“We are not creative, we are followers.” By saying this, I do not intend to demean people or question their abilities. There are 7 billion people in this world. Perhaps, when you were born, there would have been 3 or 4 or 5 billion. Then why did God send us on this earth?
• To do something that everyone else is doing? No.
• To just be one of them? No.
• To live and die, just like everyone else does? No.
• To follow others or copy them? No.
When God created us, he wrote a different journey, a different destination, a different story and different karma for all of us – yes for all 7 billion individuals. Then what is stopping us from being creative?
Argument 1:
Imagine you are up in the blue sky in a helicopter at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Yes you’re right – 10,000 feet above the ground. When you look down, the view is breath-taking and everything looks as tiny as an ant. If I ask you to jump from that 10,000 feet of height to the ground, would you be able to do it? The first thought that comes to most of us, perhaps, is “it’s scary” or “I’m afraid” or “are you mad?”.
That’s why I say “we are followers”.
We are the followers of our fears and of our inhibitions.
Now, go back to your childhood for a moment and think – was it scary as an infant when someone threw you up in the air, was it scary when you fell while walking as a toddler, was it scary when you fell while cycling as a kid and got scratches on your knees? For most of us, the answer is NO because we always knew that there would be someone to catch us, someone to encourage us to walk again, someone to soothe us. We didn’t have much fear then.
Creativity is doing something new that has a value. If you want to do something “new” and if it has to have a “value”, you need to come out of your fears and inhibitions.
Argument 2:
Imagine you are at someone’s marriage. You’re 21 years old. You’re a boy – may be average looking or good-looking, may be handsome or may be not, may be smart or may be not, may be rich or may be not. There are many people at that marriage. You’re eating your food and your eyes get stuck when you see a really pretty girl. She’s hot, she’s got a great body, she’s got a great dressing sense and she speaks really well. You think she’s the one for you. If I ask you to approach her and talk to her, would you? Perhaps, most of us would think it’s not good to approach a girl at a marriage (where both yours and girl’s families are present). Perhaps you would think what would people say if they see you talking to a stranger (a girl) in a marriage.
That’s why I say “we are followers”.
We are the followers of people’s perceptions.
Now, go back to your childhood and think – how easy it was to make friends and talk to any stranger, how easy it was to play games with any kid or the girl next-door.
Creativity is being open to things. If you want to open up to new things, you have to be bold enough to go and talk to new people and stop thinking about other people’s perception about you. They anyways aren’t open to things.
Argument 3:
Imagine you’re very, very happy today – perhaps you’ve cleared a competitive exam, or you have secured a great job, or you have created a great product or mobile app. You’re so elated that you want to call up all your friends and share the news with them personally. You feel like partying. If I ask you to dance crazily or do Gangnam Style on the street full of people – alone or with your friends, would you? Perhaps, most of us would shy away and say that we’d rather dance in a disco or at a party than showing it off to people on the street.
That’s why I say “we are followers”.
We are the followers of being goodie-goodie and behaving politely.
Now go back to your childhood and think – did we need a reason to dance, didn’t we just dance when our favourite songs were played on TV, did we even think about what people would say about our frolic?
Creativity is challenging the status quo and doing something that’s not in our university books. If you want to challenge the status quo, you can’t always do it in a polite manner, you can’t always be good-good kind of person. You have to be bold, brazen and blunt.
When we were children, we were far more curious, far more crazy, far more interested in things and hence we were far more creative than we’re now as adults. Our childhood offers a lot of learning that we can put in our adulthood and bring more creativity to our lives, to our workplaces and to our communities. Shed your inhibitions, meet new people and stop being sophisticated. Be creative!!