Do You Have A Creative Personality and a Creative Mind?

Morning comes hard to people with a creative personality; this is not an employee that eagerly springs out of bed to greet the fresh new day. A creative mind typically does its best work at night and often marches through life to the rhythm of some drum you’ll never hear. They’re as unique as they seem strange and they’re utterly susceptible to perceptual adaptation.

Almost everything you hear about a creative personality is a rumour, legend or outright lie.

They’re a breed of myth-makers so vast and so varied and so beautiful that your imagination will run wild at the sight of them.

A creative mind is a purple cow: a rare and strange mutant that broke the mould.

All they want is to be let loose and create something you’ll love.

So, in this article, we’re going to look at what creativity is, how to nurture a creative personality in the workplace and how you can develop a creative mind.

What is a creative mind and personality?

It won’t come as a shock to you to learn that I’m a creative freak and I’m addicted to my imagination.

There’s something magical about making my thoughts a reality.

It always starts the same way: a messy puzzle that slowly slots together to create something special and unique.

It’s the greatest mania of all.

When you mix creativity and good design with conversion rate optimization: the balance between your thoughts and your soul becomes as wild and delicate as the skin of a bubble drifting in a silent wild.

Perhaps I’m being a little romantic about my creativity, (or possibly trying to show off) but there’s something to all of this, it’s special to lose yourself in the process of loving your work to the point that you forget that you are special too.

There’s no other way to express this feeling because whatever creativity is, it isn’t a superior work ethic.

It’s passion.

Creativite minds die unless they’re used.

I love my creative mind and when I’m not lost in my thoughts creating something new, my life tends to become bland and falls apart.

I find that if I have nothing to say then it’s best to keep my mouth shut and let my subconscious do the talking.

Out there somewhere in the mist is a fresh idea that when nurtured can be used to create something meaningful.

The first draft of anything is always dog shit and it takes time before you have something worthwhile. This means multiple revisions and when someone takes pride in a creative project, they can be mislabeled as a perfectionist or a procrastinator, when all they want is their work to be superior to whatever they’ve made before.

This process tends to get in the way of being uber-productive which can infuriate others.

This article is as good an example as any other.

This article targets specific keywords that I want to rank for on Google. (‘creative personality’ and ‘creative mind‘)

Most businesses would toss together 1,000 words and then ping search engine spiders to crawl and index it.

And while there isn’t anything wrong with churning out bland articles for traffic, (after all a website without traffic is as ridiculous as traffic without a website) a creative person will always want to make something that resonates with other people.

It’s an internal mechanism that forces us to create something altogether different for other people to enjoy.

And whenever a creative person is told to shut their trap and do something meaningless, their ideas keep butting in like whimpering dogs starving for attention.

That’s difficult to ignore.

Find creative inspiration everywhere.

That’s the thing about creativity: inspiration is everywhere and at times we absorb it without thinking.

We’re inspired by the little things around us as well as the work of those that we admire.

Creativity is the language of our artistic nature and an extension of who we are.

Creative work is a very private thing as it becomes an intimate extension of the person who creates it.

When they ask others to look at their work, they’re inviting them to critique them.

That takes balls.

How does a creative mind work?

Neuroscientists long believed that creativity comes from a single region in the right side of the brain.

However, it was later discovered that creativity happens throughout the entire brain.

This complex process consists of many cognitive systems interacting and playing with one another as part of a large interconnected network of brain regions.

This discovery is called the “default network” of the brain and these cognitive systems work together as a team -some conscious, some unconscious.

The default network of creative personalities.

The default network is one of the most important discoveries in neuroscience.

So, how the hell does the default network do its thing?

The default network enables us to construct personal meaning from our experiences, imagine other perspectives and scenarios, understand the subtle meanings of stories, comprehend mental states like those experienced by others or oneself.

Executive attention in creative minds.

Executive attention uses executive control processes to encourage creative thinking.

This helps us to plan future actions, how to use creative techniques and to remember what we’ve tried and what works (trial and error).

Executive attention also helps us focus on our imagination, block out distractions and use life experiences in our work.

Cognitive salience networks and imagination.

When we come up with new ideas, our executive attention and default networks work together.

