The Common Pitfalls of Creativity

The intensity we experience when working within the creative industry can be quite daunting. But what else is new? Throw in client feedback, sleepless nights, strict deadlines, daylong meetings and rejected ideas, and creativity can lose its spark in the blink of an eye. Your coffeemaker is judging you not for your late nights of hard work, but for all the times you snuck in those 5-minute naps at your desk. All for high-fives at the conference room, shiny trophies and rounds of really good scotch.

We all have those preconceived notions about what being creative or the nature of every creative process is really about, as taught in portfolio schools and cable television. But what nobody told you about this industry is the common conceptual pitfalls of creativity. Take good notes.

• Creative = original?
  One of the most common perils in the creative industry is linking creativity with originality. Austin Kleon couldn’t have said it better – “steal like an artist.” The originality of an invention is an essential trait when it comes to considering creative work as “creative,” thus demonstrating novelty. However, in reality, most of these ideas often build upon old ones. The reiteration of past ideas can still make us go, “Why didn’t we think of that?”
  Bottomline: originality is subjective.

• Killing ideas softly
  Let’s face it — we all dread that breed of person that is notorious for killing ideas. They are the people we wouldn’t want to sit next to in a brainstorming session, or have in our Fantasy Football team, or any team on that matter. What people seem to overlook is the fact that in order to generate good — maybe great ideas, you have to generate A LOT of bad ones (coffee optional).

• What about free thinking?
  Rules and constraints should never be in your dictionary, so in order to guide and nurture your inner creative soul, you have to think free. When a creative mind is allowed to roam free, they exhibit the boldness of minds. Most people associate thinking freely with not having boundaries when it comes to imagination, but these limitations actually increase productivity in the ideation process.