Reclaim Your Creative Confidence As children we are all creative. We participate in imaginative playing, ask crazy questions and draw objects that look nothing as we describe them to be. But over time, because of socialization and education, our creativity becomes blunted. Creativity is essential to success in any area of life. We all have the ability to be creative. Creativity is a matter of perspective and point of view. By changing these paradigms, we are able to reestablish our creativity that was once blunted. It is essential that individuals rediscover their creative confidence. It is possible to gain confidence in an individual’s ability to attain what they originally sought out to do. In the article “Reclaim Your Creative Confidence” by Tom & David Kelly, we analyze the four fears that prevent us from realizing our creative potential and the actions people have taken to overcome them. The first fear analyzed was the fear of the messy unknown. The authors describe this fear as: being afraid to step out of comfort zones to solve a solution. In the article, an example is given where students create a sleeping bag to save low-birth-weight and premature babies every year. This idea came about because the team was willing to throw themselves into unfamiliar territory. Many times individuals are afraid of the unknown because they have been programmed into one way of thinking and they don’t want to take risks to have the great successes. People have been taught that failure is bad. You cannot have success without failure though. I believe this fear relates to perceptual blocks described by Dr. Couger. A perceptual block is an obstacle (or obstacles) that prevents us from clearly perceiving either the problem itself or information needed to see the problem. These relate to each other because people perceive problems as worse than they are and people don’t want to step out and take chances to be successful. The “unknown” scares people because they perceive it in ways that don’t make sense. The second fear analyzed was the fear of being judged. The authors describe this fear as: developing a fear of judgment that stays with us throughout our adult lives often constraining our careers. In my eyes the fear of being judged is the fear of being made fun of for taking a chance and having the possibility of failure. The authors give an example where a sky-coach was created without enlarging a planes footprint. If the teammates were afraid of being judged, the plane never would have been created. Most of the battles of judgment come from judging yourself. People are very hard on themselves and they talk themselves out of what they are capable of. This really hinders creativity. The Emotional conceptual block described by Dr. Couger relates to this fear. An emotional block interferes with the freedom with which we explore and manipulate ideas or prevent our communicating ideas to others in a matter that gains acceptance. People think based on emotions because they want to be accepted. The next fear analyzed was the fear of taking the first step. This fear is described as: being afraid to act on given ideas. To me, this fear is defined as having creative properties/ideas and not taking actions toward accomplishing a goal. People don’t want to break out of a path and they feel better where they are comfortable. To really benefit from creativity, individuals need to wander into the unknown and take chances with the possibility of failure. The intellectual conceptual block relates to this fear. People need to believe in themselves and understand that they can do it! An example is given where a dashboard is created for a luxury car. Designing it took a long time but instead of waiting in fear, the team got started. They even admit that their mantra was “don’t get ready, get started!” More people need to adopt this thinking and take steps into the unknown to accomplish great things. The last fear analyzed was fear of losing control. This fear is described as: being afraid to let go of ideas that aren’t working and accept good new ideas. People like to hold on to things. To me, fear of losing control is the fear of creating an idea and someone finding one that is better than yours. People need to work collaboratively to make things work. If a tough challenge arises, working together can help people overcome what is occurring. Creative gains can more than compensate for this fear. An example is given where a JetBlue brainstormed solutions. They were willing to give up full control and open ideas up to get a solution that worked. By humbling themselves, teams can have massive creative gains. You can always learn from those around you. The environmental conceptual block described by Dr. Couger relates really well to this fear. Immediate social and physical environments impose an environmental block. By being in an environment of open ideas and growth, teams can have different solutions to the same problem and pick the best choice. In the article we analyzed the four fears that inhibit creative confidence. People need to let go of those fears to gain confidence in themselves to produce a good amount of creativity. These fears relate a lot to conceptual blocks. I feel that if you can overcome the blocks, you can overcome the fear! By embracing failure, people can learn from their mistakes and they will be more open to creative ideas and they will become more confident through experience.
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