It is impossible not to notice a creative person. In any way, he will always make himself known. What is special about such people, why are they so attractive, and how does a creative person differ from others? Let's try to understand this.

What is the value of a person of this type?

People about whom we're talking about, are like tireless motors. Without them, all life would probably stop developing and freeze. At the very least, it would be unbearably boring. And all because it is the individuals of the creative organization who are the initiators of important innovations, the creators of masterpieces of art and the authors of many useful ideas. It must be said that there is simply no single portrait of a person of the named type. However, everyone who claims such a wonderful role has some similar features that distinguish them from total mass.

Comparison

The first thing that any person of this type possesses is a living mind, from which nothing escapes. Creative person lets this life pass through himself and explores it. He sees large details and notices little things. The brain is constantly thinking about something. Sometimes such an interlocutor may not seem very attentive, but perhaps at that very moment another insight came to him.

Creative people have great imagination. They are great dreamers and improvisers. Coming up with something on the fly is common. Moreover, the idea may seem impracticable to others, but the author is firmly convinced that everything is doable, and really achieves success. These are people who are very persistent and strong in spirit. Some people are stupefied and broken by failures. But a creative person views them as a chance to once again demonstrate his wonderful abilities. He rolls up his sleeves and takes decisive action.

How does a creative person differ from others who are not particularly outstanding? Because he is able to turn an ordinary situation into an interesting one that will be remembered for a long time by all its participants. These types of people are passionate about making a statement and they actually have something to say! No, they are not eager to be always visible. On the contrary, sometimes such individuals even become somewhat distant from others. But if they show themselves in something, sometimes it is simply impossible to forget it. At the moment of your creativity people like this incredibly happy, and this magical energy is transmitted to everyone who comes into contact with the miracle taking place.

Creative individuals are very dedicated to their pursuits. They are able to refuse an unloved job imposed on them by someone and go their own, often very thorny, path. By choosing something interesting for themselves, such people turn work into a process that brings joy. At the same time, they often work spontaneously, trying not to miss the inspiration that comes.

I must say that when creating something, people of this type show incredible persistence. A small detail can take a significant amount of time, but creators do not rest until they achieve the desired result. True, they are often still not completely satisfied with their brainchild and are even afraid to look at it again, lest they discover some flaw that can no longer be corrected.

What is the difference between a creative person and others? The fact is that he does not waste time in this life and only strengthens his individuality. This is the secret of his charm and charisma. But most importantly, each of us is endowed with the ability to create from birth. You just need to listen carefully to yourself to give your talents the opportunity to shine through.

There are those who believe that creative people have special secret powers and innate talents. But that's not true. There is creativity in everyone. We have made a selection of 30 commandments, following which you can awaken your creative power and make your life brighter.

1. Creativity begins in the heart

By listening to our deepest desires, and carefully, we get the opportunity not only to engage in the creativity that we dream of, but also to dream that this creativity will reach significant proportions.

2. Creativity needs to be fed constantly.

Talent or interest is a living part of you, like a hand, or an ear, or an eye. All this needs to be used, it needs to be nourished, otherwise it will atrophy and you will not be who you should be.

A way to train your creativity every day is the “1 Page a Day” creative notebook. Source - creative Instagram of MYTH @miftvorchestvo

3. Vision has magical properties

Magic is the ability to see results without seeing the process leading to them. It is vision, inner vision, that allows you to notice what is missing in a work, and also helps you see what no one has seen before. This is an incredible human gift - to see beyond the present and the past and from that distant, unknown, to extract something that did not exist until now.

The great 20th century composer Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote: “We just need to close our eyes and listen for a while. Around us, in the air, there is always something never heard before.”

4. The best place to start the creative process is at the end.

Let each new creation appear in your mind as if out of nothing. The form, structure of a creation, the impressions and sensations it leaves, its very life - all this immediately appears, even in the simplest picture. Imagine the result. Add elements. Take the risk of removing some of the old ones. Examine the imaginary creature from the inside, the outside. You will learn a lot about your concept.

The ability to visualize your creation in a complete form makes it possible to work with knowledge, rather than build work on assumptions. This knowledge is the reason why many professional creators are so confident in themselves.

