Traits of Highly Creative People

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I was sourcing the net for what others feel are the traits of highly creative people, and I have come across 3 different websites, each offering their own views on what creative people should be like. There were some similarities, and some unique points listed in some of the sites. So through some analysis and based on my own experience, here are the list of traits of highly creative people which I feel are the most relevant.

1) Curiosity (unknown author)

This one is without question, a creative person is inquisitive and curious, which enables him to garner incredible amounts of knowledge. His ability to think outside the box is not actually out of the box thinking to him, it is because his knowledge is so great, that essentially, the act of learning to him is 'expanding the box', enabling him to pull in different fields of knowledge together to create innovative solutions.

2) Optimism (unknown author)

Every problem has a solution, is essentially the philosophy of a creative person. This positive sort of attitude makes the creative person happy, and because he is happy, his mind is open, and because his mind is open, he can come up with innovative solutions. The creative person's emotional self-defence also enables him to see any problem as interesting and acceptable, and this also helps fuels the optimism.

3) Positive attitude towards failure (unknown author)

The creative person sees every setback and failure as opportunities for learning. Essentially meaning that there is NO SUCH THING AS FAILURE to a creative person. Because whatever he encounters, he will learn something from it. I think Thomas Edison is a good example of this, saying "I have found 1000 ways how not to make a lightbulb". Essentially this also brings about an attitude of perserverance, which enables him to press on and learn more.

4) Intuitive (Michelle L. Casto)

A creative person is able to trust his gut, and does not rely solely on logic to make his decisions. Naturally, there are increased risks, but the rewards reaped are much greater. I like to describe this as 'wormholes of thought', whereby it is possible to analyse the intrinsic sequence of logic for most creative thoughts, but superficially, it seems as though the creative person has taken the chain from the 1st ring to the last ring without going through the rest of the rings. To complement this, the creative person must have trait 3), since he is more likely to fail, but because of his incredible space of ideas, he is also more likely to succeed.

5) Action-oriented and Expressive (Michelle L.Casto, Dean Rieck)

Creative people have a very strong need to express their thoughts and feelings. As such, they may also not be the best person to entrust your secrets on. However, the great thing about this is that whatever lies inside their mind, they would want it to take on a physical form. They want to turn their visions into a reality.

6) Playful (Dean Rieck)

Creative people love to play. It is through this play that their creativity flourishes. Play to me is active exploration of everything and anything. As I like to describe it, creative people are essentially 'matured children', because their path never deviated from their childhood days, but rather, it was stretched by adult wisdom into something incredible.

7) Experimental (Dean Rieck)

Creative people love testing their ideas. They are not afraid to be wrong or look stupid, because it is only through mistakes do learning take place. Like my father likes to tell me, "if you already know everything, then what's the point of learning?"

All in all, I have listed 7 traits of highly creative people which I feel are the more relevant ones for anyone wanting to develop their creative muscle. There are other traits, but essentially they all link here and there.

It is only through creativity can we generate the innovative solutions needed for today's problems.