12 Ways You are Blocking your Creativity
Are you unconsciously blocking your creativity?
Creativity is such a cliché word! And if we struggle to define it, we’re more likely to be unconsciously blocking ourselves from our full creative potential. Is it an art-related thing? Or is it about the quality of our ideas?
The amount of questions that come to mind is just so overwhelming that at one point in life, I had no idea what people meant when they said “that’s creative!” or “you are very creative!”.
In this blog post, I’m willing to share with you 12 ways we are blocking our creativity that I find easier to overcome…
Some people think (I did too at a point) of creativity as giftedness or inborn talent, that it appears out of nowhere, and is the fruit of natural talent, or a good mood, or even an alignment of the stars, you name it.
And to give you a better definition of what creativity means, let me put you in a situation instead. First, a thought or an idea stirs in your mind, slowly you transform this idea into a material (sketch, written note, a picture, a scenario…), this material creates a third element: a response in someone else (an emotion, a reaction…). This exact process is called creativity. There’s no wowing effect needed around it.
A straight-up answer to that: yes, you are naturally creative. We all are!
But since you’re asking, let me get back at you. Are you lazy? Or do you think you’re unlucky and weren’t blessed with creativity?
We are all creative because we’re all thinkers and are able to form a vision. Thinking is an extended form of vision, and creativity is the ability to expand that vision beyond conventional boundaries. If you can’t expand your vision, it’s not a lack of creativity, it’s a lack of information and knowledge in your brain. The good news is, lack of knowledge can be fixed with the right amount of effort, you can learn, do research, practice, and gain a full set of skills through nothing but persistence and goodwill.
How are you blocking your creativity?
The first block that goes without saying is the fact that you think creativity is an inborn talent. Let’s get rid of this idea before we move on to anything else.
So with that being said, these next 12 things you’re doing are blocking your creativity and stopping you from becoming the most creative version of yourself. Yet, you can easily overcome them:
Lack of visual nutrition/food for thought
Not stopping to look at the path we’re on or about to begin
Rejecting/Judging our ideas
Thinking that Effort is passé
Letting your Ego take the lead
Refusing to imitate and recreate as a beginner
Wanting to be like everyone/someone else
1. You are blocking your creativity if you lack visual nutrition/food for thought:
If your mind lacks data, it can in no way, shape, or form, create new innovative ideas. A mind’s job is to process and make connections to produce and create. The expressions “visual nutrition” or “food for thought” are what we might call inspiration as well. You can give your mind various forms of data to use and work with, depending on your thinking style or preferred info consumption style. For instance, if you’re a visual thinker, you can use Pinterest to find pictures that especially appeal to you or inspire your idea. If you’re more into writing and feel like you relate to that, articles and books provide great info and help develop critical thinking abilities.
2. Not stopping to look at the path we’re on or about to begin:
If you’re not doing something that you enjoy and that would lead you to your life’s task, forget about creativity… Connecting with our inclinations is what sparks good ideas inside of us and what we lack most in the modern world is a sense of a larger purpose to our lives. You must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it in order for you to be creative at it. It’s about where you’re pouring your effort, not the effort itself.
3. Rejecting/Judging our ideas:
Very guilty of this myself, some of my ideas sound very cool in my head and some are just trash. Over the years, I learned that no idea is bad! And all ideas deserve a chance. Every idea that fails to become a project or work of art is an idea that paves the way for a fresher, more creative one to be born. Just don’t let it sit there and waste your energy overthinking it.
4. You are Blocking your Creativity if you keep Rushing:
Another way you’re blocking your creativity is rushing. I always hear 18 year old kids :’) say that it’s too late to start on something, or that a 30 year old is too old to be creative. Let me reassure you, your most creative years are generally your late twenties and on into your forties. That’s where you have had enough knowledge and data so that your mind can start making the right pairings and connections. And if you don’t believe me, look the story of Grandma Moses up.
5. You are Blocking your Creativity if you are Relying on shortcuts:
With the way our world is nowadays, we believe that we can find a shortcut for literally everything. This is a very destructive habit and it has made the laziest less creative generation ever. We believe that we can skip the hard work and the steps needed to do something properly, we avoid the learning process and rely on easy formulas to give us the power and success we’re aiming for.
Basics and Hard work can not be avoided, no matter how hard you try to prove yourself right and stick to your shortcuts and how useful and trendy they are, you’ll eventually find yourself going back to what you avoided as the only way to master your skill or field.
6. Thinking that Effort is passé:
You are very wrong if you separate creativity from effort. Patience, discipline, persistence, and confidence are the ingredients to make a creative mind. But if you rely on your talents and consider the effort and seeking knowledge as a fussy and passé kinda stuff, you will not make any progress.
7. You are blocking your creativity if you’re Letting your Ego take the lead:
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