Nearly everybody has the characteristics of a poet. Whether we are aware of our role or we do not believe in it. People have an inbuilt ability to be creative. A continuous creativity ranges from being just creative to a point of being very creative. One good thing about creativity is that an individual can be more creative by just seeing creative individuals and then imitating them. Writers and artists as well as other creative types appear to have similar features. This paper will discuss some of the individual traits that seem to be odd and eccentric out there.
Get Help With Your Essay
If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
When one interacts with people like Walt Disney, Picasso and Jane Austen among others he or she will find out, they are just normal people like everyone else. The only difference is that they have enabled themselves to come to the public limelight, expose their talents, and liberate themselves from restriction and conviction. Creativity is the act of faith and art of finding new things. When one creates something such as a software program, book, role-play, work of art or dance routine he will likely discover parts of him that never existed in the first place. Creative individuals have a strong urge to show more of who they really are and often need to fight for what they believe to be theirs. In the movie Fire and Ice for instance, the character Isabelle has a stunning outlook on what it means to be someone creative. She says that to be creative, sometimes one must be rebellious (Campbell, 1985).
One of the features of a creative individual is that of being unconventional. Creative individuals do not have the desire of conforming to the society’s standards. In most cases, these individuals find themselves swimming in the opposite direction to the society’s values and standards and follow their own means of living and thinking. They have their own ides that literally make the world run in the opposite direction. Take for instance the sixteenth century Italian space traveler Galileo who suggested and proved to people that the earth was revolving around the sun (rather than the sun revolving around the earth). Galileo’s idea was revolutionary in his time (Ruggiero, 1985).
Another feature that creative people portray is that of being individualistic. These people want to discover the truth and therefore have a strong desire to decide for their own what it actually works and what it does not work. Creative people are often ahead of time with much of their work being acknowledged and appreciated when they are no longer in this world. Many people who have written books are well known for dancing to the tune of their own music, like Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author of the book Self-Reliance and was penned by Robert frost as “two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less-traveled.”
Being inventive is the third characteristic of creative people. Such people live in the world full of ideas and always lack good interpersonal kills. Due to their high capacity of intelligence, and being able to live in the realm of possibility, they are continuously coming up with new and bright ides. They also have the capacity to notice what is missing in the world and what needs to be improved. Thomas Edison for example came up with many things in his time with his well-known invention being the light bulb. He saw that there was need of light during the times of darkness (Torr, 2008).
Creative individuals are self-driven and ensure that their internal vision is realized. They do not just do things, but also rather have that “push in their belly.” They always have the desire of contributing to the betterment and beauty of this world. Due to their high self-drive, they can come up with many things in very short period. The best illustration of drive is the material girl by the name Madonna. She has not allowed the public to praise, criticize or stop her from being a role model and a super star. She is today’s Diva, multi-talented singer, actress and dancer who has managed to release quite a substantial number of songs, videos, books and movies while reinventing herself as a new individual (McKenna, 2000).
Being visionary is quality that has never been left out by creative people. Such people have a vision that always guides them in their head, heart and soul. They are always called to bring the vision to life. Nobody has been so creative like Michelangelo who could see a large piece of marble and ” chip away everything that was not David” He said that he saw an angel in the marble and curved until he liberated him. One of his famous works is the huge ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which lasted three years to be completed. Michelangelo had to work upside down continuously during some hours. His work reveals a vision to behold.
Intuition is another feature that most of the creative people portray. They are very much in close contact with their internal personality. They concentrate on symbols, synchronicities and signs around them and utilize the same information in their work. They always act as a means where new concepts and inspiration originating from a higher plane pass through. They give room to the work to lead them to where it needs to go. The work comes from their soul and not from their ego. Their ideas seem to be coming from out of the blue just like Isaac Newton’s discovery of the law of gravity. Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head. If he had not made a connection of his intubation with nature, he was likely to miss a very important theory in the world we currently live in.
