability and, as a result, danger.

These biological features of creatives also have a downside. They not only provide high creative activity and efficiency, but also lead to the fact that a person does not control his activity well, forgets about sleep, rest, and sometimes food. Therefore, creative individuals often suffer from mental and physical overload and increased emotionality. Creatives are also characterized by various illnesses that are not directly related to creativity, because, absorbed in the creative process, these people often do not pay attention to their physical condition.

Social factors

And yet it is impossible to state unequivocally that the ability to be creative is biologically given. Moreover, changes in the body of creatives may not be the cause, but the result of increased creative activity. Except, of course, innate temperament traits.

The social environment and the influence of society play an equally important, and perhaps even greater role in the formation of creativity. First of all, we are talking about education, but we will not dwell on the education of a creative person, since this is a topic for a separate discussion. Most children are born with a distinctly expressed creativity, which they satisfy even in spite of the prohibitions of society. For example, they paint wallpaper with a felt-tip pen, cut a cat's hair, or take apart toys to find out how they work. But whether this need will continue in the future, whether the abilities of the kids will be developed, depends on their parents, educators, and teachers.

Psychological portrait of a creative personality

Summing up this difficult topic, I want to summarize everything that has been said and present a kind of psychological portrait of a creative person. Of course, creatives are all different and differ from each other more than the average citizen, but still they have common features:

• The need for creativity, which largely governs the life of a creative person: the choice of profession, hobby, circle of friends, etc. This need is paramount and is often satisfied even at the expense of other vital needs.
• Striving for self-realization. This is another, no less significant need, which encourages creative people to look for themselves in various types of activities, and, having found the scope of their talent, give all their time to their favorite work.
• High activity and efficiency. This activity is associated with the field of creativity and is not always social, since creative individuals often do not adapt well to society.
• A special type of thinking allows the creative to see the unusual in the ordinary, find non-standard solutions and reach the goal in their own, original ways. This cannot but cause bewilderment among others, so creative people are often known as eccentrics.
• A high level of imagination and creative thinking make creatives desirable members of any team, but they also prevent society from accepting a creative person, cause a feeling of alienation in relation to the “upstart”, “strange person”, “smartest”, etc.
• Perseverance, striving for a goal and passion for creativity allow the creative to develop special abilities in various activities and become a Master. And that also sets him apart from the crowd.

It seems that creativity is opposed to a society, the majority of whose members do not strive for creative activity. Until recently, this was very noticeable. But the 20th century, with its focus on dynamic and creative development in literally all areas of life, forced a change in attitude towards creativity. They have become not only necessary in any team, but there are much more creative individuals themselves than it was 100 or even 30 years ago.

There are those who believe that creative people have special secret powers and innate talents. But it's not. Everyone has creativity. We made a selection of 30 commandments, following which you can awaken your creative power and make your life brighter.

1. Creativity starts in the heart

Listening to our cherished desires, and attentively, we get the opportunity not only to engage in the creativity we dream about, but also to dream that this creativity will reach a significant scale.

2. Creativity needs to be nurtured constantly.

Talent or interest is a living part of you, like a hand, or an ear, or an eye. All this must be used, it must be nourished, otherwise it will atrophy and you will not be what you should be.

A way to train your creativity every day is the 1 page a day creative notebook. Source - MIF's creative Instagram @miftvorchestvo

3. Vision is magical

Magic is the ability to see results without seeing the process leading to them. It is vision, inner vision, that allows you to notice what the work lacks, and also helps to see what no one has seen before. This is an incredible human gift - to see beyond the present and the past and from that distant, unknown, to extract something that has not existed until now.

The great 20th-century composer Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote: “We just need to close our eyes and listen for a while. Around us, in the air, something never heard before is always heard.

4. The best place to start a creative process is to end it.

Let each new creation arise in your mind as if from nothing. The form, structure of creation, the impressions and sensations that it leaves, its very life - all this immediately comes through, even in the most simple picture. Imagine the result. Add elements. Take the risk of removing some of the old ones. Examine the imaginary creature from the inside, from the outside. You will learn a lot about your concept.

The ability to imagine your creation in a complete form makes it possible to work with knowledge of the matter, and not build work on assumptions. This knowledge is the reason why many professional creators are so self-confident.

5. Creativity is not a problem, problem solving is not creativity

Someone decides the same things all his life, someone acquires new ones. The main motivating force for them is the acuteness of the problem. As soon as the worst is smoothed out, the motivation to act weakens. Dealing with problems as a way of life is obviously a losing option, because it leads to the fading of activity, moreover, aimed at solving problems!

When you get your hands on a big and appetizing problem, you don't have to think anymore - you already have an obsession. What if you didn't have any problems? What would you think then? What did you do?

