Checklist for those who want to develop creative abilities.

Application of the tips listed here guarantees 100% development of creative abilities.

Creative possibilities are:

1.Knowledge 2. Point of Control 3. Confidence 4. Openness of Mind 5. Experience 6. Behaviors 7. Support of Leaders 8. Openness of Leaders 9. Rewards 10. Preparation 11. Emotional Strength 12. Diversity of Input 13. Independence 14. Absence connectedness 15. Playfulness 16. Tenacity 17. Empathy 18. Self-respect 19. Inventiveness 20. Ability to break boundaries 21. Understanding creativity 22. Self-awareness 23. Balanced feelings and thinking 24. Courage 25. Ability to take risks 26 Priority to creativity 27. Responsibility 28. Discipline 29. Health 30. Self-learning

There are a huge number of factors that influence our creativity.

In this article we will briefly look at the most significant of them. It is difficult or even impossible to work on every factor that may affect human creativity. Instead, you should focus on those that are important to you at the moment.

Realistic goals are the most important factor in the process of developing your own creativity, and you must choose them yourself. Consider all the following points as a long list on the basis of which you need to make your choice. This is not a strict recipe that must be followed.

Creative opportunities.

1. Knowledge.

meeting with creative thinking methods. The more knowledge a person has about ways of creative thinking, the more often he thinks creatively, and the more successfully he can generate new effective ideas. To expand your knowledge, read and study literature on the topic, or connect with creative people who can model successful methods and approaches.

2. Control point.

A sense of control over circumstances helps people feel confident in pursuing creative alternatives. Conversely, feeling a lack of control leads to helplessness. For this reason, an internal point of control is important for creativity. Positive thinking and past successes help develop a sense of control, so if you suffer from feelings of helplessness, work on your mood and look for examples of your own successes. External locus of control is associated with depression. If you have depression, you need to work on the problem (seek professional help and support) and only then can you expect to increase your creativity.

3. Confidence.

A person's confidence that he is capable generate valuable ideas and insights, expands it creativity. Practicing creative thinking increases your confidence when the problems you face are not very difficult, and at the same time your experience is related to real life. Therefore, to increase confidence, you need to work on simple problems and use creative approach to solve everyday problems.

4. Open mindedness.

A willingness to consider alternative points of view and approaches is an important part of creative thinking. To develop openness thinking, look for examples of successful of people and techniques. Challenge yourself to interact with people you don't know, as well as those you know who make you feel uncomfortable. Ask these people for their opinions on topics that are important to them, and be sure to try to listen and understand their interlocutor’s train of thought, even if you don’t agree with them.

5. Experience.

Positive experiences of people who have used creative thinking to solve problems or develop better alternatives is of great value. It stimulates further creativity. If you don't have much creative experience, you can compensate by reaching out to those who do. Ask a creative person to help you find an approach to the problem you are working on. His insights and experience in different approaches will help you learn how the creative thinking process works. And, of course, the best way to acquire the necessary skills is to apply a creative approach to all your work and personal decisions.

6. Behavior patterns.

Connecting with people who have achieved success through their personal creativity will significantly stimulate your own creativity. At the same time, it is very difficult to find good role models. If you know successful entrepreneurs who have built their businesses from scratch, you can rest assured that they are very creative people, even if you don’t hear it from them themselves. Entrepreneurs often think that only “artists” O have creative abilities. Try to spend time with businessmen, scientists, artists and any other people who seem creative to you.

7. Leader support.

Support from leaders is highly beneficial. If you are not offered support, try asking for it. If the manager agrees that creative thinking is part of your job, then he will be happy to provide you with more support. Otherwise, you will have to practice “closet creativity.” You'll share ideas only after you've finished working on them, but you'll still have plenty of time to critically evaluate your proposals. you will keep yours m cognitive process within oneself.

8. Openness of leaders.

Interest in your ideas and suggestions and encouragement from managers enhance your creativity. At the same time, many bosses are closed to the informal exchange of ideas. Try to find a convenient time or intermediary to implement new ideas. More often than not, a manager who is closed to a verbal proposal is ready to read it in the form of a printed message or email.

9. Awards.

Recognition and more tangible awards for creativity help stimulate this quality. If your work environment does not provide formal rewards for creativity, try to elicit informal positive feedback from managers and co-workers. If you have accomplished something using creative thinking, try to reward yourself.

10. Preparation.

Trainings open before you creative methods and examples, expand your experience and support creative behavior. Sign up for any creative workshop available to you. From time to time, public organizations and educational establishments organize low-cost courses that you can attend. If there are no such courses, study on your own.

11. Emotional Strength.

People who remain resilient in the face of difficulties are able to manage your emotional state, avoid excessive stress, anxiety or depression. A healthy diet, exercise and enough sleep will help you become stronger and your emotional tone will always be high.

12. Broad outlook.

The more you know, the more material you have for creative thinking. Try something new all the time, visit new places, read new books. Try to spend time with people who have not crossed your path before.

13.Independence.

The more independence you exercise in forming your opinions and deciding how to approach a problem, the easier it will be be creative. If you accept the opinion of another person and allow yourself to be drawn into a discussion and uncritically agree with his choice, then you do not know how to think independently. An independent thinker is in constant search. To strengthen your inner independence, remember to ask yourself if you can mentally imagine an alternative point of view.

14. Lack of connectivity.

People with a fairly frivolous attitude towards ideas, plans and decisions find it easier to be creative. They are not bound by old ideas and are free to consider new alternatives. To achieve this state, develop a sincere belief in your own abilities to come up with and implement new and better ideas. Otherwise, it will be quite difficult for you to decide to discard everything that has become obsolete and start from scratch. If you lack courage, it may be because you are pessimistic.

More optimism in thoughts.

15. Ability to play.

The feeling of pleasure from exploring new ideas and approaches is a good asset to creativity. People with an easy-going nature cope better with complex problems and issues. If you're having a hard time, try not to be too serious. Take a break to play, laugh, or express yourself in any other way that brings back your youthful cheerfulness. Find people who don't take life as seriously as you do and learn from them.

16. Perseverance.

There is a myth that only inspiration fuels creativity. Absurd. Every great idea takes time to grow and mature. Persistence is key: if you tend to give up too quickly, set quantifiable goals and practice persistence. Challenge yourself to generate twice as many ideas or double the time you spend thinking.

17. The ability to empathize.

People who are able to grasp what others are thinking and feeling have a special for nothing group creativity. They are able to perceive other people's ideas, adding something of their own. To increase your ability to empathize, develop your listening skills (tell people what you think they are thinking and feeling, and ask them to correct you if you are wrong).

