Science-Backed Practices to Boost Your Creative Instincts

When most people hear the word “creative”, they think of artistic qualities related to domains such as music, fine art, and performance art. They might think of a Picasso painting or their favorite piece of music.

The skill we label as creativity actually stretches much broader than the arts, and we utilize it in all kinds of daily decision-making. For example, when we’re tackling a difficult problem at work, we might inventively combine multiple types of information or expertise to find the correct answer. Or when we’re considering how to describe a peculiar experience to a friend, we might come up with a bunch of unique adjectives that we’d never normally use.

“Creativity” isn’t easy to define. For example, Merriam Webster defines “creative” as “marked by the ability or power to create” or “having the quality of something created rather than imitated”. But these definitions don’t describe anything particularly interesting since all things from builders to bowels have the ability to create.

Most dictionary entries will reference something related to the qualities of being original, inventive, or imaginative. You could argue that “creativity” is really just exploring solutions in a unique or innovative way.