Creative people are very curious and are always keen on the way things happened. They want to know why something is happening the way it happens and what event led to the outcome of such event. Curiosity is clearly reflected by Isaac Newton’s discovery of the law of gravity. If Newton was a less curious person, he would have not thought about the apple falling and why it did so. Curious people have learned how to ask themselves some of the questions such as “why” and “what if.” Curious people also like to ask questions about things that they do not understand with an intention of finding out the truth lying behind a certain mystery.
Creative people see problems as acceptable and interesting. Many people see problems as obstacles and things that ruin our lives. Some people treat problems as unacceptable in their lives and try all means to avoid them. When there is pain for instance in an individual’s body, the same person tries all that he can to lower or suppress the pain and therefore make symptoms or signs that tells us something important. Problems are natural to creative people and they are part of life. What is so interesting about creative people is that they are fascinated with problems and are attracted to them (Wood, 2004).
Creative people have a tendency of confronting challenges. Many of the creative concepts in the history of humanity come because of confrontation of problems by people who face such challenges. Such people prefer dealing with the problem rather than running way from it. They often ask themselves the question “how m I going to overcome it?”. Many people have realized that running away from the problem is not the best way to deal with the same problem. Many people who are successful have a tendency of confronting challenges and eventually became the winners in the battle.
In addition, creative persons have a tendency of being constructively discontent. They always have an acute concern of what is going on in the world around them. The same people are however very constructive about the same awareness and do not allow their personal desires to undermine their urge to do something constructive. Their discontent is turned into motivation and enable them come out with a constructive idea.
Optimism is a feature seen in most of the creative individuals. Such people always have a deep perception that many problems can be done away with. They believe that no challenge is too big to be addressed or no problem cannot be solved. By being optimistic, it does not mean that they are ever happy or not depressed. They have the same emotions just like ordinary people but they are not stumped by a problem.
Creative people are fond of suspending judgments. The capacity to criticize or hold off on judging an idea is necessary in the process of being creative. Great ideas usually begin like jokes and if criticism is applied at an early stage, the idea is likely to die off and stop proceeding or developing into something useable and important. It should therefore never be misunderstood that there is no time to criticize or judge an idea in any creative process. Criticism and judgment is key in every aspect of life and creativity but there is a right time to do so (McKenna, 2000).
Hurdles to creative people are seen as means of leading to solutions and improvements. Hurdles in this case are things like mistakes and problems during the process of creativity. Such hurdles may be in the journey of coming up with an idea that actual magic happens and usually out of the small problems and mistakes that the new ideas and concepts come up.
Perseverance is also another feature that is commonly seen in creative people. Very determined people who want to see their ideas coming out successfully have a tendency of sticking to the same ideas until they see them working. During hard times in the search for success, creative people still insist in doing what they believe in most and prefer repeating the same idea for a number of times. This quality is what actually separates them from the rest of the people in this world. The stick ability is the main thing that most of the creative people believe in.
It is hard to ignore flexibility and imagination in creative person’s mind. When creative people are faced with problems in the process of their work, they have this amazing capacity to identify a challenge or a problem together with its potential solutions in a simultaneous manner. Such people have an inbuilt knack that enables them to come up with a connection of past-disconnected ideas. They do so in a simple and brilliant way that is impossible to dream up for an ordinary individual.
Creative people have the capacity of identifying the relationships and see things in a different way from other people. Creative people sometimes can find something creative and the same thing consumes their whole life. Albert Einstein for instance is the person whose life was mainly consumed by creativity. Creativity sometimes can bubble up from amassing particular information until a certain point where it erupts. On the other hand, creativity can be a matter of expressing an issue in a manner that attracts other people’s imagination. Although creativity is a cognitive process, also a process is hard to define. Creativity varies with people, from Einstein to Dickensian and Picasso (Wood, 2004).
Find Out How UKEssays.com Can Help You!
Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs.