5. Creativity is not a problem, problem solving is not creativity.

Some people make the same decisions all their lives, others acquire new ones. The main motivating force for them is the severity of the problem. Once the worst is smoothed out, the motivation to act weakens. Fighting problems as a lifestyle is obviously a losing option, because it leads to the attenuation of activity, moreover, aimed at solving problems!

When you get a big and tasty problem in your hands, you no longer need to think - you already have an obsession. What if you suddenly had no problems? What would you be thinking about then? What did you do?

6. The stubbornness of artists makes the world a better place.

Luckily for us, artists are stubborn people. The bestselling author was advised by her therapist to aim for a career as a secretary, but she continued writing (that's me). The famous director was removed from the documentary project, but he continued to make films (Martin Scorsese). The talented actress was expelled from the Boston University acting program (Oscar winner Geena Davis). The lawyer who “should” have spent time on “business” has proven that he should have been writing too (John Grisham). These artists listened to their inner voice, and several external voices whispered - or shouted that they also know who we really are. These people strengthened our confidence and changed our destinies.

7. There is a place for creativity always and everywhere

The text doesn't care where you create it. Important, that . You do it. The same is true for drawing. One artist lost a whole year because he “couldn’t work without a studio.” When the studio appeared and he returned to work, he created several rather large paintings, but much more - beautiful miniatures in charcoal and pencil, which he could even paint on a TV stand if he so desired. But he didn’t work - and not because there was no workshop, but because he simply didn’t work. There is a place for creativity in any life, no matter how eventful and people-filled or, conversely, boring and empty.

8. The art of small steps

If you are a beginner musician and want to learn how to play the piano, then sit down and touch the keys. Great. Tomorrow you can sit down at the piano again and touch the keys. Five minutes a day is better than zero. Five minutes can turn into ten, just like a light hug can turn into something more passionate.

@miftvorchestvo

I can’t write a whole book today, but I can write one page. I won’t be able to immediately become an accomplished pianist, but I can devote 15 minutes to music lessons. You may not be able to count on a solo exhibition in Soho today, but you are quite capable of drawing your cocker spaniel, imposingly sitting in an old leather chair, or sketching the hand of a loved one. You can begin.

9. Magic in action

Goethe said, “Whenever you think or believe that you can do something, do it, because there is magic, grace and power in action.”

10. There is always an opportunity to do something positive.

The inconvenient truth is that there is always an opportunity to do something positive - yes, hell, always, even if we are not in the mood for it. Optimism towards yourself and your capabilities is already a conscious choice. We can make this choice, believe in the best and not the worst, but to do this we need to hear the negative soundtrack playing in our heads and decide to replace it.

11. Use constructive and practical thinking

Constructive thinking- this is the generation of raw ideas, without any assessments or judgments. The strategy is to come up with as many obvious ideas as possible, as well as the craziest ones, and criticism at this time is inappropriate. Having come up with more ideas, change your approach to include practical thinking. It is necessary to identify which ones have the greatest value. Edison once claimed to have come up with 3,000 different theories of electric lighting. Each of them looked reasonable, but he settled on the most practical and profitable. His first goal was to create as much as possible more possibilities, and then he began to evaluate - identifying the most healthy and viable idea.

Constructive thinking and practical thinking are two separate mental operations, and there is no compromise, middle position between them. - Illustration from the book “Hacking Creativity”

12. Nonjudgmental thinking is dynamic and flexible.

A creative person is able to think freely and flexibly. It allows for the unlimited deployment of ideas, their organization in ranks, a kind of hitchhiking of options, any combination of them for the invention of new ones, until it comes to the final breakthrough result that makes you exclaim “Eureka!” Ideas replace each other, giving rise to additional ideas and their combinations, which multiplies possibilities.

13. Test creativity with emotions

Measuring your success is very important. A great way to measure success is to determine how you want to feel. Take some time and jot down a list of the emotions you want to experience from your business. Perhaps it will be something similar to this one.

• Liberty
• Happiness
• Completeness
• Cheerfulness
• Self confidence
• Security
• Creation
• Completeness

Check your feelings against this list regularly. Does business give you the feelings you dream of? For example, do you feel protected? If yes, then you have succeeded in your definition. Congratulations! And if not, try to understand why. What can you do to change how you feel?

