The Best of Creative Something 2014
On January 1, 2008 I started this blog in hopes of answering the question: What does it mean to be creative? As I learned of the complexity of creative thinking and the different ways it can be experienced, explored, and captured, I began to reform my pursuit into less about what creativity is and more of how we can utilize it more in our lives. Being creative isn't about being more artistic, it's about solving problems, expanding our potential, and doing more with our ideas in order to influence the world around us. Today, as 2014 draws to a close, I'm excited that my journey through what it means to be creative and how we can utilize that knowledge continues. If you've been here since the beginning: thank you! If you're just joining us now, welcome! As I do every year, here are the top posts for the year, sorted by popularity based on how many people viewed each post. 1. The Challenge with Teaching Creativity
When your expectations involve creativity, the task of training or optimizing for it becomes difficult, if not entirely impossible. How do you measure what’s truly creative when there are expectations set? How can anyone value whether something is creative or not if creative ideas exist, by nature, outside of expectations? 2. What Causes Creativity?
Creativity requires a delicate balance of primarily these eight things. If you’re not feeling particularly creative, evaluate which of these might be off balance for you. 3. How to Be Creative On the Spot
Ideas are then not singular objects in the mind, they are the result of many different stimulus, combined to form a representation of a singular thing (or instance, or experience).With this understanding we can look at creativity as often the result of changing one or more aspects of what shapes an idea. 4. Three Ways to Develop Your Creative Expertise
Creativity may be wildly complex to describe, but when we look over the past few decades of research and historical examples of it at work, some surprisingly powerful insights popup.One such area: creative development. 5. Busy Means You're Not Focused
Being overwhelmed by how busy you are doesn’t mean you’re actually creating or doing the work. Busy simply means you’re unfocused on what you should be doing, so you feel busy.To the creative worker, busy is a familiar feeling. There’s never not enough to do or explore. 6. Can Prescription or Over the Counter Drugs Improve Creativity?
It’s true what you may have heard: some drugs do help creative capabilities.Yet, it must be mentioned that continuing research indicates that many drugs do more creative damage than good. Over-the-counter and prescription drugs designed to combat anxiety are prime examples of this notion in action.
I look forward to writing more here in the coming weeks, and hope you'll be here to join me.
As always, you can explore past year's best posts right here.
