Another great question I frequently get whe talking about creativity: What is creativity?
Here my short answer: Creativity is a word.

A little more elaborated, it goes a little something like this:

Seen through the eyes of today, creativity has been the travel companion of human kind ever since the very moment our species came into being. In reality however, to our ancestors, creativity has always been the exclusive domain of the Gods. To create something out of nothing was a divine prerogative.

It wasn’t until the 17^th century when Polish Latin poet Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (see picture below) started to use the concept of creativity, not only as a means to describe the process of poetry (and nothing else) but he also named it a godlike act, conducted by man.
 

Maybe, just maybe, that’s where things went wrong. Because the second we were able to label that elusive, organic and intangible series of thoughts and events with the name “creativity”, we also inevitably categorized it.

And maybe, just maybe, we categorized it outside of ourselves, as something alien to our true nature. And if it is seen as something foreign to who we are, it becomes something you first need to acquire if youwant to become it. And if you need to acquire it, you can fail at doing so,which explains why some people genuinely think others are creative, but not themselves.

What is creativity? It is a word. Nothing more. It is awell-intended, yet clumsy attempt at best to describe something that is inherently human.

So here’s what Pinching the Ostrich wholeheartedly invites you to do:

Stop trying to be creative and just “be”, unapologetically “be”. And from that, let that what we call creativity flow.

Remember, our biggest obstacle towards genius is our preoccupation with being recognized as such.

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