We boarded a bus to take us from the jet to the terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport. It pulled up to the terminal and everyone got off and stopped in front of an automatic door. Which automatically stayed closed.
People started to pile up. They started to peer through the glass, look around, while others looked back at the bus driver. A few tapped on the glass.
Being one of the last people off the bus, I walked over to the side door on the left, the one with the “use this door” sign, and walked in. Immediately, everybody laughed or grinned sheepishly, and followed me in.
What happened here?
The first person off the bus went to the wrong door. The second person followed the first, the third the second, and so on for almost 40 people.
You can see a similar kind of thing when you enter some place with a winding velvet rope line. Even though it’s empty, if the rope is there, people will follow it blindly, walking 60 feet to get to a counter that’s six feet away. Until someone comes along and unhooks the rope, or goes under it. Everyone behind will follow the same process. They know enough to follow up on a good thing, but they don’t have the creativity to think of it themselves.
They are trapped in “tribal-think” and go through their lives following the velvet-roped path. They do things this way because it’s always been done this way.
You have to be different.
But you know that already. You know you have to be a contrarian, to think different than the tribe. You’re aware that most people are unhealthy, unhappy and unfulfilled-which is a diplomatic way to say stupid, broke and sick. What you may not be aware of is one of the attributes you have to develop to stay out of tribal-think and accomplish great things. It is your
creativity.
Creativity helps you think differently. You see the unseen, dream the undreamt and do the things that have never been done. Creativity is simply the process of looking at the same thing as everyone else and seeing something new. It is a method of generating ideas and bringing something new into existence.
Some creativity is adaptive-modifying or altering what already exists in new ways. Other creativity is innovative-introducing something entirely new that had not existed before. Either one can make you rich.
A business colleague of mine, Ford Saeks, has an idea for a bike rack. This was a very simple idea. The kind of idea that once you see it, you say, “Well of course! I could have thought of that.” But you didn’t. Ford did. He looked at a very simple, but everyday situation, but he looked at it a little different than anyone else did. He was weird. And weird people often get rich.
Everyday when I write my Daily Awakening message for my BreakthroughU online success and coaching program, I put mental aerobics brainteasers in them to help my students develop creative thinking skills. When you hone these skills, you open up many new possibilities in your life. It gives you the ability to persevere through challenges, and come out on the other side successful.
Most people who attempt new things face a challenge. So they stop. And say, “I tried but it didn’t work because _______.” And that is the end of it. Creative people break away from habitual thinking, and look for a different perspective. They ask, “How else can I do this?” “What if . . .?” and look for other possibilities. Which is a good way to accomplish things, get wealthy, and have success in just about everything.
Once you develop your creative side and let it loose, it serves you for life. Much like your physical muscles, as long as you keep using it, it gets stronger. So let’s look at the issues of what holds your creativity back, and how you can develop it.
I think one of the biggest myths I see about creativity are that only artists or people with a high IQ have it. People think it’s rare, mysterious, or locked away in their right brain. These things are simply not true. In actuality, everyone have creativity.
Characteristics of Creative People . . .
Creative people aren’t necessarily the best educated or have the highest I.Q. In fact, because of the way the formal education system is designed, it often squelches creativity. Much of what is taught is simply memorization, which inhibits creativity. And the way math and other sciences are often taught also focus only on the logical side, to the detriment of creative thinking. We take these beautiful, bright five year olds-full of creativity-and tell them to sit up straight in desks, not talk, and raise their hand when they want to go to the bathroom. So the school system beats their creativity into submission.
Creative People Are:
- Self-motivated;
- Independent;
- Delighted by novelty;
- Risk takers;
- Tolerant of ambiguity;
- Deeply involved in their work;
- Avid Readers; and,
- World Travelers.
The characteristics you see above provide creative people with a very rich diet of stimulation, variety, and situations. They are exposed to a steady stream of new opinions, languages, cultures and attitudes. They see a much broader spectrum of society, people in general, and the world. They see the same thing handled in many different ways, so it opens up the mind to problem solving, lateral thinking and innovation.
These skills will serve you well in school, relationships and work. In fact, creative people have a very strong likelihood to be successful and wealthy. They are great for inventing things, solving challenges, and envisioning new markets.
Creativity is one of the other ways to develop genius, other than what is measured on a standard IQ test. In fact, recent research in the fields of perception, psychobiology, and neuroscience has revealed that there is more than one area of intelligence. In fact, they have discovered at least six- each one hard wired into a different area of the brain. The people that we consider geniuses (like Mozart, Einstein and others) have succeeded on tapping into a second area of intelligence, or possibly a third. Most everyone else, works in mostly one region of the brain, and uses less that 10 percent of their brain’s capacity.
About the Author
For more than 15 years, Randy Gage has been helping people transform self-limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling breakthroughs to achieve their dreams. Randy Gage is a modern day explorer in the field of body-mind development and personal growth. He is the author of the best-selling albums, Dynamic Development and Prosperity and director of www.BreakthroughU.com . For more resources and to subscribe to Randy’s free ezine newsletters visit www.RandyGage.com
