How many times do we hear people refer to the so-called “creativity myth”?
The authors believe that this is a myth that far too many people buy into, and their book is about the opposite of that myth. It is about what they call “creative confidence”, and at its foundation is the belief that we are all creative. The truth is that most people never really let their creative side "go free" by clipping the wings of their potential.
So-called "creative confidence" is the equivalent of believing in your ability to actually change the world around you in some way. It is the belief that you can achieve the goals you have set for yourself, and it is a skill that can be trained, just like any other muscle in your body.
Creativity manifests itself whenever there is an opportunity to generate new ideas, solutions, and approaches: in the business world, creativity expresses itself as innovation.
Recent IBM research has shown that, for more than 1,500 CEOs, creativity is the most important skill when it comes to tackling today's complex market.
What is most surprising is how quickly, thanks to a small dose of encouragement and training, people are capable of putting their creative curiosity, imagination, and courage on the line.
Everyone is capable of being creative, it is not a small, privileged niche who have the power of imagination in their hands, but only a few people really put their creativity to use.
What we need to do is help people to rediscover their creativity, it is not a question of having to build it from scratch: we are all equipped with it, we just need to learn to train it properly. In fact, it is a feature that we all have, yet in many people it literally gets stuck, but it can and should be unlocked. Creative confidence is nothing more than a way of living and moving in the world that helps generate new approaches and new solutions.
Whatever your profession, when you approach your work with creativity, you will find better solutions and new ideas, and therefore achieve greater success.
Stanford psychologist and lecturer Albert Bandura demonstrated how one's belief systems influence one's behaviours, goals, and perceptions. He came up with a concept called self-efficacy, which he defined as people’s beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their own functioning and over events that affect their lives.
