CREATIVITY
“No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo
Life constantly presents unexpected challenges, from minor issues like fixing a household appliance to bigger decisions like managing finances. Creative thinking allows you to find novel, effective solutions rather than relying on routine methods. Even daily chores and routines benefit from creativity, whether it’s cooking, organizing, or planning activities, making life more enjoyable and efficient. Pause for a moment and take in your surroundings. Everything you see—no matter how simple, even a pencil and paper—began as an idea in someone’s mind. Every improvement, innovation, business venture, and scientific discovery started with a single thought. Creativity shapes relationships, finances, parenting, goal setting, and the direction of your career. The good news is that you don’t need to be a genius to think creatively. Many of the most impactful ideas have come from ordinary people. Creativity is often associated with art, music, architecture, or design, but it goes far beyond those fields. It’s not just about artistic talent. At its core, creativity is the ability to generate original ideas—using imagination to bring something new into existence. It’s just as essential in solving problems as it is in artistic expression. Often, creativity comes from making unexpected connections between ideas, experiences, and knowledge you already have. Creative thinkers view the future as full of possibility. They focus on what could be, rather than what already exists. Creative thinking is, at its core, the ability to look at things differently. Imagine walking into a room, each person notices something unique. An interior designer focuses on colors, textures, and layout. An air conditioning technician notices vents and thermostats. A child sees an open space to play. Creative thinkers, however, go a step further. They don’t just observe—they perceive a different layer of reality. Take something as simple as a tree. You can view it from the front or the sides, climb it to look down, or stand beneath it and look up. Yet we often limit ourselves to just one angle—one perspective. Creativity begins when we break out of that limitation. It’s about noticing what we usually overlook and recognizing possibilities where others see none. Why is it so difficult to come up with a truly great idea, and why do most people struggle to think creatively? We often hear that we need to “think outside the box”—but what exactly is this box? The truth is that the box is something we create ourselves. It’s built from our own assumptions and limitations, and then we unknowingly confine ourselves within it. In that sense, the real problem isn’t just the challenge we’re trying to solve, it’s the way we’re choosing to see it. This means the way we see the problem is the problem.
WHAT IS CREATIVE THINKING
To get started, step away from your office or home and find a place where stress is minimal.
Take a pen and paper and write down your thoughts.
To break through assumptions, the first step is to change how we approach solving challenges. Many people rush to fix a problem without taking the time to clearly define what the challenge actually is or what they’re truly trying to achieve. The moment we notice a problem; we tend to jump straight into finding a solution. But this approach can be misleading. As Albert Einstein famously said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions.” In reality, we often do the opposite—we spend only a few minutes analyzing the problem and much of our time chasing solutions. This habit reflects a hidden assumption: that we already understand the challenge from every angle, even when we don’t.
PREPARATION
GUIDED SESSION
Use headphones for optimal sound
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Assessment of mathematical creative thinking: A systematic review. ScienceDirect. Tibor Vidákovich, et al. Volume 44. June 2022.
Expertise and Reason in Creative Thinking: Evidence from Case Studies and the Laboratory. Robert W. Weisberg. Cambridge University Press
Creative Thinking Processes: The Past and the Future. Michael D. Mumford, et al. Wiley. 12 December 2017.