18. Attitude towards yourself.

If you consider yourself a creative person, then you are. Creativity is largely based on attitude towards oneself - it is behavior rather than talent, and people who feel in themselves creative power, act creatively. (I would add - lifestyle).

19. Ingenuity.

People who often think of new things are naturally good at other creative tasks. Perhaps inventing is good practice for all types of creativity. If you can think of ten new ways to make a good cup of coffee, then you can easily come up with many innovative solutions to a difficult problem at work or in personal life. Inventing is a fun game, so practice it by constantly asking yourself how to improve something in your company or home.

20. Ability to break boundaries.

By arranging things in an unusual sequence, you violate internal boundaries. Creating unexpected groups is a basic creative operation, so it is necessary to master this skill well. Instead of just listing single options, you can create many combinations using the "______ and_____" form. Combine ideas into pairs, this technique will help you find new combinations, breaking the usual boundaries.

21. Understanding Creativity.

People who have a better understanding of their deepest thoughts become more creative people as a result. To gain this advantage, study educational materials and use questionnaires (lists) like this one.

22. Introspection.

A person must understand the principles of his own creative behavior. Thanks to this, he gets the opportunity to develop. People who deeply analyze their thinking and creative approaches achieve success in creative work. To achieve a high level of self-awareness, observe your own creative process. Do you always use certain mental strategies? Do you constantly work in the same place, at the same time? If so, consciously change your usual conditions. As you transform your approach, watch your results change. If you experiment more with your creative methods, then over time you will find better and better formulas for creativity. Some people require an appropriate environment or background music to achieve optimal performance. creative level. Get to know your creative self and you will make many such useful discoveries.

23. Balance of feelings and thinking.

Many people fail to achieve emotional involvement in T creative problem. Their thinking becomes constrained and limited, and they cannot achieve the power of thought that is necessary to generate an idea or solution. In the same way, emotions alone are not enough for many creative tasks. Only by combining thought and feeling can you direct your mind to solve a problem.

To balance your approach, stop every now and then and ask yourself:

1. what feelings does the creative work I do evoke in me;
2. what am I thinking about?

This technique will help develop both the rational and emotional side. creativity, and will create a healthy balance between thought and feeling. Try inviting someone to work with you who has what you lack: if you have developed logical thinking, find a partner who has intuition to brainstorm together, and vice versa.

24. Courage.

Psychological and intellectual courage helps people overcome obstacles to creative thinking. Even if you lack courage in other areas, you can still develop creative courage simply by recognizing that the cost of failure is very small. Well, what happens if your creative thinking doesn't produce a valuable idea? Essentially, creative failure does not lead to anything bad. You'll just waste a little time practicing creative abilities. Therefore, it is not at all difficult to convince yourself to become creative. thinking person, if you understand exactly what kind of courage is required for this.

25. Ability to take risks.

If a person does not hesitate to risk parting with something, then it is easier for him to be creative. These people don't have to convince themselves to try. new approach. If you are reluctant to take risks, you must be aware of this as you develop your creativity. Try to find an opportunity to make planned risky moves when the consequences of the risk are not very scary for you. For example, challenge yourself to change the order of your daily tasks from time to time, just to understand how many different approaches there are to the same job. This exercise requires creativity in taking risks and will help you overcome your fear of taking risks in the creative field.

26. Priority to creativity.

People who made creativity priority, they complete creative tasks more successfully, devoting more effort and time to them. If creativity isn't high on your list of priorities, change the order in which you complete your daily tasks. Set more creative goals for yourself and challenge yourself to accomplish them first.

27. Responsibility.

Some people take creativity seriously. They feel the potential in themselves and believe that they have an obligation to use it. This is a healthy attitude and one that is dedicated to the creative process. The world demands many competing responsibilities from us, so it is up to us to make the choice to protect ours. creativity. To remind yourself of your creative responsibility, simply tell yourself that people are remembered for the new things they did, not for the routine things that everyone can do! You will gain a tremendous sense of creative responsibility.

28. Discipline.

Although creativity can be seen as a game, it requires significant effort to achieve practical results. People with a highly disciplined approach to creativity are more likely to achieve creative success because they spend more energy and time on their work. In addition, such people use more creative methods. Discipline is fairly easy to acquire: try logging what you do in a creative journal, noting what type of creative work you do each day, how much time you spend on it, and what approach you take. In addition, make notes of everything you read or learn about creativity, as well as all the times you discussed the topic with other people. Journaling itself will help you become more disciplined.

29. Health.

Health and well-being have a beneficial effect on creativity. If you have health problems, you may not notice that they are associated with creative difficulties. Instead of forcing yourself to create when you feel unwell, it is better to make a determined effort and invest time and energy in your own health first. Rest, relaxation and proper treatment will prepare you for creative activity.

30. Self-study.

People who are enthusiastic about developing their own creativity are constantly growing creatively. They achieve successful results more often. If an interest in improving your creative skills doesn't come naturally to you, then try taking courses that help you focus on self-improvement. During the course you will get into the habit of studying creativity, after which you will be able to build your own knowledge.

Ecology of life. People: Neuroscience has proven that those with a creative mind have brains that work differently than other types of people.

Neuroscience has proven that those with a creative mind have brains that work differently than other types of people.

Science cannot yet explain exactly how all these processes occur, but creativity is believed to involve several cognitive processes. It is difficult to say that certain behavior is associated specifically with creativity.

However, there are some different traits, behaviors and social influences that are influenced by creativity.

Here are fourteen traits that characterize creative people.

1. They are attentive

Creative people carefully observe everything around them. They also love to watch people. Many creative people often carry a laptop, notepad, or camera with them to capture what they see. In many famous works, it is the details that fascinate us most.

For example, we see many nuances of human behavior in Jane Austen's novels. These small but captivating details breathe life into her works.

2. They're dreamy

When we were kids, most of us were told to stop dreaming. However, psychologists now claim that dreaming and wasting time are not the same thing.

Daydreaming is actually a complex brain process during which connections are made, insights occur, and new ideas are generated. When we dream, we can look at life differently, imagining what it would be like to be someone else or live in a different world. It can improve creative thought processes and lead us to new ideas.

3. They challenge the status quo

Creative people often don't want to accept things as they are. They want to change the world and feel important. They ask questions like “What if?” and “Why not?” This helps them reconsider the possibilities.

Take, for example, the First World War poet Wilfred Owen. He decided to challenge the belief that dying for one's country was a great thing and depicted the horrors of war.

4. They get into a creative flow regularly.

Creative people, when they are engaged at work, slip into “the zone.” Also known as "flow", this state is described in the book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The author explains how a state of flow is achieved when we are working on something we enjoy, as well as in moments when a situation challenges us. In a state of flow, creative work works out much better.

