CREATIVITY: BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN YOU

Often time the extent or the height of people’s achievements keeps on wowi
ng us. We admire with great awe and amazement the products of people’s imaginative
thoughts. We see it everywhere. The breakthrough in the technology, in this and
the immediate past century, the daring exploration of many men and women, the w
onderful and inspiring writings and poems of various authors, the awesome entert
ainment industry, the great male and female entrepreneurs who rule the corporate
world, the brilliant utterances of the world’s great political and religious lea
ders, the amazing skills displayed by our heroic athletes and many other great
exhibitions which seem beyond ordinary, are all consequent upon creative thinkin
g. Creativity is the mother of innovation and invention. It does not depend on
formal education; instead, it is the completion of formal education. It is the e
nd which the means of formal training pursues. “Learning without thought is labour
lost” says Confucius.
Creativity is a function of the mind. It has a lot to do with reflection, medit
ation and imagination. It is thinking about that which has never been before. It
is also the transformation of that which exists into more useful and new produ
cts. The latter is the common creativity we see everyday performed by humanity w
hile the former is believed by Christians to have been done only by the God Alm
ighty ( Gen 1&2). Creative men have used the little things they have and have a
pplied their experiences to come up with jaw-dropping outcomes.
Creativity as I said ab initio, is a function of the mind. It has to do with ob
servation, great thinking, and wide imagination. It is the forum for the manifes
tation of the power of thoughts. All my life I have always been thrilled by the
enormous power wielded by the Microsoft Corporation. They have influenced the w
orld positively and have, in no small measure altered the course of human life.
Yet, Bill Gates, the founder maintains that “Microsoft is a company that manages i
magination”.
Therefore, the era we are in now is the era of power of thoughts. It is the era
where one’s level of thinking determines one’s level of success both financially, p
hysically, spiritually, academically and otherwise. No wonder Lester Thurow main
tains that “natural resources have dropped out of the competitive equation. In fac
t, a lack of natural resources may even be an advantage. Because the industries
we are competing for- the industries of the future- are all based on brainpower”.
The mind has consistently been said to be the greatest asset one can possess. T
he soundness of ones thinking can open enormous doors for her. Now, the big ques
tion is, how can we tap this enormous potency of our minds? What kind of trainin
g do we have to undergo to be able to maximise our brain power? In what ways do
we apply our great reasoning so as to bring it to its fullest use?
These questions seem unnecessary. Our minds when sharpened can function on it
s own and can right our wrongs and create that positivity of thoughts we all lon
g for. Now, the best question should be, how do we sharpen our minds? This quest
ion is well attended to by Edward de Bruno.” Creative thinking is not a talent; it
is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their n
atural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate-pro
fits”, he maintains. We can see now that it is a thing we can learn. Creative thin
king is a course we can only master by practicality. It is like languages, the m
ore we practice, the more we learn. It is a do-it-yourself form of learning. It
is one’s desire to learn it that matters. Because no matter how much we are taught
to think positively, if we do not have that inner conviction that we are going
to do it, it is a great waste of time. Many successful men and women have attrib
uted their success to their power of thoughts. “If I am more successful than other
s are, it is because I think as often as once a week”, the famous writer, George B
ernard Shaw once said.
Creative thinking is not the same as positive thinking though the difference be
tween both is negligible. Each easily flows into the other. But, I choose to see
them as one and use them interchangeably especially in this little piece. Many
performers, especially athletes, have vouchsafed that it is not really their sk
ill or their level of preparation and practice that see them to success but it i
s their ability to play the game initially in their mind and making sure that th
ey won it spiritually. It is their creativity and imagination that see them thr
ough. I remember Mohammed Ali, the renowned wrestler once saying that it is not
the gym that prepares a champion, but the mind. We therefore have to train our
minds, think creatively and create our worlds through our thoughts. Creating our
world as we want it is a great attribute of great thought. Many a man lives in
their own world created just as they had wanted it to be. The best place to live
is in your own world, you therefore need to create it by approaching it