One of the most fascinating aspects of the creative personality is how often creative people have contradictory personality traits. Creative problem solving is incredibly difficult. There are so many moving pieces that it’s hard to know what to even try. This is why so much advice centers on shifting your perspective. Look at the problem
How do you view yourself? What identity have you created for yourself? When you tell yourself the story of you, what do you say? What experiences have shaped you? What beliefs do you hold? What values guide you? Your answers to all of these questions make up your identity. They are what psychological researchers would
Creative people are risk takers. We invest time, energy, and oftentimes a lot of money pursuing our ideas. Ideas that are not guaranteed to work. Creativity researchers have identified risk taking as one of the most important aspects of the creative personality. Simply put, if you’re not willing to take risks, you’re not going to
Creative work is often lonely. Most creative work requires long hours and deep thought. Personally, I think one of the most creative jobs out there is computer programming. It requires an incredible amount of problem solving. Unlike most other professions, when you make a mistake as a programmer, you can’t simply ignore it. Add to
Creative problems are rarely well defined. Whether you’re an artist, a scientist, or an entrepreneur, when you’re creating something new, you have to deal with a lot of ambiguous problems. Nowhere is this easier to see than in entrepreneurship. When sales go down, you have to figure out why. Is something wrong with the product?