Creativity does not entail multitasking. Often you just need a distraction to get into the flow.

5. They have trouble finishing a project.

One of the downsides of having a creative mind is that finishing things can be a real challenge. The initial stages of a creative project seem exciting and new, but that excitement can fade over time, as with most romance novels!

They can easily give up on projects when they become more difficult and complex. Creative people may also get distracted by another brilliant idea.

6. They see structures and connections.

What sets creative people apart from others is the ability to make connections. Creativity is often about connecting things that others might view as completely unrelated.

By discovering structures and connections that others miss, creative people can create something new from what has been overlooked and underappreciated. They see opportunities where others don't and use it to create something original.

7. They feed their souls

We cannot continually create new things if we do not take the time to nourish our souls. Julia Cameron described it as "good filling". She says, “We must be mindful enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we use them.”

Each person has different requirements for this filling. Often this concerns time spent alone. No matter how we spend our time or what we do about it, nourishing the soul is important for continued creative expression.

8. They are open

Openness is a key factor in creativity. Creative people are very curious and love new experiences.

Being open to new emotions, creative individuals are fascinated by new information, sensations and feelings. They constantly explore the external world and their internal one and remain open to new opportunities throughout their lives.

9. They are real

In a society that values ​​outward signs of success more than a rich inner life, creative individuals can fail. However, they are moving on a different course. The creative process is part of what makes them who they are.

As a result, creative individuals remain true to their vision of the world around them and follow their dreams, rather than strive for success and popularity.

10. They create in cycles

Creativity has its own natural rhythms that cannot be changed, just like the seasons. Anyone in life creative personality rapid changes occur: periods of productivity are replaced by a desire to remain completely calm - and vice versa.

Creative projects begin with an incubation period, and only after a while are they ready to see the light of day. Creative people give in to these cycles instead of being obsessed with constant productivity.

11. They don't believe in themselves

Creative people suffer from the same doubts and self-confidence issues as everyone else. When an artist is struggling to find his place in life and win the affection of his audience, the lack of self-confidence can be felt more acutely. Even highly successful creatives often find it difficult to recognize the brilliance of their own work.

12. They are cheerful

Fortunately, despite the fact that creative people often doubt themselves, they remain cheerful. They should be like this. IN creative work There are many projects that do not follow the rules and often fail. This is where cheerfulness is needed.

Creative people cannot afford to take failure personally. The best way reconsider your point of view on this - admit that this is not a mistake, but a useful experience.

13. They follow their passions

Creative people are rarely motivated by material rewards. They find motivation in intrinsic rewards such as personal satisfaction, drive, and passion.

Artists create because something inside them demands it, and not out of a thirst for fame or wealth or a desire to please someone. Understanding that such intrinsic motivation leads to success can increase overall creativity.

14. They see life as an opportunity to express themselves.

Creativity is part of our self-expression. Everything we do comes from our own need for self-expression. Thus, our whole life can become a creative project.

While some people may be more creative than others, I think that creativity is a quality we all have. If you look at your own life, you will see that it is full of creativity. When we cook a meal, redecorate a room, choose equipment, or plant a garden, we are creating. The things we choose say a lot about us and are part of how we build our own lives. published

CREATIVE NEEDS OF HUMAN

Creation– activity, the result of which is the creation of new material and spiritual values. Creativity can be considered in two important aspects: personal and procedural. Creativity presupposes that an individual has abilities, motives, knowledge and skills, thanks to which a product is created that is distinguished by novelty, originality, and uniqueness.

There are many works in which creativity is studied from the perspective of results. Such are, for example, works on the description of inventions, on the development of mathematics, chemistry and other sciences, on the development of literature, artistic creativity. In the psychological study of creativity, it is usually great attention is paid to the process of creativity, the change in the state of a person creating something new. Creativity as a process was initially considered based on the self-reports of artists and scientists, where a special role was given to “illumination,” inspiration, insight and similar states that replace the preliminary work of thought. (Example from Plato. “Ion”).

Druzhinin gives a number personality traits, identified by researchers during the analysis of the works of literary scholars and historians:

· independence – personal standards are more important than group standards, non-conformity of assessments and judgments;

· openness of mind – willingness to believe one’s own and others’ fantasies, receptivity to the new and unusual;

· high tolerance to uncertain and insoluble situations, constructive activity in these situations;

· developed aesthetic feeling, the desire for beauty;

Confidence in your abilities and strength of character;

· mixed traits of masculinity and femininity in behavior;

· developed sense of humor and ability to find humor in unusual situations.

What is creativity? Can they be developed or is it given from birth? There is an opinion that all people have creative abilities. But the majority simply do not know about their capabilities or do not even think about them. A person himself can cultivate, or rather awaken, the ability to be creative. This does not mean that you can convince yourself that you are a virtuoso violinist, but every person can try to look at the world around them or a specific issue from a different angle.

Creative abilities are, first of all, a person’s ability to find a special perspective on familiar and everyday things or tasks. This ability directly depends on a person’s horizons. The more he knows, the easier it is for him to look at the issue under study from different angles. A creative person constantly strives to learn more about the world around him, not only in the area of ​​his main activity, but also in related industries.

Let's take a closer look at the concept of “ability”. “Abilities are a complex, synthetic formation that includes a whole series of data, without which a person would not be capable of any specific activity, and properties that are developed only in the process of a certain way of organized activity” (S. L. Rubinstein. )

B. M. Teplov identified the following signs of human abilities:

1) these are individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another;

2) these are only those features that are related to the success of performing an activity or several activities;

3) these are those features that cannot be reduced to existing knowledge, abilities, skills, but which can explain the ease and speed of acquiring knowledge and skills.

It is obvious that abilities have organic, hereditarily fixed prerequisites for their development in the form of inclinations.

There is an approach (L. S. Vygotsky) associated with considering abilities primarily as generic qualities of a person, based on theory. According to Vygotsky’s thought, “in every historically emerged acquisition of human culture, the human abilities that historically emerged during this process (mental processes of a certain level of organization) were deposited and materialized.”

L. S. Vygotsky sets three characteristics of abilities. Firstly, this is an understanding of abilities as ways of interacting with reality that exist in a culture. Secondly, the development of abilities is considered as subordinate to the laws of the holistic development of consciousness and is analyzed in the context of this whole. And third– the development of abilities is characterized through the child’s mastery of cultural achievements. Thus, the process of developing abilities is an integrative formation of the ways of human cognition existing in a culture. At the center of such education is a sign – a word.

There are general and special abilities. General are the abilities that determine the level and originality of any mental activity. It is generally accepted that, unlike special abilities, intelligence is manifested in the effectiveness of solving various problems. Intelligence is sometimes considered as a general ability (manifestation not in one, but in several types of activity) - as opposed to special ones, each of which determines the effectiveness of performing any one activity.

