13 Incredible Things About Highly
Creative People You Can’t Miss
Creativity
works in a mysterious way often leaving us baffled. Inspiration and great ideas
often pop up out of the blue and fail to show up when we need them. The science
gives us a complex picture of creativity. However, there is a couple of telltale
characteristics creative people possess that make them so unusually attractive,
odd, and worth admiring at the same time!
1. They daydream a lot
They are
here, but their minds are miles away during your conversation. Don’t be mad at
them. It’s just the way they are! In fact, despite what teachers may have
always told you, daydreaming isn’t a waste of time. According to this research, letting your mind wander can boost the process of
“creative incubation,” or idea generation. Many of us know that often our best
ideas come seemingly out of the blue when our minds are hovering in the clouds.
Daydreaming actually involves the same brain processes associated with
creativity and imagination.
2. They choose to work at odd hours
Many great creatives are known for working
during odd hours. Haruki Murakami and Sylvia Plath preferred
to get up at 4 a.m. and focus on writing for 5-6 hours during the day, and so
did Nabokov, who also preferred to start writing once he got out of
bed. On the other hand, Feodor Dostoyevsky was a night owl and wrote when
it was dark and quite. Frank Lloyd Wright woke up at 3-4 a.m., and worked for a
few hours before returning to sleep for a couple more hours. The
creative type will figure out the times when creativity strikes most and
structure the rest of the day accordingly. Don’t expect them to fit into a
standard 9-to-5 grind.
3. They have special rituals
The little unusual things they do when they
need to spark
creativity, focus on work or just get into the
mood. Nabokov
liked to soak for 20 minutes in a hot
bath, with a sponge on his head when he needed to restore his mojo. James
Joyce had a signature white coat he preferred
to wear during work and mainly wrote lying on his stomach in bed with a
blue pencil. Dali invented his own power nap technique. He would clutch a key
in his hand, sit down in a chair and place his hand over a metal dish. Once he
was falling asleep, the key would slip from his fingers and bang noisily on the
plate, waking him from the brief moments when he had barely lost
consciousness. Igor Stravinsky, the composer, began his day by standing on
his head for 10 minutes to “clear the brains.” If you live with a creative
type, you’ll soon discover their odd and curious habits and fascinating rituals
that help them stay inspired.
4. They easily lose track of the time
Once a creative gets “into the zone” or
what’s defined as the flow state – a mental state when a person transcends conscious
thought to reach a heightened state of effortless concentration and calmness –
they become immune to any external distractions and can stay focused on
crafting for hours without keeping an eye on the time. Have you ever noticed
how baffled they look when you say them it’s been already late evening and they
spent the whole day at work?
5. They surround themselves with beauty
Creative folks usually have excellent
taste and prefer to surround themselves with aesthetically appealing
things. Studies
show that musicians express particularly
strong response to visually appealing objects and goodness.
6. They are always curious
Creatives are not afraid to challenge the
status quo and ask big questions typically starting with “What if….” They are
immensely curious about different things surrounding them, always eager to know
how things work and why do they work this and not the other way.
7. They take advantage of the life’s hardships
When life give them lemons, they squeeze out
the juice, drink it and in the process create a new art piece about their
painful experience. Numerous songs, books and paintings were created as a
result of some strong emotional pain like heartbreak, grief or some other
serious trauma. In fact, scientists
proved that overcoming wrenching emotional
pain and stressful life experiences if tackled correctly, can boost personal
growth, interpersonal relationships, spirituality and creativity as one starts
to see new possibilities in life and treasure them more. Today, there’s a whole
new field of psychology called post-traumatic growth helping people turn
their past emotional traumas into creative energy and subsequent growth.
8. They have no fear of being alone
Embracing solitude and appreciating it helps
the creative to free their mind and let it wander – just like when daydreaming.
A lot of creatives are often labeled as loners, yet they just need some alone
time to think and listen to their inner creative voice, whispering the new
powerful idea. Best works of art are often visual representations of the
internal dialog the artist has been cherishing inside.
9. They are very observant
People-watching is one of their favorite
pastimes. Nothing escapes the eye of the artists. They love taking notes, they
love making sketches, and they always comment on some random things like the
color of someone’s hat in the crowd or a shape of the shadow that reminds them
something. They pickup and gather those tiny observations to weave them later
on in their next artwork.
10. They can’t stand routine
They need strong stimulations in order to
stay active and they often neglect tasks they find uninspiring or repetitive.
The thing is, creatives devote all their energy to focusing
on their inner universe and don’t have enough strength to carry on effectively
with the day-to-day tasks.
11. They combine playfulness and discipline
The light playful attitude is what we
typically see or expect from the creative type. Yet for one quick moment think
how many razor sharp pencil strokes were made before you could see this
painting? How many hours the sculptor spent trembling over the stone,
methodically cutting down piece after piece until it transformed into a
beautiful statue? Despite their carefree attitude, creatives devote long hours
and tremendous efforts to work, stubbornly aiming for not less then perfection.
12. They are their own worst critics
Each writer loves each paragraph she writers,
yet at the same time she’s being objective and knows which sentence doesn’t
sound good enough. A painter will never be 100% satisfied with the final
product and neither will the composer. It’s a huge struggle for the
creative type to find a balance between adequate self-criticism and
self-worshipping.
13. They are smart and naive at the same time
The paradox is that most well-known creative
contributors had a high-level of general intelligence and gotten high scores on
IQ tests. According to a study
conducted in Stanford children with very high IQs do well in
life, but after a certain point IQ no longer correlates with superior
performance in real life. The cutoff point is around 120. It might be difficult
to do creative work with a lower IQ, but an IQ beyond 120 does not necessarily
imply higher creativity. At the same time, creatives often
show immaturity and inability to deal with “adult” problems and important
decisions. Often they never grow up and live with childish reactions and
attitude towards various life difficulties.
DIANNA LABRIEN
http://www.lifehack.org/283533/13-incredible-things-about-highly-creative-people-you-cant-miss?ref=mail&mtype=goal_reminder&mid=20161108_with_thumbnail&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=read_more&goal_id=5&token=d0e3e4b03809d240b52d71f8a6770fa9
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