View our academic writing services
Creative people posses a lot of physical energy, but they are usually quite and relaxed. They spend most of their time working and concentrate a lot portraying a feeling of freshness and enthusiasm. This means that they have a powerful physical energy, which is a genetic advantage. It is however, surprising to see people who in their old age exude energy and health. It is as if their energy is internally produced because of their focused nature of their minds than to the strength of their genes. This does not translate to the idea that creative people are generally hyperactive. They actually spend most of their time sleeping and resting. What they do is that is they control their energy and are not control by the calendar, external schedule or the dock. They can focus it like a lesser beam when necessary. They recharge their “batteries” when not creative. They recognize the rhythm of their activity that is followed by idleness and reflection of their work. This is usually very important for the success of their work. This kind of rhythm is not inbuilt and is not a biological in anyway. It is an effort whose objective is to achieve a particular goal (Torr, 2008).
Sexuality is one manifestation of energy. Creative individuals are naturally paradoxical. They appear to have somehow a strong sense of eros or a generalized libidinal strength which some articulate directly into sexuality. Similarly, a particular simple celibacy is also part of their make up. Superior achievements seem to be followed by continence more often than not. It is hard for creative people to take life on with vigor without eros. The energy is likely to dissolve when restraint is lacking.
Smartness and naivety are features that creative people show at the same time. The degree of their smartness has remained a debatable question for a number of years. The “g” factor as termed by the psychologists is actually the reflection of a core meaning of intelligence portrayed by people who make very crucial contributions in our society.
The initial longitudinal study of powerful mental abilities that began at Stanford University in early 20th century by Lewis Terman revels rather conclusively that young children whose IQ is very high do well in life but later, the same IQ seems to be in no relationship with superior performance any longer in real life situation. After sometime, research showed that the pass mark is around 120 points. It may be difficult to do any form of creative work with a very low IQ. But n IQ beyond 120 points does not necessarily mean that an individual is very creative.
The contrasting poles of wisdom in children are another way of expressing this dialectic idea. A study on the most influential geniuses of the century revealed that, a particular immaturity both mental and emotional could go together in the deepest insights.
In addition, people who create an acceptable from of novelty in a particular field seem to be able to use well two contradicting ways of thinking; the divergent and the convergent mode of thinking. Convergent way of thinking is illustrated using the IQ tests and involves addressing well-defined problems with only one correct answer. Divergent thinking on the other hand has no agreed upon answer. It takes in factors such as fluency as well as the ability to come up with a bigger quantity of ideas. These dimensions of thinking are what most of creativity tests or workshops are trying to improve (Boyd, 2005).
There is however a nagging suspicion that at the most advanced levels of creative success, the generation of novelty is not the major problem. People usually claimed to have only three good ideas in their whole career. However, each idea was so generative that it remained busy for a permanent testing, elaborating, applying and filling out.
Creative people mix discipline with playfulness or responsibility with irresponsibility. It is apparent that light attitude is typical of creative individuals. However, this playful attitude does not go far without the antithesis, which is a quality of perseverance, endurance and doggedness. Holton Nina for instance whose playful wild germs of concepts are the beginning of a sculpture is very firm on the significance of hard work (Wood, 2004).
Creative people alternate fantasy, imagination plus a rooted sense of reality. Great science and art is part of imagination into a world different from the current one. Other members of the society view these new concepts as fantasies that have no relevance to the current reality. However, the whole point of science and art is to go past what we currently consider real and come up with a new fact. On the same note, the “escape” is not into land that does not exist. What makes real a novel idea is that once we critically analyze it now or later we can realize that, strange as it appears, it is true. Many people believe that poets, artists, painters and musicians are strong on the idea of fantasy while scientists, businesspeople and politicians are realistic. In terms of daily activities, this idea can be true, but when an individual starts to work in a creative manner, all the bets are avoided.
Boyd, K. (2005). Characteristics of creative people. New York: NY, Cengage learning.
Campbell, L. (1985). Psychology today. Boston: MA, Prentice Hall.
McKenna, D. (2000). Features of a creative person. New Jersey: NJ, SAGE.
Ruggiero, S. (1985). Geniuses of the 20th century. Chicago: CH, ABDO.
Torr, P. (2008). Attitudes of a creative person. Florida: FL, McGraw Hill.
Wood, J. (2004). Importance of creativity in the current world. California: CA, Pearson.
Cite This Work
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:
