So I got series of attacks on my personality from some people that read
my controversial post (you may check it out
here if you have not read
it).
But this article is not about "all of that". It is not controversial in
any way and it is about something important and serious to humanity and
it is something that has been bothering me for couple of years now....
When God created man, he did in his image. And when you take a look at
nature and the beautiful things it is made of, you will clearly see (if
you don't know already) that the creator is creative and it is only
logical to say man has the potential to be creative too.
But what is really happening to us? Why do we find it hard to tap into
and harness this creativity? Creativity (in my definition) is the act of
making something happen, out of nothing. The act of turning crazy ideas
into reality.... What is killing this creativity?
Did We Outgrow Creativity?
We were all born creative. In fact many of us were given pencils and
crayons when we were young and we drew and colored our world with them.
We were not afraid of what people thought about what we drew. We didn't
care whether or not it was
"rubbish" to them... We drew anyways.
But as we grew, things started changing. We became more scared of what
people will say or think about what we do. We became scared that we end
up not doing anything.... Or
Did Our Parents Have Anything to do with it?
I happened to crash into this part of the world when toys were considered luxury for
kids and it was only "rich" people that bought toys for their kids. Unfortunately,
my parents didn't happen to fall into that category. But interesting, I
didn't regret any of that, because as little as I was then, I
improvised. I remember creating motor cars with sticks and crowns of
soda bottles. I also did some amazing stuffs too that I've forgotten.
But I remember my mother beating the hell out of me almost everyday
because I was always covered in mud. I think she beat creativity out of
me too because in a bid to escape the wrath of my mother, I (as little
as I was then) became very conscious of myself. I had stopped playing in the
mud with my "motor cars" -and it stopped being fun for me because I was
no longer free to play the way I wanted. It even got worse to the point
where my friends left me.... For some of us, it didn't end at that, our parents even forced certain career paths on some of us. And I think many of us can relate to these
experiences... Or
Is it School?
In school we were/are being taught to cram, do things in certain ways
if we want to get good grades. And if you get an answer wrong, you are
punished severely. We become scared to ask the teacher questions because
we don't want to be laughed at just the way the teacher laughed at Jide
last week when he asked why 1+1=2.
The system is too bad that we are just taught what to do without telling
us why we need to do them... Too bad that it doesn't give room for
mistakes... Or
Is it our addiction to respect or religion, is it the devil or the angels, is it the technological advancement...
There are so many things killing our creativity and it is good to take
these things into consideration, but the most important thing is to
reconnect ourselves back to this creativity that has been deposited in
us right from the onset.
Think like an Adult, Act like a kid... Let people tag you crazy -all ideas were crazy at some point....
Make mistakes. Learn from them. Make better mistakes.
Don't be scared of what people will say about your ideas. Just do them any way.
Sadiq Daniel is a certified
Crazy Writer and Teens
Coach that blogs on business, Self- development, Life
lessons and Ideas that challenges the status quo... You can pursue him on
Twitter: @sadiqspeaks LinkedIn: Sadiq Daniel and
Email: Sadiqdaniel@gmail.com
