Creativity Is a Process, Not an
Event
written by SHARIQUE IMAM
In 1666, one of the most influential scientists in history
was strolling through a garden when he was struck
with a flash of creative brilliance that would change
the world.
While standing under the shade of an apple tree, Sir
Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground. “Why
should that apple always descend perpendicularly to
the ground,” Newton wondered. “Why should it not go
sideways, or upwards, but constantly to the earth’s
center? Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws
it. There must be a drawing power in matter.”
And thus, the concept of gravity was born.
The story of the falling apple has become one of the
lasting and iconic examples of the creative moment. It
is a symbol of the inspired genius that fills your brain
during those “eureka moments” when creative
conditions are just right.
What most people forget, however, is that Newton
worked on his ideas about gravity for nearly twenty
years until, in 1687, he published his groundbreaking
book, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy. The falling apple was merely the
beginning of a train of thought that continued for
decades.
The famous page describing Newton’s apple incident in Memoirs of
Sir Isaac Newton’s Life by William Stukeley.
Newton isn’t the only one to wrestle with a great idea
for years. Creative thinking is a process for all of us. In
this article, I’ll share the science of creative thinking,
discuss which conditions drive creativity and which
ones hinder it, and offer practical tips for becoming
more creative.
Creative Thinking: Destiny or
Development?
Creative thinking requires our brains to make
connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. Is
this a skill that we are born with or one that we
develop through practice? Let’s look at the research to
uncover an answer.
In the 1960s, a creative performance researcher
named George Land conducted a study of 1,600 five-
year-olds and 98 percent of the children scored in the
“highly creative” range. Dr. Land re-tested each
subject during five year increments. When the same
children were 10-years-old, only 30 percent scored in
the highly creative range. This number dropped to 12
percent by age 15 and just 2 percent by age 25. As
the children grew into adults they effectively had the
creativity trained out of them. In the words of Dr.
Land, “non-creative behavior is learned.”
Similar trends have been discovered by other
researchers. For example, one study of 272,599
students found that although IQ scores have risen
since 1990, creative thinking scores have decreased.
This is not to say that creativity is 100 percent
learned. Genetics do play a role. According to
psychology professor Barbara Kerr, “approximately 22
percent of the variance [in creativity] is due to the
influence of genes.” This discovery was made by
studying the differences in creative thinking between
sets of twins.
All of this to say, claiming that “I’m just not the
creative type” is a pretty weak excuse for avoiding
creative thinking. Certainly, some people are primed
to be more creative than others. However, nearly
every person is born with some level of creative skill
and the majority of our creative thinking abilities are
trainable.
Now that we know creativity is a skill that can be
improved, let’s talk about why—and how—practice
and learning impacts your creative output.
Intelligence and Creative Thinking
What does it take to unleash your creative potential?
As I mentioned in my article on Threshold Theory,
being in the top 1 percent of intelligence has no
correlation with being fantastically creative. Instead,
you simply have to be smart (not a genius) and then
work hard, practice deliberately and put in your reps.
As long as you meet a threshold of intelligence, then
brilliant creative work is well within your reach. In the
words of researchers from a 2013 study, “we obtained
evidence that once the intelligence threshold is met,
personality factors become more predictive for
creativity.”
Growth Mindset
What exactly are these “personality factors” that
researchers are referring to when it comes to boosting
your creative thinking?
One of the most critical components is how you view
your talents internally. More specifically, your creative
skills are largely determined by whether you approach
the creative process with a fixed mindset or a growth
mindset.
The differences between these two mindsets are
described in detail in Carol Dweck’s fantastic
book, Mindset: The New Psychology of
Success (audiobook).
The basic idea is that when we use a fixed mindset we
approach tasks as if our talents and abilities are fixed
and unchanging. In a growth mindset, however, we
believe that our abilities can be improved with effort
and practice. Interestingly, we can easily nudge
ourselves in one direction or another based on how we
talk about and praise our efforts.
Here’s a brief summary in Dweck’s words:
“The whole self-esteem movement taught us
erroneously that praising intelligence, talent, abilities
would foster self-confidence, self-esteem, and
everything great would follow. But we’ve found it
backfires. People who are praised for talent now worry
about doing the next thing, about taking on the hard
task, and not looking talented, tarnishing that
reputation for brilliance. So instead, they’ll stick to
their comfort zone and get really defensive when they
hit setbacks.
