the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts.
In other words, creativity is that drive, that curiosity, that search for something newer, better, sometimes faster, more efficient, etc. Creativity in the United States was on the rise year after year, until 1990, where it reversed and started to decline.
This reversal does not seem to predict a bright future for our country, which is why Tony Wagner, Innovation Education Fellow at Harvard’s Technology & Entrepreneurship Center and author of “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World” is trying to encourage creativity amongst our children.
Why Is Creativity So Important?
Tinkertoys are a way to stimulate a child’s creativity. Photo by honeyflorida
Living a life of innovation needs no justification, but there are plenty of good reasons — both pragmatic and otherwise — to do so.
The link between creativity and better mental and physical health is well established by research. Creating helps make people happier, less anxious, more resilient and better equipped to problem-solve in the face of hardship.
Studies say that the stress of work is consuming many of us. And that stress can lead to weight gain, elevated glucose levels, upper-respiratory infections and cardiovascular disease.
Confucius once said that if you choose a job you love, you will never work a day in your life. Confucius must have known then what science now confirms: Passion protects us physiologically, allowing us to work longer and harder than we would be able to toiling away at a job we hate.
Imagining and creating give us a sense of purpose, Wagner says. If you lack those things, a pervasive sense of emptiness becomes the default. The great seduction later in life is that many of us fill the vacuum with false friends, material things and medication, both legal and otherwise.
Why is creativity so important? Creativity finds ways to answer more questions, to feed more people, to expand and become more. Without the primal directive to expand, life becomes dull and empty.
Don’t let inertia keep you from developing your own creativity. Find time to go within for inspiration, spend time with things you are passionate about, grow and learn from your “failures.” You and your creativity can help make this world a better place for all!
How do you express your creativity? Please leave your comments below.