V.N. Druzhinin divides general abilities into intelligence (the ability to decide), learning ability (the ability to acquire knowledge) and creativity (in other concepts it has a different definition) - general creative ability (transformation of knowledge). The issue of studying the psychological nature of creativity is one of the most controversial.

Creativity concept(from Latin creatio - creation, creation), being an analogue of the concept of “creative abilities”, is inextricably linked with creativity, creative activity that generates something qualitatively new (either for the creator, or for the group or society as a whole). As the famous researcher D. B. Bogoyavlenskaya notes, the fundamental spontaneity (spontaneity) of the creative process makes it almost elusive for natural scientific methods. This spontaneity is manifested both in the impossibility of predicting the moment of insight and creative decision, and in the uncertainty (unexpectedness) of the very subject of creativity, a creative idea that can arise out of connection with the purpose of a given cognitive activity(“to invent, you have to think around”).

Joe Paul Guilford(eng. J. P. Guilford; 1897-1988) - American psychologist, professor. Guilford conducted research on intelligence in terms of memory, thinking, attention (concentration), creativity and temperament.

“Creativity” was the title of J. Guilford’s report given upon taking office as president of the American Psychological Association in 1950. In this report, Guilford, in particular, noted that the uniqueness of outstanding creators limits the study of creativity as psychological problem. He proposed studying creativity by recruiting ordinary subjects into psychological laboratories and using psychometric tests.

One such test, proposed by Guilford, was the Unusual Uses Test, in which the subject was asked to come up with as many uses as possible for common objects (such as bricks). Many researchers took up Guilford's proposal, and "lateral thinking" tests quickly became the primary tool for measuring creativity.

The first creativity tests were created by J. Guilford and his associates at California State University in the 50s. XX century. These techniques, known as the Southern California Divergent Productivity Tests, measured the characteristics of one of the types of thinking, called divergent by J. Guilford. 14 tests were developed. In the first ten, the subject was required to give a verbal answer, and in the last four, he was required to compose an answer based on visual material. J. Guilford's tests are aimed at adults and high school students.

Let's give examples of tests.

1. Ease of Word Usage Test: Write tins containing the given letter (for example, o).

2. Item Use Quiz: List as many uses as possible for each item (for example, a tin can).

3. Composing images. Draw the given objects using the following set of shapes: circle, rectangle, triangle, trapezoid. Each shape can be used multiple times by changing its size, but you cannot add other shapes or extra ones.

J. Guilford and his colleagues identified 16 hypothetical intellectual parameters that characterize creativity.

Among them are:

♦ fluency of thought (the number of ideas arising per unit of time);

♦ flexibility of thought (the ability to switch from one idea to

♦ originality (the ability to produce ideas that differ from generally accepted views);

♦ curiosity (sensitivity to the problems of the surrounding world);

♦ ability to develop a hypothesis;

♦ irrelevance (logical independence of the reaction from the stimulus);

♦ fantastic (complete isolation of the response from reality in the presence of a logical connection between the stimulus and the response).

In 1967, Guilford combined these factors into general concept“divergent thinking”, which reflects the cognitive side of creativity. Compared to convergent thinking, which focuses on a known, trivial solution to a problem, divergent thinking occurs when the problem has yet to be defined and when there is no pre-prescribed, established path to solution.

At one time, P. Jackson and S. Messick identified the following criteria for a creative product, thereby emphasizing the need for a comprehensive procedure for its description:

1) originality (statistical rarity);

2) meaningfulness (for example, a rare way of using a paper clip - “you can eat a paper clip” - is not creative);

3) transformation (the degree of transformation of the source material based on overcoming conventional limitations);

4) unification (formation of unity and coherence of elements of experience, which allows the expression of a new idea in a concentrated form).

J. Guilford identified the following four main parameters of creativity:

1) originality - the ability to produce distant associations, unusual answers;

2) semantic flexibility - the ability to highlight the function of an object and suggest its new use;

3) figurative adaptive flexibility - the ability to change the shape of a stimulus in such a way as to see in it new signs and opportunities for use;

4) semantic spontaneous flexibility - the ability to produce a variety of ideas in an unregulated situation. General intelligence is not included in the structure of creativity.

A number of scientists believe that original ideas cannot be considered in isolation from their usefulness. If original ideas are considered without regard to their usefulness, it will be impossible to separate creative ideas from eccentric or schizophrenic ones, which may also be original but ineffective.

Thus, E. Cropley considers it generally necessary to distinguish true creativity from "pseudo-creativity" And "quasi-creativity".

Pseudo-creativity has a sign of novelty as a consequence only of nonconformism and lack of discipline, blind rejection of what already exists, or simply a desire to suddenly turn things “upside down.” This kind of “novelty,” in his opinion, has nothing to do with creativity.

Quasi-creativity contains some elements of genuine creativity, such as a high level of imagination. However, in this case, the problem of connecting quasi-creativity with reality arises: this is “the creativity of waking dreams, daydreams or daydreams.”

In one survey, students were asked the following questions:

What opinions have you heard that make creativity and a creative personality unattractive? Which of these opinions do you consider plausible?

43 people took part in the survey. 31 people expressed the following opinions (the number of repetitions in the answers is indicated in parentheses, if they are repeated):

Creative people are absent-minded (2); distracted from reality (4): may use plagiarism; too emotional (2): subject to the vagaries of their mood; too expressive; “they are distinguished by self-confidence, pride, greed, malice”; neglect of appearance; self-isolation (2); it is difficult for them to find like-minded people and friends; they are inhibited; aimed at one thing; society rejects them as foreign elements; people think they are strange (2); a preconceived negative attitude is manifested towards them; they are afraid of failure; these are boring and uninteresting people (3); unsociable: too smart: creative individuals receive little money (2); they can quit their job if they lose interest in it: they are not respected: they are characterized by excessive selfishness (2); they are unbalanced and irritable. nervous; are distinguished by an “unstable” psyche (2): nervous; capable of breaking laws ordinary people; fickle, often change their lifestyle; “have different views on life, sometimes contrary to the views of others”; “their “divine” thoughtfulness takes a lot of time”; they are characterized by a waste of time; they have many disadvantages; irresponsible: careless; unattractive: suffer from Narcissistic mania.

Thus, students (31 people) noted 47 positions that make creativity and a creative personality unattractive. They consider the noted opinions to be more or less plausible. This indicates. What prejudice against creativity is widespread.

In general, creativity revealed through divergence indicates a certain similarity in the thinking of people with high levels of creativity and people with schizophrenic and affective disorders. Cropley points out that both are capable of establishing distant associations and diverging ideas.

