Promoting creativity as we age

Let’s explore how creativity can assist through our lifecycle with a focus on overall wellbeing as we mature and age. We know that creativity assists us to utilise our innate ability to problem find and solve, but what about in other contexts as a means to further our personal development in life?

I'd like to introduce the term 'everyday creativity' and consider how this might shape a life well lived. What role can creativity play in this?

Everyday creativity is about personal creativity and is central to our way of life. While it can be expressed as 'little c creativity', it doesn’t exclude 'Big C creativity' that we might undertake like writing a novel, contributing to a large social issue or launching the next disruptive social enterprise. In many ways it’s equally as important to Big C creativity as it might lead to discoveries where we bring novel, original and relevant ideas into action.

Are you a little or big C creative?....Check below

In thinking about everyday creativity as a creative advantage, this can provide enormous potential for originality, adaptation and improvisation. The practice of everyday creativity can assist us to thrive throughout our lifespan by promoting creative approaches as we age.

Many things we do each day appear common and uneventful. Dr Ruth Richards, psychologist and psychiatrist, reminds us that creativity is as much about how we do it (the process) as it is about what we do (the product). She believes we can live better lives by being consciously creative when we undertake these seemingly uneventful everyday tasks.

Her research has developed a way of measuring creativity, known as the Lifetime Creativity Scales (LCS) which involved developing rating scales based on data about real life creative accomplishments at work and leisure. She was interested in the originality of everyday life, ranging from the fully unique to the unusual settings they emerged in.

Over many years this research displayed the creative ingenuity of the everyday, from how a single mother made clothes on a tight budget, a father modified a wheelchair for his disabled son, an amateur archaeological made special finds on his digs, to an auto mechanic who created his own tools. It highlighted the many forms of creativity, often before it was clearly identified or named by the actual participants. ¹

While creativity needs to be novel and appropriate, Dr Richards’ research focusses on maximising the underlying creative potential in each of us, whether the outcome meets an immediate need or not. ²

Everyday creativity is not about the trivia of life. It’s about things that might lead to a discovery from where a more important accomplishment can grow. In pursuing a creative life everyday, we can explore new possibilities and self-expression as a way of being, and experimentation as a style of existing.

Are you a little or big C creative?

When we think about creativity, we often fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to heavy weight creatives like Amadeus Mozart, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs or Coco Chanel. They are referred to as ‘Big C’ or ‘Pro C’ creatives as a way to think about people with well-formed and mature special talents.

little c -----------------------------------------------Big C --------------Pro C

Every day creativity ------------------------------------------------Superior Creativity

A Pro C creative has used intense deliberate practice within their specific domain to reach their higher level of professional expertise or significant creative accomplishment. ³

But creativity is also evident in others ways, like the way we express our problem solving in everyday life, referred to as ‘little c’ creatives.

Creativity will follow trajectory that starts with personally meaningful interpretations of experiences, actions and events, that progress to novel and meaningful contributions (what we’ll call little c creativity) and can even develop into superior creative performance (Big C or Pro C creativity ). ⁴

The take home message is that with all these creative types, they all fundamentally use the same thought processes. The Big C creatives become great the same way that everybody else does.

References

Quote from Kaufman, S.B. The creative life and well-being. Scientific American, March 2015. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-creative-life-and-well-being/

2. Richards, R. Everyday Creativity, Process and way of life- four key issues. Chapter 10 from Kaufman, J.C and Sternberg R.J (2011) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge University Press, UK, 192.