Creativity: Thinking outside the box, and within it

Every novel innovation, inventive workaround and awe-inspiring artistry we experience in our lives are different strokes of human creativity. Artists, inventors, innovators, are able to do the things they do by connecting to the fundamental tenets of creative energy they hold within themselves.

A common assumption of inducing creativity is that it comes from an external stimulus. One of our greatest inventors, Albert Einstein himself was quoted to say “creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought”. This principle is being adapted in the business world, where organizations try to create an environment for creativity with workshops, post-its and whiteboarding to do exactly this – “think what no one else has thought.”

However, with this ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, there is also value in getting people to look within the box as well. When speaking to creative minds, especially in the creative arts industry, one realizes that creative works are not just about making something new, but also about rediscovering something new within oneself, and expressing that discovery uniquely, on stage, on screen and in our everyday lives.

Behavioral analysts themselves validated that creativity is the “resulting interaction between a person’s genetic endowment and environmental experience” which in other words validates that creativity is as much a result of external influences as of introspective discoveries.

Take it from one of the most creative artists I know. Shyamjith Kiran, a Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer reflects that creativity is ultimately an exercise of “rediscovering yourself”.

The creativity in Shyamjith’s work is in the ingenuity of the ideas that are speckled through them. His works, co-conceptualized with his wife, Viraja, creatively connect the most unassuming parallels into one poignant thought. One of their productions, Rekha, for instance, can liken the lines of a dancer’s movements, to the three sacred lines of Lord Shiva’s forehead, while another concept, ‘Eeram’, uses the unabashed beats of a folk dance as a metaphor to a woman’s free spirit.

When asking about how these ideas come about, or what sparks creativity, Shyam’s answer was rather simple – the newness one sees in creative works is actually a form of newness that the creator finds in themselves. “Creativity is like lightning, you never know when it strikes” says the choreographer. Nonetheless, “by doing something new, you find a new version of yourself”.

Unleashing creativity is in some sense a journey of unknowns. The spark of an idea is unexpected, as is what we discover about ourselves as a result of it.

Consistently embracing creativity is what makes the ground-breaking change occur, both in life and in art. As Shyam relays, the true “creative geniuses are those that elevate the craft, and open a new world for everyone… they see things no one else would usually see.” This holds true across artists and leaders today – the greatest creators are those that ask questions, and connect the dots in ways that haven’t been done before. That process however, also requires them to ask questions with as much curiosity of the world around them, as they would the world within.

Being creative is sometimes considered a natural ability that only a chosen few have. That might well be the case, several studies indicate that some people can cognitively be more creative than others. Regardless, there might be more untapped creativity within all of us, than we have yet to realize. Engaging it has to involve a level of external inspiration, but let’s not forget the internal discovery that we truly need to spark imagination and innovation.