In 2007 I was asked to give a talk about creativity. I had no interest in preparing for it, because I assumed that the words would flow creatively, uninterruptedly and spot on. And here I was in front of an audience of young leaders; behind me there was a whiteboard. I didn’t know what to say. In that moment I thought: “What a ridiculous topic to give a lecture on!” What seemed completely obvious and crystal clear two days go, now was a completely unreachable and even non-sensical. I was doomed to roughly sketch ambiguous interpretations of a creative process… I made up words that I didn’t quite believe in. But this occasion set me on a long journey of finding out what creativity entails.
Creativity starts when you learn out of joy for the sake of the process; when you notice how pieces of information add up to create deeper connections, which solidify and set up a platform for ideas to bloom. An imaginative process is akin to walking in a field: it’s visually empty and highly detailed at the same time. The feeling of time goes beyond typical markers like days and weeks; any natural course of time like sun going up or down gets embedded into an imaginative exploration. Creativity is pure learning and a highly individualised process, where only you know what needs to be done to explore possibilities that can expand the world.
So, creativity is individual. What might seem unimaginative for some, for other will be extremely appealing and stimulating. To find a creative core within you, ask yourself a question: What makes me learn?