Creative mindset
“It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.”
Creativity is not a talent reserved for artists. The biggest obstacle to being creative is the belief that you must be born with it. In reality, creativity is about how we perceive the world and how we connect with our own thoughts and feelings.
From childhood, we learn to make sense of life by categorising things. We create labels like good or bad. As adults, these labels become rigid filters. Instead of seeing what is in front of us, we only see how something fits into a category. While these rules help us function in society, they limit our perspective.
These mental shortcuts also affect our emotions. By viewing life through a narrow lens, we often suppress our complex feelings to stay sensible. We become efficient, but we stop experiencing the world with fresh eyes.
Finding a New Perspective
Creativity is the act of looking past what our upbringing and culture taught us to see. It is about shifting our interpretation of the mundane to find something new.
List five of your personality traits and question if they are always true. Challenging your self-image opens up new ways of thinking. You could also spend ten minutes watching the world without looking for a specific meaning. Notice the texture of an object or the way light hits a surface. Finally, take time to write down your thoughts. Reflect on your day and your relationships from a place of curiosity rather than judgement. When we change how we see, we naturally change how we interact with the world.
