There is a prevailing belief that creativity is an inborn trait—you are either creative or you're not. Well, while creativity is an inborn trait, we are all born with a creative brain (your right cerebral hemisphere) and have many creative skills.
Children are naturally curious and eager to explore the world around them and spend hours playing with toys, making up imaginary friends and pretend games. But as we get older, we begin to lose some of our natural creativity as we learn and use more left-brain thinking skills in school and at work.
Research shows that our propensity to generate original ideas drops from 90 percent at age 5, to 20 percent at age 7, and even further to 2 percent as adults! However, unless you have suffered brain damage in your right hemisphere or had it surgically removed, you still have a creative brain; so you are still creative. It's just that maybe you don't use your creativity skills as much as you used to.
Now for the good news! You can reawaken your creative brainpower.
What would Einstein tell you in regard to increasing your creativity? Well, we don't have to guess on that one, because he told us. He said, "The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
Develop the curiosity of a child. Leonardo Da Vinci, who is said to have been one of the greatest geniuses of all time, also had this creativity. I don't think that it is a coincidence that Da Vinci and Einstein were both extremely creative and that so many years after their deaths we are still talking about them.
Creativity is defined by Webster's as "creative ability or intellectual inventiveness." This is a skill that everyone has, to some extent. There are ways to improve your ability to create and generate new ideas. Not everyone can be a great artist or a creative genius, but it makes sense to make the most of the potential we are given.
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