Go somewhere you’ve never been before.

What would you call a work of art? A classic painting or a sleek iPad? Does creativity lie in the mind of a painter or in the creator of an iPad who made it possible for thousands to experiment and express themselves through art? Is it hidden in the mind of a scientist who sees the Law of Gravity in a falling apple or the subversive economist who first proposed that there might indeed be limits to the earth’s resources and highlighted the need to stop our relentless exploitation of it?

Today, with a pandemic still raging on, humans seem to be at the threshold of something transformative. Our long-held beliefs on how to live and work seem tenuous. We are looking for answers to make our existence more meaningful and improve our planet. To get to those answers, we need to flex our creativity muscle. We can make this happen if we recognize that creativity is not an exclusive spoken by some, but one that can be understood and spoken by all of us.

What is creativity anyway? Is it intelligence? If so, why aren’t those with the highest IQs also the most creative? Is it left-brained or right-brained? Is it thinking outside the box, around the box, breaking the box or is there a box at all? Is it our flights of imagination?

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” – Kurt Vonnegut

After centuries of looking for answers, what we do know is that creativity does not necessarily depend on intelligence as we measure it nor is it limited to certain professions. Creativity is the wellspring of innovation. We innovate based on what was built before us. Art and science sift through the foundations and ruins of the past, build upon them, and come up with ideas that will work for our situation and times.

Creativity is sparked by – and indeed needs – irreverent and divergent mental meandering to come up with ideas that matter. The ability to embrace the new and unfamiliar, rather than fear or avoid them, enhances our capacity to create. For instance, our creativity is strengthened by spending time living in other countries, absorbing diverse cultures, and making sense of what appears strange to us.

Scores of studies have recorded variables that discourage creativity and innovation. Groups that are averse to risk, make you feel judged, and work in silos breed insecurity and fear rather than creativity. Binding ourselves to a single environment for any reason exposes us to the same routine, the same people, and the same stimuli. It is like ploughing a single furrow in the same field year after year, depleting the soil in a single space, leaving vast tracts of our mind overgrown and unused. Creativity and innovation become dormant without new stimuli.

What encourages creativity? Seeking and embracing change in areas where we spend most of our time forces us into unfamiliar territory. New settings, people and challenges keep our brains whirring as we make sense of it all. Our latent creativity is jolted awake and leaps forward as we take in our new surroundings with curiosity and a sense of wonder.

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” – Mary Lou Cook

Can you build creativity? Of course. Zero in on a few ideas and tasks that make you feel most fulfilled. Eliminate the rest. Then build a consistent, daily practice on what matters most to you. Want to cartoon? Start doodling. Commit to a doodling time every day and do it even if it is only for 10 minutes. Bored? Doodle anyway. Want to become better at writing? Write. Don’t feel like writing? Write anyway. Try to always surround yourself with people who command your respect and are far smarter than you are. Creativity is built over years of consistent practice, asking questions, failing, and correcting mistakes as you refine a skill.

Do expertise and creativity go together? What distinguishes a true expert from the many who claim to be one? Expertise demands creativity. It is not about mastering a specific, repetitive process over several years in the same environment. These ‘experts’ lack creativity and are lost outside familiar territory. Others are always looking for novel stimuli to grow their creativity and share new insights. Their self-identity is not tied to a single environment. These are the true experts worthy of our respect.

How do we begin building creativity? We could start by taking care of ourselves. Sleep well, move more, spend more time in natural light and amidst Nature, eat healthy, and drink enough water. The brain and mind work better if we feed them well. Watch movies in unfamiliar languages (with subtitles) and read books by unfamiliar authors on new subjects, a few pages a day.  Reading up on new subjects will sow the seeds for many new ideas. Write down every idea you get. Keep learning something new.

Creativity helps us look at the big picture and handle life’s conundrums with grace. Our minds map our very own dreams and each section leads to different paths, enriched by our experiences. Creativity thrives when we decide which path to take instead of expecting someone else to decide for us or make our life rock. Creativity makes us more sparkly, alive and whole by helping us understand and respect ourselves better, one day at a time.

Creativity is contagious, pass it on. – Albert Einstein