1. Be interested – and seriouslyThe spark of a creative genius is simply an interest in something, be it a solution to a particular problem, a desire to learn more about an area or just curiosity. Without this interest in the construction of things, it will be impossible to overcome serious difficulties and go beyond the status quo. Therefore, the first step is to determine your interests. What really intrigues and excites you? What are you curious about? What do you want to know more about? These answers are the foundation for the development of your creativity.2.
Accept the complexity and paradoxesPsychologist Mihai Chikszentmihayi says that geniuses do not lend themselves to classification: the key feature of their personality is complexity. They do not refer to any particular “type of personality,” they paradoxically combine features of different types of characters. They are able, as events develop, to switch between seemingly contradictory values ??and patterns of behavior. And you can learn how to act.
3. Find a switch for your energyCreative geniuses are able to give their work enormous attention and huge energy reserves – and for a long time. But they do not always exist in this mode. They balance long periods of concentration on work with long periods of relaxation. They also consciously relate to their energy and are able to turn off to reload – for example, to sleep in an unexpected moment or to retire from the bustle of the world to peacefully reflect.In today’s world, when we are all online, this balance is difficult to find. But this is one of the key rules that you need to take into service if you want to repeat the experience of real creative geniuses.
4. Consider the world as an expert … but at the same time think like a beginnerHigh intelligence helps to think like a genius. But the connection between intellect and creativity is weaker than you think. Studies show that when IQ is above 120, the additional increase in IQ no longer gives an additional increase in creativity.
And brilliant intelligence can even be an obstacle to creative thinking. Extremely intelligent people are too confident in their mental superiority, and this reduces curiosity, a desire to play and explore. They just stop learning, because they feel better than others.Goethe said that the main feature of genius is naivety. Geniuses are able to combine children’s curiosity with wisdom.
This allows them to generate a lot of diverse, crazy and seemingly unrelated ideas (taking the position of an aspiring enthusiast), and then find a distinct solution (taking the position of an expert who knows how to differentiate important from unimportant).5. Take it seriously, but have fun!Creative geniuses definitely treat work as a game, but this ease in itself does not allow you to finish things. Therefore, it is important to be able to switch and understand when you need to enter a hard, disciplined mode of work – this perseverance is necessary to break through barriers and make real innovations. The phase of creativity, associated with the generation of ideas, often relies on a person’s inclination to play.
But there is a downside – the ability to develop and evaluate generated ideas. Here discipline, extreme self-respect and seriousness are important – it allows you to correctly use your energy and attention at later stages of working with the idea.6. Communicate with people – but also stay alone with yourself longerMost people view themselves as extroverts who like crowds and secular conversations, or as introverts, people who prefer to be on their own. But creative geniuses, apparently, appear in both hypostases either simultaneously, or more or less equally. To be very creative and to become an expert in some area, you need to spend a lot of time on practical development and development of skills, usually in isolation from everyday life. But at the same time, new research shows that a high degree of creativity is associated with frequent “outings” into the world, with the exchange of ideas, with interaction with other people. Many creative people even specially build their time to switch regularly between reflections alone and intensive social interaction.
They understand that both are necessary,7. Be cool … but sensitiveTo a certain extent, creative geniuses are not capable of obeying gender stereotypes. Female geniuses are more likely to be more persistent, dominant personalities than other women, and male geniuses are more sensitive and cautious than men on average. In other words, the geniuses of both sexes are self-confident, persistent and capable of abrupt acts, but at the same time are attentive to other people and feel the situation.Few can act on this level of complexity.
But if you want to strengthen your creativity, you should look for opportunities to develop your emotional and social intelligence. Coaching can help.8. Be a rebel, but do not reject the rules.Creative personalities are often represented as rebel rebel fighters. In fact, all these geniuses first have to accept and master the rules of action in their particular field of expertise. Remember the rule of 10,000 hours? Every genius believes in the importance of the area he is engaged in, and therefore every genius is to a certain extent a traditionalist.
If you are an iron follower of traditions, you only strengthen the current state of affairs. But if you constantly and strongly risk without looking back at past values ??and achievements – it also never gives an innovative result. To master this paradoxical quality of geniuses, you need to understand the rules and all that was done before you, but at the same time be ready to adjust these rules – to bring your area and yourself to new creative heights.9. Get carried away, but be objectiveMihail Chikszentmihayi, who interviewed nearly a hundred famous personalities, discovered that this paradoxical tension between attachment to his work and his ability to distance himself from her is one of the main drivers of innovation.
If we do not have a strong attachment to our activities, we quickly lose interest in solving complex problems (and this is necessary to fully develop and evaluate the ideas of new solutions). But if we are not able to be objective and honest with ourselves, we will never be able to overcome our personal limitations and take full advantage of our strengths. Creative geniuses are able not only to step back from their work, but even criticizing it, tearing it apart is a critical skill that they use regularly.10. Make plans, but do not stick to them.
Geniuses spend a lot of time planning, thinking, and strategically calculating what to do next. But they also have the strange ability to quickly abandon these plans in the light of new information or interesting opportunities. They know that creativity is not a black and white, linear process.
On the contrary, the greatest innovations were usually the result of an unplanned, zigzag process. Geniuses know that no matter how much they plan, strict adherence to the plan leads only to the fact that you miss important opportunities from which a really new solution can be born.