Empirical research highlights the similarities in thought processes between creative people and schizophrenics (or people with schizoid symptoms). Moreover, the similarity in thinking can be traced primarily along the lines of originality: new ideas can be unusual, deviate from cultural norms, shock, and form surprising combinations. Both schizophrenics and creative individuals are able to use peripheral information as a source of creative ideas due, presumably, to the lack of focus of their attention.

G. Yu. Eysenck put forward the hypothesis that creativity and various forms of psychopathology have a common genetic basis and manifest themselves in one of the personality traits - so-called psychoticism (with this construct Eysenck denotes non-standard behavior in the general sense of the word). The same genetic factor can be a predisposition to schizophrenia in some people and to high creativity in others. Eysenck believes that a high level of psychoticism predisposes to schizophrenia and criminal forms of behavior, and a moderate level predisposes to high creativity.

Connection with intelligence. Guilford initially included in the structure of creativity, in addition to divergent thinking, the ability to transform, the accuracy of solutions and other intellectual parameters. This postulated a positive relationship between intelligence and creativity. Numerous experiments have revealed that highly intelligent subjects may not exhibit creative behavior when solving problems, but there are no low-intellectual creatives.

Four groups of people with different levels of intelligence and creativity were identified, differing in their ways of adapting to external conditions and solving problems:

1) people with a high level of intelligence and creativity have adequate self-esteem, high self-control, interest in everything new and independence of assessments (belief in one’s abilities, good self-control, good social integration, high ability to concentrate, great interest in everything new);

2) people with a high level of intelligence and low creativity strive for school success, are secretive, have low self-esteem (constant conflict between their own ideas about the world and school requirements, insufficient self-confidence and self-esteem, fear of evaluation from others);

3) people with low level intelligence and high creativity are anxious, inattentive, and have poor social adaptation(perception of failures as a disaster, fear of risk and expressing one’s opinion, decreased sociability);

4) people with low intelligence and creativity adapt well, have developed social intelligence, are passive, and have adequate self-esteem (good adaptation and satisfaction with life, insufficient intelligence is compensated by social sociability or some passivity).

Personal abilities are features of the subject’s psyche that affect the success of acquiring skills, knowledge, and abilities. However, the abilities themselves are not limited to the presence of such abilities, signs and skills. In other words, a person’s ability is a unique opportunity for acquiring skills and knowledge. Abilities are manifested only in such activities, the implementation of which is impossible without their presence. They are not found in skills, knowledge and abilities, but in the process of their acquisition and are part of the personality structure. Every person has abilities. They are formed in the process of the subject’s life activity and change together with changes in life’s objective circumstances.

Development of personality abilities

Abilities in the personality structure are its potential. The structural structure of abilities depends on the development of personality. There are two degrees of ability formation: creative and reproductive. At the reproductive stage of development, the individual shows significant ability to master knowledge, activities and implement them according to an explicit model. At the creative stage, an individual is able to create something new and unique. The combination of outstanding abilities that determine the very successful, original and independent performance of various activities is called talent. Genius – highest level talent. Geniuses are those who can create something new in society, literature, science, art, etc. The abilities of subjects are inextricably linked with inclinations.

A person’s abilities for mechanical memorization, sensation, emotional excitability, temperament, and psychomotor skills are formed on the basis of inclinations. The possibilities for the development of anatomical and physiological properties of the psyche, which are determined by heredity, are called inclinations. The development of inclinations depends on close interaction with surrounding circumstances, conditions and the environment as a whole.

There are no people who are completely incapable of anything. The main thing is to help the individual find his calling, discover opportunities and develop abilities. Every healthy person has all the necessary general abilities for learning and those abilities that develop during certain activities - special ones. So, the main factor influencing the development of abilities is activity. But in order for abilities to develop, activity in itself is not enough; certain conditions are also needed.

Abilities need to be developed from childhood. In children, engaging in any particular type of activity should evoke positive, constant and strong emotions. Those. such activities should bring joy. Children should feel satisfied with their activities, which will lead to the formation of a desire to continue to engage in further activities without coercion from adults.

Creative expression of activity is important in the development of children’s abilities. So, for example, if a child is passionate about literature, then in order to develop his abilities, it is necessary that he constantly writes essays, works, albeit small ones, with their subsequent analysis. A huge role in the development of the abilities of younger schoolchildren is played by visiting various clubs and sections. A child should not be forced to do things that were interesting to parents in their childhood.

The child’s activities should be organized so that they pursue goals that are slightly beyond his capabilities. If children have already shown abilities for something, then the tasks given to them should gradually be made more difficult. It is imperative to develop in children, along with abilities, self-demandingness, determination, perseverance in the desire to overcome difficulties and criticality in judging their actions and themselves. At the same time, it is necessary to form in children the right attitude towards their abilities, achievements and successes.

The most important thing in developing abilities in early age is a sincere interest in your baby. It is necessary to pay as much attention to your child as possible and do some work with him.

The decisive criterion for the development of society is the embodiment of the abilities of individuals.

Each subject is individual, and his abilities reflect the individual’s character, passion and inclination towards something. However, the realization of abilities directly depends on desire, regular training and constant improvement in any specific areas. If an individual lacks passion or desire for something, then it is impossible to develop abilities.

Creative abilities of the individual

Many people mistakenly believe that creative abilities include only drawing, writing and music. However, this is absolutely false. Since the development of an individual’s creative abilities is closely interconnected with the individual’s perception of the world as a whole and his sense of himself in it.

The highest function of the psyche, reflecting reality, is creativity. With the help of such abilities, an image of an object that does not exist at that moment or that never existed at all is developed. At an early age, the foundations of creativity are laid in a child, which can manifest themselves in the formation of the ability to conceive and implement it, in the ability to combine their ideas and knowledge, in the sincerity of conveying feelings. The development of children's creative abilities occurs in the process of various activities, for example, games, drawing, modeling, etc.

The individual characteristics of a subject that determine the individual’s success in performing any creative activity are called creative abilities. They represent a combination of many qualities.

Many famous scientific figures in psychology combine creativity with thinking characteristics. Guilford (an American psychologist) believes that creative individuals are characterized by divergent thinking.

People with divergent thinking, when searching for a solution to a problem, do not focus all their efforts on establishing a single correct answer, but look for various solutions in accordance with all possible directions and consider many options. The basis of creative thinking is divergent thinking. Creative thinking is characterized by speed, flexibility, originality and completeness.

