98% of children test as highly creative, while only 2% of adults do.
We don’t lose our creative abilities, we stop recognizing them.
We’ve been conditioned to think “I’m just not the creative type” while overlooking the creative activities we perform in our daily lives.
Creativity isn’t a single talent, but a multidimensional spectrum that touches every aspect of how you solve problems, deal with situations, and express yourself. When you find a clever shortcut to work, craft a meal from random ingredients, or find the perfect words to help someone, you’re being creative.
Start recognizing creativity in these four dimensions:
- Everyday creativity: Your daily problem-solving, adapting when plans change, making things work with what you have
- Domain-specific creativity: Being innovative within your field, organizing systems, troubleshooting, managing people, and optimizing processes
- Process creativity: Generating ideas, seeing connections others miss, asking “what if” questions that lead somewhere interesting
- Execution creativity: Taking rough concepts and turning them into polished results, finding elegant ways to implement solutions
Your creative expression might look like optimizing workflows, designing the perfect playlist, reading people and situations with unusual insight, or finding just the right words to help someone through a rough time.
