Last blog I wrote: “Some times animals are good trainers.” Today, I blog that “Sometimes children are the best trainers”.
Recently, I had reason to ponder happiness among my retired friends – I concluded that creativity was a source of happiness – happiness had a direct correlation between those friends that created and continued ……
to learned — in contrast to those that allowed creativity to move way to the back and followed only the “old” ways.
During Christmas season this year, I had so much fun watching Grandchildren being thieves. What, being thieves? That is what I said!
You, see they watched, they stole ideas, and then created their own solution!
For example — How to drive the golf cart, how to make Grandma and Grandpa laugh, how to get us to take them out in the golf cart, how to win at an electronic game, how to adapt to a new environment in Florida, etc — they loved doing it their way — the more I left them alone (Watched for their safety of course) the more they they enjoyed creating their own solution.
Creating is a natural source of fun for us – I think the fun of creating is pretty much reserved for us humans — one trait that separates us from the animal kingdom.
Creativity is: Ability to produce or learn something new through imaginative skill, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.
Think of a creative people: the Beatles, Henry Ford, Bell, Dell, Mozart, — Did they have talents that we never had? Or did we back-step a bit from our childhood?
I really believe, as children, we all had the creative drive – that is how we learned! In order to learn, our curiosity and enthusiasm took a front seat — it drove us — to perform 100% to rules we did not yet know about was able to take a back seat.
We tried things that were impossible, we tried things that did not match adult rules (often we did not yet know they were the rule) – watch any child try and fail — then try a new way and so on — As a child we did not ask how to do each move — we did not ask for permission, we did not just copy others — What we did was steal ideas and assemble ideas we stole.
When we were children, Stealing ideas and selectively using pieces of what we stole was our way being creative – our way of learning as a child — selecting ideas, re-grouping them to produce failure, — learning from that and finally re-grouping them to create a new way of being ourself. That is why we are all different – we each stole different ideas, and we each uniquely used selectively from the ideas we stole – and yes we stole ideas from our failures and successes too. Different success and failures for everyone else.
But as we get older we must use more caution in order to succeed – we are told how to do it: In school we study to memorize information to get a good grade on the test. We perform according to rules of employment to get the next raise. We perform the current social fads to be accepted in the community. The more we know the “right” answer to succeed the less creative we need to be.
So say I, think about your hobbies — add at least one hobby to your life that has no “right” answer – a hobby that allows you to steal ideas, select and assemble them your way, — one where you do not have to answer to anyone’s ideas except your own childish desire to steal ideas, select and assemble them, and create your own way.
Again say I: Creating is a natural source of fun for us – I think the fun of creating is pretty much reserved for us humans — one trait that separates us from the animal kingdom.