A. Luk identifies several types of creative abilities: finding a problem where others do not notice it; collapsing mental activity, while transforming several concepts into one; using the skills that have been acquired in finding solutions from one problem to another; perception of reality as a whole, and not splitting it into parts; ease of finding associations with distant concepts, as well as the ability to issue necessary information at a certain moment; choose one of the alternative solutions to the problem before checking it; show flexibility of thinking; introduce new information into an existing knowledge system; see things and objects as they really are; highlight what is noticed from what the interpretation offers; creative imagination; easy to generate ideas; refining specific details to optimize and improve the original idea.

Sinelnikov and Kudryavtsev identified two universal creative abilities that developed in the process historical development society: realism of imagination and the ability to see the integrity of a picture before its components. Imaginative, objective grasping of some significant, general pattern or tendency for the formation of an integral object, before the individual has a clear idea of ​​it and can introduce it into a system of clear categories of logic, is called realism of the imagination.

The creative abilities of an individual are a set of character traits and properties that characterize the level of their compliance with certain requirements of any type of educational and creative activity, which determine the degree of effectiveness of such activity.

Abilities must necessarily find support in natural personality qualities (skills). They are present in the process of constant personal improvement. Creativity alone cannot guarantee creative achievement. To achieve, you need a kind of “engine” that can put mental mechanisms into action. Creative success requires will, desire and motivation. Therefore, eight components of the creative abilities of subjects are distinguished: personality orientation and creative motivational activity; intellectual and logical abilities; intuitive abilities; ideological properties of the psyche, moral qualities that contribute to successful creative and educational activities; aesthetic qualities; communication skills; the individual’s ability to self-manage his educational and creative activities.

Individual abilities of the individual

Individual abilities of a person are general abilities that ensure the success of mastering general knowledge and implementing various types of activities.

Each individual has a different “set” of individual abilities. Their combination is formed throughout life and determines the originality and uniqueness of the individual. Also, the success of any type of activity is ensured by the presence various combinations individual abilities that work towards the result of such activity.

In the process of activity, some abilities have the opportunity to be replaced by others, similar in properties and manifestations, but having differences in their origin. The success of similar types of activities can be ensured by different abilities, so the absence of any ability is compensated by another or a set of such abilities. Therefore, the subjectivity of a complex or combination of certain abilities that ensure the successful performance of work is called an individual style of activity.

Now modern psychologists highlight such a concept as competence, which means integrative abilities aimed at achieving results. In other words, this is a necessary set of qualities that employers need.

Today, individual abilities of a person are considered in 2 aspects. One is based on the unity of activity and consciousness, which was formulated by Rubinstein. The second considers individual properties as the genesis of natural abilities, which are associated with the inclinations and typological and individual characteristics of the subject. Despite the existing differences in these approaches, they are connected by the fact that individual characteristics are discovered and formed in the real, practical social activity of the individual. Such skills are manifested in the subject’s performance, activity, and self-regulation of mental activity.

Activity is a parameter of individual characteristics; it is based on the speed of prognostic processes and the variability of the speed of mental processes. So, in turn, self-regulation is described by the influence of a combination of three circumstances: sensitivity, a specific rhythm of installation and plasticity.

Golubeva connects various types of activity with the predominance of one of the brain hemispheres. People with a dominant right hemisphere are characterized by high lability and activity of the nervous system, the formation of non-verbal cognitive processes. Such individuals study more successfully, solve assigned tasks well under conditions of lack of time, and prefer intensive forms of training. People with a predominant left hemisphere are characterized by weakness and inertia of the nervous system, they master humanitarian subjects more successfully, they can plan activities more successfully, and they have a more developed self-regulatory voluntary sphere. From this we can conclude that a person’s individual abilities have a relationship with his temperament. In addition to temperament, there is a certain relationship between the abilities and orientation of a person, his character.

Shadrikov believed that ability is a functional feature that manifests itself in the process of interaction and functioning of systems. For example, a knife can cut. It follows that the abilities themselves, as properties of an object, are determined by its structure and the properties of individual elements of the structure. In other words, individual mental ability is a property of the nervous system in which the function of reflecting the objective world is carried out. These include: the ability to perceive, feel, think, etc.

This approach of Shadrikov made it possible to find the correct relationship between abilities and inclinations. Since abilities are some properties of functional systems, therefore, the elements of such systems will be neural circuits and individual neurons that specialize according to their purpose. Those. properties of circuits and individual neurons are special inclinations.

Social abilities of the individual

Social abilities of an individual are those properties of an individual that are acquired in the process of his development and meet the requirements of significant social activity. They change in the process of education and in accordance with existing social norms.

In the process of social communication, social properties are more expressed in conjunction with the cultural environment. One cannot be excluded from the other. Since it is socio-cultural qualities that play the main role in the formation of the subject as an individual.

In the processes of interpersonal interaction, socio-cultural value is lost, and social abilities cannot be fully demonstrated. The use of social abilities by an individual allows him to enrich his socio-cultural development and improve the culture of communication. Also, their use significantly affects the socialization of the subject.

So, the social abilities of an individual are the individual psychological characteristics of an individual that can allow him to live in society, among people, and are subjective circumstances of successful communicative interaction and relationships with them in any type of activity. They have a complex structure. The basis of such a structure is: communicative, social-moral, social-perceptual properties and ways of their manifestation in society.

Social-perceptual abilities are the individual psychological properties of an individual that arise in the process of his interaction and relationships with other individuals, providing an adequate reflection of their characteristics, behavior, states and relationships. This type of ability also includes emotional and perceptual ones.

Social-perceptual abilities constitute a complex set of communication abilities of an individual. Because it is communication properties that allow subjects to understand and feel another, to establish relationships and contacts, without which effective and complete interaction, communication and teamwork is impossible.

Professional abilities of the individual

The main psychological resource that a person invests in the process of work and activity is professional abilities.

So, a person’s professional abilities are the individual psychological properties of an individual that distinguish him from others and meet the requirements of labor and professional activities, and are also the main condition for the performance of such activities. Such abilities are not limited to specific abilities, knowledge, techniques and skills. They are formed in the subject on the basis of his anatomical and physiological characteristics and inclinations, but in most specialties they are not strictly determined by them. More successful performance of a particular type of activity is often associated not with one specific ability, but with a certain combination of them. That is why professional skills are determined through successful specialized activity and are formed in it, but they also depend on the maturity of the individual and his relationship systems.

Activities and abilities of a person regularly change places throughout an individual’s life, being either a consequence or a cause. In the process of carrying out any type of activity, mental new formations are formed in the personality and abilities that stimulate further development abilities. When the circumstances of an activity become more stringent or when the conditions of the tasks or the tasks themselves change, the inclusion of different systems of abilities in such activities may occur. Probable (potential) abilities are the basis of new types of activities. Since the activity is always adjusted to the level of ability. So, professional abilities are both a result and a condition for successful work activity.

