What the heck is Creativity?

Creativity, as I see it, does not involve "thinking outside the box" or being original - those are only consequences of creativity.

Some people think that creativity is only reserved for a genius, like Einstein or Picasso. But I believe that everyone can be creative; it just depends on how you define the word and what your methods are.

Creativity is really just a process of exploration. In order to be creative, you must explore many different things and think about them - not necessarily in depth, but at least give them some thought. The more you do this the more likely it is that something new will come out of your mind.

An example is the analogy of a cloud. When you have an original thought, it's like a small cloud in your mind. You can contemplate this thought or ignore it and move on to another one. The more you think about this initial thought, the larger and denser it becomes until eventually it becomes just part of your overall thinking process.

To be creative, you must move beyond the initial thought and explore other things. When you do this, new ideas come to mind and your cloud becomes larger. You can then go back to that original idea or one of the others in your cloud and contemplate it more deeply.