So what should we praise? The effort, the strategies,
the doggedness and persistence, the grit
people show, the resilience that they show in the face
of obstacles, that bouncing back when things go
wrong and knowing what to try next. So I think a huge
part of promoting a growth mindset in the workplace is
to convey those values of process, to give feedback, to
reward people engaging in the process, and not just a
successful outcome.”
—Carol Dweck
Embarrassment and Creativity
How can we apply the growth mindset to creativity in
practical terms? In my experience, it comes down to
one thing: the willingness to look bad when pursuing
an activity.
As Dweck says, the growth mindset is focused more
on the process than the outcome. This is easy to
accept in theory, but very hard to stick to in practice.
Most people don’t want to deal with the accompanying
embarrassment or shame that is often required to
learn a new skill.
The list of mistakes that you can never recover from is
very short. I think most of us realize this on some
level. We know that our lives will not be destroyed if
that book we write doesn’t sell or if we get turned
down by a potential date or if we forget someone’s
name when we introduce them. It’s not necessarily
what comes after the event that worries us. It’s the
possibility of looking stupid, feeling humiliated, or
dealing with embarrassment along the way that
prevents us from getting started at all.
In order to fully embrace the growth mindset and
enhance your creativity, you need to be willing to take
action in the face of these feelings which so often
deter us.
How to Be More Creative
Assuming that you are willing to do the hard work of
facing your inner fears and working through failure,
here are a few practical strategies for becoming more
creative.
Constrain yourself. Carefully designed constraints
are one of your best tools for sparking creative
thinking. Dr. Seuss wrote his most famous book when
he limited himself to 50 words. Soccer players develop
more elaborate skill sets when they play on a smaller
field. Designers can use a 3-inch by 5-inch canvas to
create better large scale designs. The more we limit
ourselves, the more resourceful we become.
Write more. For nearly three years, I published a new
article every Monday and every Thursday
at JamesClear.com. The longer I stuck with this
schedule, the more I realized that I had to write about
a dozen average ideas before I uncovered a brilliant
one. By producing a volume of work, I created a larger
surface area for a creative spark to hit me.
Not interested in sharing your writing publicly? Julia
Cameron’s Morning Pages routine is a fantastic way to
use writing to increase your creativity even if you have
no intention of writing for others.
Broaden your knowledge. One of my most
successful creative strategies is to force myself to
write about seemingly disparate topics and ideas. For
example, I have to be creative when I use 1980s
basketball strategies or ancient word processing
software or zen buddhism to describe our daily
behaviors. In the words of psychologist Robert Epstein,
“You’ll do better in psychology and life if you broaden
your knowledge.”
Sleep longer. In my article on how to get better
sleep, I shared a study from the University of
Pennsylvania, which revealed the incredible impact of
sleep on mental performance. The main finding was
this: Sleep debt is cumulative and if you get 6 hours of
sleep per night for two weeks straight, your mental
and physical performance declines to the same level
as if you had stayed awake for 48 hours straight. Like
all cognitive functions, creative thinking is significantly
impaired by sleep deprivation.
Enjoy sunshine and nature. One study tested 56
backpackers with a variety of creative thinking
questions before and after a 4-day backpacking trip.
The researchers found that by the end of the trip the
backpackers had increased their creativity by 50
percent. This research supports the findings of other
studies, which show that spending time in nature and
increasing your exposure to sunlight can lead to
higher levels of creativity.
Embrace positive thinking. It sounds a bit fluffy for
my taste, but positive thinking can lead to significant
improvements in creative thinking. Why? Positive
psychology research has revealed that we tend to
think more broadly when we are happy. This concept,
which is known as the Broaden and Build Theory,
makes it easier for us to make creative connections
between ideas. Conversely, sadness and depression
seems to lead to more restrictive and limited thinking.
Ship it. The honest truth is that creativity is just hard
work. The single best thing you can do is choose a
pace you can sustain and ship content on a consistent
basis. Commit to the process and create on a
schedule. The only way creativity becomes a reality is
by shipping.
Final Thoughts on Creative Thinking
Creativity is a process, not an event. It’s not just a
eureka moment. You have to work through mental
barriers and internal blocks. You have to commit to
practicing your craft deliberately. And you have to
stick with the process for years, perhaps even decades
like Newton did, in order to see your creative genius
blossom.