Universal human abilities are those psychological properties that are necessary for an individual to be involved in any professional and labor activity: viability; ability to work; the ability for self-regulation and activity, which includes prognosis, anticipation of the outcome, goal setting; ability for spiritual enrichment, cooperation and communication; the ability to be responsible for the social outcome of work and professional ethics; the ability to overcome obstacles, immunity to interference, and withstand unpleasant circumstances and conditions.

Against the background of the above abilities, special ones are also formed: humanitarian, technical, musical, artistic, etc. These are individual psychological characteristics that ensure the success of an individual in performing certain types of activities.

Professional abilities of an individual are formed based on universal human abilities, but later than them. They also rely on special abilities, if they arose simultaneously with professional ones or earlier.

Professional skills, in turn, are divided into general, which are determined by the subject of activity in the profession (technology, people, nature) and special, which are determined by specific working conditions (lack of time, overload).

Also, abilities can be potential and actual. Potential - appear when new tasks arise for the individual, which require new approaches to solution, as well as under the condition of the individual’s support from the outside, which creates an incentive to actualize potential. Relevant – already today they are carried out in a procession of activities.

Personal communication abilities

In the success of an individual, the determining factor is relationships and interaction with surrounding entities. Namely, communication skills. The success of the subject in professional activities and in other areas of life depends on the degree of their development. The development of such abilities in an individual begins almost from birth. The sooner a baby can learn to speak, the easier it will be for him to interact with others. The communicative abilities of subjects are formed individually for each person. The determining factor in early development These abilities are parents and relationships with them; later, peers become an influencing factor, and even later, colleagues and one’s own role in society.

If in early childhood an individual does not receive the necessary support from parents and other relatives, then he will not be able to acquire the necessary communication skills in the future. Such a child may grow up insecure and withdrawn. Consequently, his communication abilities will be at a low level of development. The way out of this situation can be the development of communication skills in society.

Communication abilities have a certain structure. They include the following abilities: information-communicative, affective-communicative and regulatory-communicative.

The ability to start and maintain a conversation, complete it competently, attract the interest of the interlocutor, and use non-verbal and verbal means for communication are called information and communication abilities.

The ability to perceive the emotional state of a communication partner, respond correctly to such a state, and demonstrate responsiveness and respect for the interlocutor is an affective-communicative ability.

The ability to help the interlocutor in the process of communication and to accept support and help from others, the ability to resolve conflicts using adequate methods is called regulatory-communicative abilities.

Intellectual abilities of the individual

In psychology, there are two opinions about the nature of intelligence. One of them states that there is General terms intellectual abilities, by which intelligence in general is judged. The object of study in this case will be the mental mechanisms that determine the intellectual behavior of the individual, his ability to adapt to environment, the interaction of its external and inner worlds. The other presupposes the presence of many structural components intelligence, independent of each other.

G. Gardner proposed his theory of the plurality of intellectual abilities. These include linguistic; logical-mathematical; creating in your mind a model of the location of an object in space and its application; naturalistic; corpus-kinesthetic; musical; the ability to understand the motivation for the actions of other subjects, the ability to form the correct model of oneself and the use of such a model for more successful self-realization in everyday life.

So, intelligence is the level of development of an individual’s thought processes, which provide the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and optimally apply it throughout life and in the process of life.

According to most modern scientists, general intelligence is realized as a universal ability of the psyche.

Intellectual abilities are features that distinguish one individual from another, arising on the basis of inclinations.

Intellectual abilities are grouped into broader areas and can manifest themselves in various spheres of an individual’s life, his social role and status, moral and ethical qualities.

Thus, it should be concluded that intellectual abilities have a rather complex structure. The intelligence of a person is manifested in the individual’s ability to think, make decisions, the appropriateness of their application and use for the successful implementation of a specific type of activity.

The intellectual abilities of an individual contain a huge number of different components that are closely interrelated. They are realized by subjects in the process of playing various social roles.

On Lifehacker. If you want to learn how to awaken your creative impulses and what you need to do to help your inner creator grow and develop, be sure to take the time to read this article. You will not regret!

“I’m not a creative person, I’m not given this,” many of us say, looking with admiration at the caricatures of street artists or listening to a long-haired hippie singing a Radiohead song in transition. But there is good news: the latest scientific research suggests that all people are the same and that there is a creator in each of us. Therefore the phrase “I’m not a creative person” is just a convenient excuse for laziness.

The myth of a creative streak was cultivated and carefully guarded among bohemians for a long time. Artists, musicians, actors, designers and even average copywriters like to look like they belong to a different breed, and while working they are moved by at least the hand of God. The standard of a creative personality is a cross between Lady Gaga and Aguzarova, who yesterday was going to fly to the moon, today she is crushing the charts with a new song, and tomorrow she is giving an interview about the benefits of meditation in a funny kokoshnik. And to start creating, we need to go through the nine circles of hell at least three times, undergo drug rehabilitation and go to meditate in the Tibetan mountains.

Scientific research rejects any division between the creative and corporate working classes

What can we say if in the modern corporate environment there is an artificial division into “creative” and “corporate” types who relate to each other like Gryffindor and Slytherin students. However, almost all studies of creativity that have been conducted over the past 50 years reject this division: the creative muscle has nothing to do with genetics, intelligence, or personality traits.

For example, during an experiment at the Institute for Diagnostics and Personality Research (IPAR), scientists invited several dozen successful representatives of various creative professions to the conference. Over the course of several days, they went through a lot of questions, which did not really clarify where to look for creative inclinations. The only common features of the subjects looked like this: balanced personal characteristics, above average intelligence, openness to new experiences and a tendency to choose difficult options. As you can see, nothing special.

There is no such thing as a creative personality type

Then stubborn guys in white coats began to look for creative inclinations in personal qualities person: a huge amount of information was collected about the outstanding creators of the 20th century, after which everyone passed the virtual test “five-factor model of personality.” Scientists expected that creative people there will be a bias in one of the five personal characteristics (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism), but again the finger in the sky - among the subjects there were neurasthenics, and extroverts, and friendly drunkards, and many others. Conclusion: there is no creative personality type.

Having abandoned psychology, they began to look for the creative muscle in the human brain. The researchers did not give a damn about the request for cremation and immediately after the death of the genius they began to study his skull. And again disappointment: the brain of the famous physicist was no different from the brain of a professional baseball player or a homeless person who had been hit by a car. The third round of slingshot shooting at airplanes is completed, the scientists are “on fire” with a score of 3:0.

