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5 Facts About Creative thinking That You Were Not Taught At School

creativity at schoolThere are many facts that were never taught to us at school about creative thinking and the list could continue to be extended for years (or maybe hundreds). However I have chosen here just 5 of the many that I could think of. Here they are in no particular order of importance.

Everyone is creative
Each of us is a creative individual. We can all tell stories and think in different ways its just that some of us find it easier than others. Also we are conditioned to pass exams at school and so some of us begin to believe that we are not creative. Train yourself to think that you are creative then you will be.

Creative thinking is actually work
Creative people spend a huge amount of time creating things in order to achieve the goals that they have set themselves. A person may create a huge body of work in order to create just one small thing that  is really good. For instance it is widely reported that Thomas Edison created many thousands of designs for his lighting system that we come to know as the electric light bulb. James Dyson created over 2000 prototypes of his original bagless cyclone vacuum cleaner.

There is no correct answer
When thinking creatively we must learn to live with ambiguity. Unlike Aristotle who believed things to be black or white but not both. In the real world we must be prepared for thinks to be both or neither. What this means for us in the world of work is that we can generate many different ideas or possibilities that might meet our requirements before choosing which one to go with. Even then there might be several possibilities that we could use.

There is no such thing as failure
This might not be true everywhere but it is certainly true in the field of creative thinking. If something does not work you should learn from it and when you think about it you have discovered one more way in which things should not be done. Also keep your eyes open! It was a particular failure to clean up before going away on holiday that led Fleming to discover penicillin. If he had not been observant on his return we might not have antibiotics today.

Patterns are good
Creative people do not think in ways that are logical or analytical. They often include things that seem unrelated. Einstein was quoted as saying that there is only a limited amount of knowledge but an infinite amount of imagination. He is not quite right in that thinking does create new knowledge but imagination is simply THERE. Creative people acquire lots of knowledge before using it wisely to create connections and spot patterns (or anomalies). These allows for more creative ideas and faster progress.

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