6 Characteristics of Highly Creative People

The 6 Characteristics of Highly Creative People

By Michelle L. Casto



Thomas Moore said, ?We are all poets and artists as we

live our daily lives, whether or not we recognize our

role and whether or not we believe it.? Human beings

have an innate need to create. Even you! There is a

continuum of creativity, ranging from being slightly

creative to highly creative.

The good news is that you can learn to be more creative by observing

creative

people and modeling yourself after them.

Artists, writers, and creative types seem to have

similar characteristics.

Some of the personalitytraits listed below may seem eccentric, odd, even ?

outthere?---but that is where creativity lies--- in the

outreaches of our consciousness, in the depths of our

souls.

If you had the opportunity to speak to

Picasso, Walt Disney, or Jane Austen, you would

probably find out that they are ordinary people, much

like you and I. The difference is that they have

allowed more of their soul to come out and play and

have freed themselves of convention and restriction.



Creativity is essentially the art of discovery and an

act of faith. When you create something--- a work of

art, book, software program, dance routine, or role

for a play, you discover parts of yourself that you

never knew existed.

Creative people have a strong need to express more of who you really are and



often have to fight for that right. The character Isabelle in the movie,

Fire and Ice, has a great outlook on

what it means to be creative, she says, ?To create, sometimes you must

rebel.?



1. Unconventional

Creative people do not feel the need to conform to

society?s standards. They often swim against the

current and flow with their own way of thinking and

living. They have original ideas that literally turn

the world upside down and right-side out.

Take for example, the 16th century Italian astronomer,

Galileo, who proved that the earth revolved around the

sun (instead of the other way around), which was

revolutionary in his time.



2. Individualistic

Creative people want to find out what the truth is,

and they have a strong need to decide for themselves

what works and what does not. Often they are ahead of

their time, and much of their work is

appreciated/acknowledged after they are dead and gone.

Many writers are famous for marching to the tune of

their own drum, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote

the book, Self-Reliance, and Robert Frost who penned,

?two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one

less-traveled.?



3. Inventive

Creative people live in the world of ideas, and don?t

always have the best interpersonal skills. Because

they are so highly intelligent, and live in the realm

of possibility, they are constantly coming up with

bright ideas. They also take notice of what is

missing in the world and/or what could be improved.

Take for instance, Thomas Edison, who invented

hundreds of things in his time, his most famous

invention being the light bulb. He saw that there was

darkness and then created light.



4. Driven

Creative people cannot ?not do something??they are

almost compulsive until they can bring their internal

vision into fruition. They have that ?fire in their

belly?---a passion to contribute to the beauty and

betterment of the world. Because of their high drive,

they can produce a lot in a relative short amount of

time.

Talk about drive---the material girl herself, Madonna,

has not let public praise or criticism stop her from

being a super star. She is a modern day Diva,

multi-talented as a singer, dancer, and actress who

has released hundreds of songs, albums, videos,

movies, books--- all the while reinventing herself as

someone new.



5.Visionary

Creative people have a guiding vision in their head,

heart, and soul that they are often called to bring to

life. Who else but Michelangelo could look at a large

piece of marble and ?chip away at everything that

wasn?t David?? According to him, ?I saw an angel in

the marble and carved until I set him free.?

One of his best-known works is the immense ceiling of

the Sistine Chapel, which took him three years to

complete, where he often had to work upside down for

hours at a time. If you ever have seen any of his

work, you can easily see that it is a vision to

behold.



6. Intuitive

Creative people are very in touch with their inner

selves. They pay attention to the signs,

synchronicities, symbols around them, and make use of

that information in their work. They often act as a

channel, where ideas and inspiration come from a

higher plane. They allow the work to guide them to

where it needs to go. The work clearly originates in

their soul, not from their ego.

Talk about ideas coming from out of the blue, remember

how the scientist, Isaac Newton ?discovered? gravity?

He was sitting under a tree and an apple fell on his

head! Had he not made a connection with his intuitive

nature, he would have missed a major theory about the

world we live in!



As you read this, do you find yourself relating to

some of these traits? If so, it is time to start

creating. Getting started can often be the hardest

part, because we often limit our creativity by

listening too closely to our negative inner voice.

But so did all of these examples of creators. Even

the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh struggled with

that, but he created a remedy for that, he said, ?If

you hear a voice within you saying, you are not a

painter, then by all means, paint, and that voice will

be silenced.?

Robert Henri says, "When the artist is alive in any

person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes

an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing

creature."

Once you have created, you now have to put

yourself out there for all to see. This is where your

faith comes in to support you. Remember that if you

are creating from your soul, it will not matter

whether other people accept your work or not. You are

simply doing what you are called to do as a human

being, create.