There is no correlation between the gene code and creativity

When psychologists, physiologists, and simply everyone who cared were left with nothing, genetics, which had previously unsuccessfully tried to find the old age gene and the gene, began to solve the problem. To rule out differences in genes and the influence of upbringing, the scientists studied only families with twin children. Researching the Connecticut Twin Registry since 1897, Marvin Reznikoff's group assembled a team of 117 twins and divided them into two groups (identical and fraternal). The results of two dozen tests showed that there is no correlation between the gene code and creative abilities. 4:0, and it's almost Argentina versus Jamaica.

Over the past 50 years, there have been a wagon and a small cart of such experiments. In his book “The Muse Won’t Come,” David Brooks provides a dozen more references to unsuccessful attempts to find the nature of the creative muscle and concludes that, like any other skill, it can be improved through training.

Training to improve creative thinking

Morning Pages

Old as time, but effective method. As soon as we wake up, we grab a notepad and pen and start writing. It doesn't matter whether it's a story about Godzilla walking through Tokyo, an essay about a warm blanket, or a sleepy analysis of the geopolitics of Mongolia. The main thing is to just write and not think about anything. The norm for morning writing is three notebook pages or 750 words. You can use the 750 words resource and drum on the keys, but experienced scribblers advise doing it the old fashioned way - with pen on paper.

What if

This is not even a method, but a simple question that Stanislavsky forced any aspiring actor to ask. “What if” can be applied to any familiar object, part or action. For example, what if the story in a book was told with pictures? This is how the comic came about. Or what if, instead of world news, we told what worries ordinary people? This is how the yellow press appeared.

This method perfectly develops imagination and is actually the trigger for any creative process. And it’s a lot of fun to ask strange questions. What if all people drank blood? What if a funny man with the habits of a dictator from a banana republic became the president of the country?

Word crushing

In the adult brain there is a rigid system of symbols that, at the first opportunity, likes to evaluate and label everything around. As a result of such automation, but this is also main reason narrow and stereotyped thinking. By coming up with new words, we force our brain to turn off rational thinking and turn on imagination. The technique comes from childhood and is extremely simple: we take any two words, combine them into one and then try to imagine what it would look like in life. Bath + toilet = bathtub, Kim + Kanye = Kimye.

Torrens method

The method is based on doodles - scribbles of the same type that need to be turned into a drawing. On a piece of paper we draw identical symbols in a row (a circle, two circles, a nail, a cross, a square, etc.). Then we turn on our imagination and start drawing.

Example. The circle could be Captain America's shield, a cat's eye, or a nickel, and the square could be a haunted house or a piece of art. It develops not only imagination, but also persistence in searching for ideas, since each new doodle is a competition with oneself.

Focal object method

The method is to find connections between the main idea and random objects. For example, we open a book on a random page, grab 3-5 words that first caught our eye, and try to connect them with the subject we are thinking about. A book can be replaced by a TV, a video game, a newspaper, or something else. Works great when the thought process moves by inertia.

Gordon's analogies

This is not the easiest to learn, but a very effective method. William Gordon believed that the source of creative ideas lies in the search for analogies, which he divided into four groups.

• Direct analogy: we are looking for an analogy to an object in the surrounding world. On a scale from your room to the country.
• Symbolic: We are looking for an analogy that will describe the essence of the object in a nutshell.
• Fantastic analogy: we come up with an analogy, taking the limitations of objective reality out of the equation.
• Personal analogy: we try to take the place of the object and look at the situation through the eyes of the object. For example, how does the chair on which we sit live?

Indirect Strategies

This is a very strange and interesting way that Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt came up with to bring a tired brain out of a creative stupor along secret paths. The essence of the method: we have 115 cards with advice written on them. Moreover, the advice is quite strange: “Remove ambiguities and turn them into details”, “Massage your neck” or “Use old idea" The trick is that there are no direct instructions for action, and in each advice two people can see two different solutions to the problem. You can make the cards yourself and pour them, for example, into a vase or use online tips. For example, .

Stick to a daily routine

In his latest work, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami debunks the myth of the creative lazy person, talking about the fact that a strict daily routine (getting up at 5 a.m., bedtime at 10 pm) became the main catalyst for his performance. The mind is inclined to be capricious and find excuses for its own laziness, and following the regime takes it out of it and teaches it to turn on half a turn.

Don't neglect other creative activities

Study or. Any creative activity keeps the brain in good shape, and alternating them switches attention and allows you to find answers in rather unexpected places.

According to research, more than a third of Nobel Prize winners in literature were engaged in another form of art - painting, theater or dance. Einstein called music his second passion and, if he had not become a physicist, most likely would have become a violinist.

Don't give up

When things don't get off the ground, persevere. For example, the writer Rody Doyle says that during a stupor he begins to pour out on paper the nonsense that comes to mind. After a while, the brain stops pushing and protesting and simply turns off, releasing streams of thoughts. And Hemingway, when he sat down to write a novel, could write dozens of versions of the first sentence until he found the one he believed. Then he developed the action from it.

Don't get hung up

If persistence does not help, we go from the opposite. Take a walk, do something distracted, communicate with other people. There is a theory according to which everything has long been invented, and the creative process lies only in the combination of these ideas. And if the answers are hidden within us, we just need to tune in to the right wave and hear them. You can sit in the sun in the lotus position, concentrate on washing dishes, walk through the forest listening to ambient music, or go jumping at a rock concert. The main thing is to do what allows us to turn off the internal dialogue and concentrate on the moment.

Treat creativity like a game

Creativity is first and foremost fun. Don't take it too seriously. Now I will explain why. In 2001, an experiment was conducted at Maryland College in which students had to guide a mouse through a maze drawn as in childhood. The students of the first group walked forward towards the piece of cheese (positive attitude), while the second group ran away from the owl (negative attitude). Both groups completed it in the same amount of time, but the students of the second group started avoidance mechanisms, and the second group took, on average, 50% longer to solve the problems that followed the maze than the students of the first group.

Just start

Many of us in childhood dreamed of becoming musicians, artists or actors, but over time, a pragmatic approach to life pushed these dreams further into the mezzanine. Betsy Edwards has a theory that for most people today, the left side of the brain becomes dominant as they age. She is responsible for analytical thinking, the symbol system and the mode of action, and every time we try to learn to play the guitar or draw, we hear her voice, which advises us to put this bullshit aside and do something useful.

At first it will be difficult to step over, but if you have the courage and desire, then over time his voice will become quieter, and criticism in the style of “you draw like an asshole” will be replaced by something more constructive. Getting started is the hardest thing.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, Every person can think creatively, the only question is training. This can be compared to a lack of flexibility: immediately trying to do the splits, we will grunt, moan and cry, but if the muscles are properly warmed up and stretched, then in a couple of years it will be possible to send a resume for the position of a circus gymnast. The main thing is to remember that it's never too late to start something new: artists, musicians, poets and writers already live within us. Feel free to wake them up.