Creative Genius

Growing up, when we heard the word genius, what did we think?

All too often, we thought it was someone who was amazing at taking tests.

‘Isn’t that true?’

It can be true.

But a genius is something more than that.

A genius is defined as someone with supreme intellectual or creative abilities.

Do you see the latter part of that statement?

‘OR creative abilities.’

We often sleep on the second part.

But in reality, the world we that live in was built on the back of creativity.

Until someone had the courage to break the norms & expand, we didn’t have innovation.

Innovation showcases the true power of the human mind.

In today’s article, I am going to talk about the elusive creative genius & how all of us have the potential within us to become one.

Tests are great, don’t get me wrong.

But before tests, we had the power of imagination.

Let’s rediscover that power.

Is Creativity for Little Kids?

When we hear the word, creativity, we think it’s a word for little kids.

And this causes us to undermine the power once we reach adulthood.

When we are maturing, we believe that creativity does not have any practical value.

There’s this misconception that creativity caps out as an abstract concept, not a tangible one.

But that is false.

I realized this when I was working as an electrical & systems engineer post-grad.

When you think of an engineer, you think of a very logical position, right?

But that’s not quite accurate.

The great workers were typically very logical & knew how to operate within certain boundaries.

But the great leaders were typically a mix between creative & logical.

Most of leadership comes down to dealing with people.

And if you are someone who is overly logical with people, then you will feel a lot of rage.

Humans do not always act in logical norms. Expecting them to do so is setting yourself up for a losing race.

Creativity is required for emotional intelligence & social skills.

But another part of leadership comes down to innovating & proposing new solutions.

This requires you to see what has been working, but also read between the invisible lines.

This is why a lot of top industry CEOs go to seminars in COMPLETELY different industries.

These CEOs aim to add perspective to their industry by gaining variety from other fields.

Creativity is not for little kids.

It has plenty of practical uses in the real world.

Especially if you are looking to become a leader.

Can Creativity be Learned?

Yes, creativity can be learned.

The first step to becoming creative is by accepting that we all have creativity ingrained within us.

Children are highly creative because they have not yet been conditioned with too many rules or societal norms.

When we see a child, we are seeing a human operating at their baseline state.

A child has the power to turn inanimate action figures & dolls into entities with life.

In order to become creative, you need to be able to make 1 key distinction:

Imagination = Potential Energy

 

Creativity = Kinetic Energy.

Both of these are energies for the mind.

But all too often, we get stuck in the imagination mode.

Imagining a lot without creating anything in the real world will often lead you to anxiety or analysis paralysis.

Once you accept that you have the power to create, you need to do so.

The beauty of our present time is that we have more options than ever.

You can pick up storytelling, writing, painting, starting a business etc.

Just pick one vehicle & channel your mind into it.

Making the decision to commit to an act will allow you to learn through the ups & downs.

Whenever we are first learning a new task, we are going to be highly logical.

And that is fine.

I always say that the beginning of learning a new task should be a little boring.

Mainly because you are JUST doing the fundamentals & doing it repetitively.

Sort of like learning how to drive.

You were probably learning in some isolated park & felt bored as shit.

But patience.

Give yourself time to learn the fundamentals.

Once you’ve learned the fundamentals & invested at least 3-6 months to it, now the magic starts to happen.

Your conscious mind has engrained the fundamentals & repetitive movements to your subconscious mind.

So a lot of the tedious tasks are now in autopilot mode for you.

When you have the basics on autopilot, you are able to open up more mental bandwidth to experiment with YOUR personality.

It was Pablo Picasso who said:

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.

Activating your Inner Creative Genius

Creativity is more of a process rather than just some random light bulb moment.

All too often, the media presents a random person just sitting on their ass & having an aha moment out of nowhere.

Nope.

Creativity is a set of small acts that leads to something big.

Once you have invested tons of time into your creative endeavor, you’ll have a lot of your thoughts centered around this task.

Another misconception about creativity is that it’s simply about idea creation.

While in reality, it’s more about idea connection which leads to idea generation.

What this means is that creatives are constantly learning.

They not only create.

But they also consume.

They read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos etc.

Typically these content are satisfying their curiosity.

They may have no clue why they feel curious about a certain topic….

But they just do.

Well eventually, they are able to combine their personalized experiences with concepts from the content they consume.

And they are able to connect patterns most were never able to see.

A connection of concepts from the internal world & the external world leads to a new idea.

Magic.

Connecting 2 Brain Hemispheres

A creative genius is able to combine 2 of their brain modes.

• Default Mode Network – Mind Wandering
• Positive Task Network – Focus state

Picture an ON & OFF switch.

Typically the switch is just ON or OFF, right?

‘Yea.’

But not ON and OFF, right?

‘Correct.’

Well, a creative genius can have the light switch of their brain ON and OFF.

Which is pretty dope.

They can have their mind wander & let their thoughts flow.

But this genius knows how to tune in & focus on certain thoughts at WILL.

Then they are able to connect these thoughts & provide practical solutions.

Which allows them to constantly keep creating in prolific levels.

Humans have 30,000+ thoughts a day.

But only the geniuses are able to tune into the right thoughts, connect them & produce brilliance.

Unlock your Inner Genius

The beauty of being a creative genius is that there is no test to measure whether or not we meet the standard.

And the lack of a test can be a good thing or a bad thing.

It may be bad when any bubba produces shit & claims to be a genius.

But it can be a good thing when a creative individual feels FREE because they are not conforming to some standard.

At the end of the day, you want to be your main judge.

Create in the lane that you choose & evaluate yourself with honesty.

This requires a tamed ego.

The beauty of our generation is that we have a thing called the internet.

Which means we can share our work ANYTIME that we desire.

Feel free to share your work, so you can share your gifts with the world.

• Some may love your talents.
• Some may hate it.
• And some may be indifferent.

But hold yourself accountable & keep the momentum going.

We all got a creative genius within us.

Now it’s time to unlock it.

– ArmaniTalks 🎙️🔥