The routines and mindset of creative people.

Creativity, a historical and psychological view of its importance.

Living involves solving (or, at least, trying to solve) a series of daily problems that never cease, of greater or lesser importance depending on the circumstances, luck and personality of each person.

Most of the problems can be solved in a routine mannerWe can solve most problems in a routine way, imitating the solutions that we have been taught or that we see applied by the society around us, or in a different and personal way, looking for originality, trying to find a better alternative.

Creativity: in search of better solutions

All problems, by definition, have at least one solution; because if a situation lacks a solution, it ceases to be a problem and becomes a tragedy, misfortune or bad fortune. Some mathematical problems (pure and exact sciences) present unique solutions; some mental or philosophical problems present two opposing solutions (such as the "to be or not to be" dilemmas, for example).

But the most common problems of human life (impure sciences and practical philosophy) present a variety of options to face them, even if not all of them are easy to see.even if not all of them are easy to see if the look with which we approach them is not accompanied by a creative spirit.

• Learn more: "What is creativity - are we all "potential geniuses"?"

The routines of creative people

Does this mean that we should reject by all means the routines that life offers us? Far from it. Routines have an unfairly bad reputation.. It only means that, faced with any routine solution, we must ask ourselves whether we are capable of optimizing it or of finding a better routine, based on other methods and other concepts.

The great progress made by mankind has consisted, and will continue to consist, precisely in in converting into efficient routines the solutions that until then were incapable of being solved systematically or that involved inefficient routines. or that implied inefficient routines. Turning an appendicitis or cesarean section operation into a simple surgical routine was a great progress. Changing the routine of going to the river to wash clothes for domestic washing machines, being able to talk on the phone with any inhabitant of the planet at the flick of a finger have become fortunate routines of our time. Millions of successful routine solutions shape our well-being today.

Routines that improve our well-being

As the great philosopher and mathematician said Alfred North WhiteheadCivilization advances by extending the number of important operations that can be performed without having to think about how to do them. Creating a routine to solve a problem where there was none is one of the greatest possible greatness of creativity: Antibiotics to cure infections; the Internet to expand knowledge, are paradigmatic examples.

Avoiding Alzheimer's, defeating cancer, avoiding huge economic inequalities or reversing climate change are four of the many challenges we face today.

Tips for becoming more creative

The first step of the creative person is to detect a problem where the rest of humanity does not see it or does not dare to face it. Let us not make the mistake of confusing creative nonconformity with systematic discontent, the rebel without a cause, the inoperative complainer. The second step is to conveniently define and delimit the scope and extent of the problem.. The third step is to look for solutions that exist in other countries or environments other than our own. The Internet and its search engines are, at this point, of invaluable help.

If we find what we were looking for, we will replace the routine of our peers with the one learned on the network. We will be innovative and we may have followers and create a trend. If not, we will enter the fourth stage of the process: creative reflection, the active search for alternatives. This is the phase in which we will have to resort to our right hemisphere, to our intuition, to our unconscious, to our sensory stimuli, to our dreams, to our open and uninhibited mental associations. And it is at this point that texts that teach us to trust our sensory stimuli, avoid creative blocks of any kind and use strategies, techniques and mental methods to help the essential inspiration to occur are useful for our brains. Much has happened since Alex F. Osborn invented his famous "brainstorming" in 1957, and many authors have made great contributions to aid creativity.

Creative or visionary?

Being creative is not about seeing what no one else has seen or doing what no one else was capable of doing (these would be, in any case, two superpowers of comic book superheroes). Being creative is "thinking what no one had thought of, associating elements that no one had associated before"..

All the great steps of progress have been born from an imaginative mind that has associated with freedom things that until then no one had dared to put together. Being creative is not about seeing what no one has seen before or having a magical power to transform ideas into reality. Being creative consists of seeing the same thing that everyone else sees, but thinking things about it that no one had ever thought of before, making a new association brought about by the imagination. With the help of the right mental strategies.

A slow but persistent progress

Everyone knew since prehistoric times that a hollowed-out log could sail like a nutshell; and they broke their arms rowing to move it. Everyone had observed that the wind can push the leaf of a plant and carry it great distances. But centuries had to pass before someone imagined a leaf tied to the shell of a walnut with a vertical stick.. It is quite possible that 3,500 years ago it was an Egyptian boy who said to his parents: "I want to test whether the wind blowing a palm leaf can push a shell over the Nile", and his parents would say: "What a nice idea! We'll help you test it.

The invention of sailing was the main technology of maritime transport until the invention of steam at the end of the 19th century. All the great world empires relied on it for trade and military dominance. But it was humanly impossible for the Egyptian child we have imagined to foresee the true dimension of his creation. For - we must not doubt it - even in our time, a child could unlock for us the key to the mental concept we need for our technological progress. from the evolved objects that surround us.

Shifting the paradigm

We need to be perceptive, attentive to the creativity of our finest minds: children and good creatives.. The blackness and immensity of the unsolved or poorly solved problems that beset us, undoubtedly forces us to resort to it.

If we may be allowed a play on words: We must acquire the routine of looking at all the problems that surround us in a creative way. To build the routines that will solve for us in a systematic and stable way, the problems of humanity that we are not solving in the right way.

Bibliographical references:

• Demory, B. Creativity Techniques. Granica, 1997.
• Guilera, L. Anatomy of creativity. FUNDIT- ESDi, 2011.
• Siqueira, J.Creatividad Aplicada: Herramientas, técnicas y actitudes clave para ser más creativo. CreateSpace, 2013