I’m Not The Creative Type
Top 5 myths about lack of creativity
7 min read
Here’s the top 5 excuses people make when it comes to lack of creativity:
1. I’m not the creative type
2. I lack motivation / I’m lazy
3. I tried, but I sucked at it
4. I don’t have good ideas / everything has been done already
5. I don’t have time
Let’s dissect each one of them separately.
1. I’m not the creative type
Fair enough, I hear you. It sounds like a logical statement. It may just be that you’re less creative — naturally and genetically speaking. There’s truth to that and you may be right.
What? You thought I’d try to convince you that “we’re all creative little unicorns with unlimited ideas”? Well, no, we’re not. Some of us are naturally more creative than others, that’s a biological fact.
Now, what do you do with this information then?
Simple. You accept it, and then act in spite of it. Who said life is fair and equal anyways? Obviously some of us have genetic and circumstantial advantages from the day we’re born. No amount of motivational videos is going to change that, but it doesn’t mean that you CAN’T be creative.
Here’s what Jeffrey and Matthew (PhDs) from psychologytoday.com had to say about it:
“What bothers me so much is not that this statement has the truth value equivalent of a weight loss pill ad. It is that the people who say this to me (and believe it) are often students who have a great deal of creative potential. They have shown it to me in their work. But when they adopt this mindset, they create a self-fulfilling prophecy — they don’t think they fit the creative stereotype, they therefore ignore their creative potential and wind up not being that creative, as they predicted.”
Of course you can be creative, your brain is set up to create new pathways and grow, it’s called neuroplasticity and epigenetics. The difference between you (not a creative type) and someone that is naturally more creative is that you’ll have to put more effort into it than others in order to create these new brain pathways.
“I’m not a creative type” basically translates to “I don’t have the genetic advantage to create stuff with less effort and I feel bad about it / and I’m not gonna try”.
Well, sh*t, so what now? You’re going to cry? Sure, do it if you feel like it. But don’t expect others to sympathize with you, and don’t get passive-aggressive if others “don’t get you”.
If you want to be creative, you’ll have to take it slow, and you’ll have to develop new habits. Calm the F down and breathe. Learn from the ancient Stoics, here’s what they had to say about it:
“Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running … therefore, if you want to do something make a habit of it, if you don’t want to do that, don’t, but make a habit of something else instead. The same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you’ve not only experienced that evil, but you’ve also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire.”
— Epictetus
Basically, try something. If you like it at least a little — do it again. Repeat. Reflect on it. Repeat. Reflect on it. With time you’ll develop a habit. (some scientists say it takes an average 3 months to create one) If you like the habit, keep it, improve upon it. If you don’t, do something else and get rid of the old habit. That’s it, there’s nothing more to it.
2. I lack motivation / I’m lazy
“On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind — I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I’m made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It’s so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself?”
— Marcus Aurelius
Marcus is basically telling you to stop being a little b*tch. Unless you’re biologically chronically depressed, or have some severe mental health issues, being unmotivated is up to you, it’s your own doing and your own excuse. I’m lazy too sometimes, that’s normal. Just don’t use it as an excuse. Laziness is a choice.
Did you see the first episode of BBC’s Planet Earth II? There’s a moment where you see newly born iguanas hatching from eggs, and the first thing they have to do it in life is ESCAPE A BUNCH OF HUNGRY VENOMOUS F*CKING SNAKES. And they weren’t b*tching, they were just running for their lives because there’s nothing else they could do.
Here’s that EPIC moment (more dramatic than any Hollywood blockbuster):
So be like that iguana. Be bold. Get up and do what needs to be done. (Obviously don’t go looking for a bunch of snakes lol)
3. I tried, but I sucked at it
Well, you haven’t tried enough times, or you haven’t tried enough things. You thought it would be easier so you gave up. You were afraid to experiment. Obviously you’re going to suck at it, that’s the whole point. There can’t be no degrees of improvement without degrees of...uhm...suckness? suckability? (lol you get it). In other words, the only way you know you’re improving is if you have something to compare yourself to, meaning, if you have sucked in the past. So suck, because there’s no other way. There’s not one person in the whole world that hasn’t sucked at something when they first started. It’s called learning. Learning comes from failure. Get used to it. Make it a habit and use the experience for your own improvement.
“We are what we repeatedly do, therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit.”
— Aristotle
This means that excellence, or creativity, or productivity, or call it what you want — is an ongoing process, it never ends. (that is, until you die.) So in one month you could be creative, exploding with ideas and purpose, and in the next you can literally have zero creativity. It’s all on you. Don’t blame fate, don’t blame your mom, and don’t blame God. It’s all about your habits. But it’s a double edged sword. This is good because you always have a chance to change and improve, but it’s bad because nothing is stable, nothing is forever. You can’t truly ever “relax”, we’re just not built like that.
“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind,”
— Marcus Aurelius
Marcus meant that your thoughts determine the quality of your character, your values, your beliefs. All of those come from your thoughts, and your thoughts determine your habits, and your habits determine your thoughts. (Aristotle called it a “virtuous cycle”)
Also, stop avoiding discomfort and embarrassment. Without these two you won’t be able to improve and suck less.
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
— Epictetus
4. I don’t have good ideas / everything has been done already
Another excuse to not do anything. This one is obvious. If you’re doing something just to NOT be like others, or to have something that’s never been done before, then you’re a f*cking advanced AI robot God. Seriously, did you come back in time from 2155? Obviously anything that you’ll attempt in this life has been done already by someone else in one way or another. We humans are more the same than we’re different. Don’t delude yourself. That’s not the point. The point is to do the same human things and yet to put your own spin on it, your own story, your own style. It’s all a combination of variables, really. A tiny difference here and there already makes you “unique”. But if you dissect and isolate these differences, they’re really the same things everyone else has. It’s HOW those variables are combined that makes the difference. It’s the HOW that makes you unique.
But then again: we’re more the same than we’re different.
Your ideas won’t be original most of the time, and that’s okay. It will humble you down, it will make you pay attention to the basics. It will make you care less about “being unique and different” and you will just start being and expressing yourself without holding back.
5. I don’t have time
It’s not that you don’t have time, it’s that you have other priorities that take up most of your time. We all have the same time. (on Earth)
You have to decide what priority is more important. It’s that simple.
If you want to start writing, dedicate some time after work, even if it’s 20 minutes a day. Still better than nothing.
Same thing goes for any other creative endeavor, and really anything that involves a habit.
Exercising, public speaking, cooking, doing splits, doing f*cking jiu-jitsu, anything that involves repetition and discipline in order to improve. If something is really important to you, you will find time for it. Even if it’s 10 minutes a day. You just have to be honest with yourself, do you really want to write, or sing, or dance, or do f*cking jiu-jitsu? Or do you just like the idea of it in your head? Be honest and decide. Then you’ll “find” time.
That’s it for today, folks.
Create something, it’s fun. Or don’t. I don’t care.
Bye.