6. The stubbornness of artists makes this world a better place.

Fortunately for us, artists are stubborn people. The best-selling author was advised by her therapist to focus on a career as a secretary, but she continued to write (that's me). The famous director was removed from the documentary project, but he continued to make films (Martin Scorsese). The talented actress was expelled from the Boston University acting program (Oscar winner Geena Davis). The lawyer who "should" be wasting time on "cases" proved that he should have been writing too (John Grisham). These artists listened to their inner voice, and several external voices whispered - or shouted that they also knew who we really were. These people strengthened our confidence and changed our destinies.

7. There is a place for creativity always and everywhere

Text doesn't care where you create it. It's important that . You do it. The same is true for drawing. One artist lost a whole year because he "could not work without a workshop." When the workshop appeared and he returned to work, he created several rather large paintings, but many more - beautiful miniatures in charcoal and pencil, which he could even draw on a TV bedside table if he so desired. But he did not work - and not because there was no workshop, but because he simply did not work. There is a place for creativity in any life, no matter how eventful and full of people or, conversely, boring and empty it may be.

8. The art of small steps

If you are an aspiring musician and want to learn how to play the piano, then sit down at it and touch the keys. Fine. Tomorrow you can sit down at the piano again and touch the keys. Five minutes a day is better than zero. Five minutes can turn into ten, just like a light hug can turn into something more passionate.

I can’t write a whole book today, but one page is enough. I won't be able to become an accomplished pianist right away, but I can set aside 15 minutes for music lessons. You may not be able to count on a solo exhibition in Soho today, but you are quite capable of drawing your Cocker Spaniel, imposingly nestled in an old leather chair, or sketching the hand of a loved one. You can start.

9. Magic in action

Goethe said: "Whenever you think or believe you can do something, get down to business, for there is magic, grace and power in action."

10. There is always an opportunity to do something positive.

The inconvenient truth is that there is always an opportunity to do something positive - yes, hell, always, even if we are not in the mood for it. Optimism in relation to yourself and your capabilities is already a conscious choice. We can make this choice, believe in the best, not the worst, but for this we need to hear the negative soundtrack sounding in our head and decide to change it.

11. Use constructive and practical thinking

Constructive thinking is the generation of raw ideas, without any evaluations and judgments. The strategy is that you need to come up with as many ideas as possible, both obvious and the most crazy, and criticism is inappropriate at this time. As you come up with more ideas, change your approach to include hands-on thinking. It is necessary to identify which of them have the greatest value. Edison once claimed to have come up with 3,000 different theories for electric lighting. Each of them looked reasonable, but he settled on the most practical and profitable. His first goal was to create as many opportunities as possible, and then he went into evaluation - identifying the most healthy and viable idea.

12. Thinking without judgment is dynamic and flexible

A creative person is able to think freely and flexibly. It allows unlimited deployment of ideas, their organization into lines, a kind of hitchhiking of options, any combination of them for the invention of new ones, until it comes to the final breakthrough result that makes you exclaim “Eureka!”. Ideas replace each other, generating additional ideas and their combinations, which multiplies the possibilities.

13. Test creativity with emotion

Measuring your success is very important. A great way to measure success is to determine how you want to feel. Take some time and jot down a list of the emotions you want from your business. Perhaps it will be something similar to this one.

• freedom
• Happiness
• completeness
• Cheerfulness
• Self-confidence
• Security
• Creation
• completeness

Check your feelings against this list regularly. Does the business give you the feelings you want? For example, do you feel secure? If so, then you have succeeded in your determination. Congratulations! And if not, try to understand why. What can be done to change how you feel?

14. Headphones help muffle the noise of the outside world

Headphones, with or without music, create a kind of buffer around you. This is especially useful if you are a woman and are trying to work on a novel in a cafe. For a certain type of sociable people (meaning men), the sight of a lady with frowning eyebrows, typing something frantically on a laptop in a public place, evokes the only association: you need to come up and get to know each other. Headphones are a great way to keep these well-meaning but very annoying citizens at bay.

“I always write novels with headphones on. Sometimes I even remember that it would not be bad to connect them to something. Headphones help to muffle the noise of the surrounding world. And when they are connected to the player, they drive music at a terrible speed right into my brain, circling the forms of my thoughts with a clear outline and giving strength to the sentences that appear on the page.

15. You are your job

You change and your work becomes different. As you develop, so does your creativity. Your work lives and breathes because you live and breathe. As you live life to the fullest, you enhance the collective human experience. As William Blake wrote, "everything that lives, lives not alone, not for itself." There is no longer any difference between you and others, between what you give and what you receive. It's all the same, an ever-changing dance, a constant conversation in which no more can be said where one begins and the other ends.

16. Each artist - an artbook

Your artbook is your ticket to creative freedom. This is your "sandbox" where you can try out new artistic media and techniques, new colors and their effects, try your hand at different formats without limiting yourself. If you have inspiration, write poetry. Let thoughts find verbal expression as well as graphic expression.