However, it is our salience network that gets our blood pumping and motivates us to create something unique.

Researchers identified through brain scans of people doing creative tasks that their brain states resemble a state of flow or complete absorption in the task.

The imagination and salience networks are engaged, while the more focused executive domain is subdued.

However, the researchers also found that while the subjects refined their work, the executive attention network became a lot more active.

A creative personality isn’t like the rest.

Creative minds don’t just think outside the box, they’re also agile and flexible.

Creative people are able to exercise flexibility in activating and deactivating their brain networks that tend to be at odds with each other.

They juggle seemingly contradictory modes of thought by activating different networks in their brain that usually conflict with each other – such as emotional thinking versus deliberate reasoning; impulsive behaviour versus controlled elaboration process.

Ten Habits of the Creative Personality and Mind.

Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D. is a man of many hats and has been wearing them for quite some time now.

He’s scientific director of The Imagination Institute in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania; he conducts research on the measurement and development of imagination, creativity, and play; teaches a popular undergraduate course called Introduction to Positive Psychology.

Kaufman has also written a number of books entitled Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined and Wired To Create: Unraveling The Mysteries Of The Creative Mind (co-author Carolyn Gregoire).

First published by Berkley University of California, Kaufman’s article entitled Ten Habits of Highly Creative People outlines how anyone can develop a creative mind and creative personality:

Imaginative play helps you to be creative.

Imaginative play helps us to be creative and learn more about the world and other people. Play can connect us, makes us happy and inspire us.

Passion helps to develop a creative mind.

Passion often comes from an experience or relationship that made us feel something.

People who follow their passion balance the excitement about the future with realistic strategies for getting closer to their goals with hard work.

Daydreaming improves creativity.

Creative people know that daydreaming is good.

Even if their teachers and parents told them it was bad, scientists have found out that there are many benefits.

These include creative incubation, self-awareness, future planning, reflection on the meaning of one’s experiences, and even compassion.

Solitude is dope for creative thinking.

Neuroscientists have discovered that when we look at the outside world our brain uses a different network than when we are looking inward.

When your attention is on external stimuli the executive attention network is activated while the imagination network is suppressed.

Therefore, when we are focused on the outside world we are less creative than when we reflect in solitude.

Intuition feeds creativity.

Intuition comes from the unconscious mind. It helps us think, reason, create and behave in social situations.

Scientists have learned a lot about the power of the subconscious mind in recent years and we now know that there are two systems in our brain: fast and slow.

Intuition is part of the fast system.

Exploration of mediums and experiences help you to be creative.

Research has found that when comes to creativity, the desire to learn and discover is more important than intellect.

So, if you want to be more creative, try out a new creative outlet or a different medium of expression.

Take a new route home from work, or seek out people with different interests or values that you might learn from.

Being open to new experiences can help your integrative complexity – the capacity to recognize new patterns and find links among seemingly unrelated pieces of information.

Mindfulness makes you more creative.

A lot of research has found that people who are mindful, both as a practice and a personality trait, have many cognitive and psychological benefits.

One of these is that they can concentrate better on tasks.

They also have more empathy for others and more compassion.

These people can think about things deeply, they can regulate their emotions better, they have good memories, and they are happier.

All of these things make someone creative.

Sensitive people are more creative.

Sensitive people are found to be more creative as they feel their emotions more intensely than those who aren’t.

Being sensitive can be both a blessing and a curse. If a sensitive person is not able to control their emotions, they can sometimes be overwhelmed by them.

If a sensitive person is able to control their emotions then they are found to be more perceptive. Psychologists have found that perception helps to boost a person’s creativity.

Trauma and happy experiences help to craft a creative mind.

Adverse events can be hard. When you have an adverse event, your mind is forced to reexamine your beliefs and goals.

This can lead to new meaning and identity, as well as less pain from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.

Research has shown that expressive writing helps lessen symptoms of stress disorders and depression as well as some cognitive functions.

Failure is a part of being creative.

The secret to being creative is doing things that are new or different. This means that you need to make a lot of mistakes and problem solving to use your creativity.

According to Kaufman, trying different things and focusing on innovation leads to creative solutions for a creative personality and creative mind.