14. Headphones help muffle the noise in the world around you.

Headphones, with or without music, create a kind of buffer around you. This is especially useful if you are a woman and trying to work on a novel in a cafe. For certain type sociable people (meaning men) the sight of a lady with furrowed eyebrows furiously typing something on a laptop in public place, evokes a single association: you need to come up and get acquainted. Headphones - a great opportunity keep these well-meaning but very annoying citizens at a distance.

“I always write novels with headphones on. Sometimes I even remember that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to connect them to something. Headphones help muffle the noise from the outside world. And when they are connected to the player, they drive music at terrible speed directly into my brain, clearly outlining the shapes of my thoughts and giving power to the sentences appearing on the page.”

15. You are your job

You change and your work becomes different. When you develop, so does your creativity. Your work lives and breathes because you live and breathe. By living life to the fullest, you enhance the collective human experience. As William Blake wrote, “Everything that lives lives not alone, not for itself.” There is no longer any difference between you and others, between what you give and what you receive. It is all the same, an ever-changing dance, a constant conversation in which it is impossible to say more where one thing begins and another ends.

16. Each artist - an art book

Your art book is a ticket to free creative sailing. This is your “sandbox” in which you can try new things artistic media and techniques, new colors and their effects, try your hand at different formats without limiting yourself. If you have inspiration, write poetry. Let thoughts find verbal expression as well as graphic expression.

Research into creative people has revealed a number of characteristics they have in common. The most notable are the following.

Creative people dynamic
Unlike most people, creative people don't allow their thinking to be passive, omnivorous, unquestioning. They manage to keep the fire of their curiosity alive, or at least rekindle it. One aspect of this intellectual dynamism is the love of games. Like little children with blocks, creative people love to play with ideas, putting them into new combinations, examining them with different points vision. This is exactly the kind of activity that Isaac Newton meant when he wrote: “I know not what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem but a boy playing on the seashore, distracted from time to time, and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell.” than usual, while an ocean of unsolved truth spreads out before me.”

Einstein went even further in his thinking. He saw this love of games as “an essential feature of productive thought.” But whatever place the love of games occupies among the characteristics of creative people, one thing is certain: it gives these people a richer and more varied set of ideas than that available to the average person.

Creative people are courageous
For creators, thinking is an adventure. Relatively free from preconceived notions and preconceived notions, creative people are less inclined to accept mainstream views, have a broader perspective, and are less likely to conform to the thinking of those around them. They are bold in their visions, willing to defend unpopular ideas and seemingly unlikely opportunities. Therefore, like Galileo and Columbus, Edison and the Wright brothers, they are more open than others to creative ideas.

Their courage gives additional benefit. It makes them less inclined than others to save face. They are willing to face an unpleasant experience, apply their curiosity, and learn from the experience. As a result, they are less likely than others to repeat the same failure over and over again.

Creative people are resourceful
Resourcefulness is the ability to act effectively and come up with a method that solves a problem—even when the problem baffles other people and available resources are insufficient. This ability is not measured by IQ tests, but it is one of the the most important aspects practical mind. One striking example of this quality was reported in Scientific American more than half a century ago. In one of the western states, a prisoner escaped from prison, but was caught a few weeks later. The prison governors interrogated him with passion for more than one day. “Where did you get the saw to cut through the bars?” - they pressed him. Over time, he gave up and confessed how he managed to saw through the grate. He claimed that in the prison workshop he collected scraps of twine, placed them first in glue and then in sandpaper and smuggled them back to his cell. Every night for three months, he "sawed" 1-inch-thick steel bars. The prison authorities took note of his explanation, put him back in his cell and made sure that he never set foot in the workshop again.

However, this is not the end of this story. One dark night, about three and a half years later, the man escaped again, and the prison officers discovered that the bars had been sawn apart in exactly the same way. Because he was never caught again, how he escaped is still the stuff of legends in the underworld. He lied that he used material from the workshop for the first escape. He turned out to be much more resourceful. He used woolen threads from his socks, moistened them with saliva and rubbed them in the dust on the floor of his cell.

Creative people are hardworking
“All problems,” says William Gordon, “are presented to the mind as a threat of failure.”16 Only people who are not afraid of the prospect of failure and who are determined to succeed, no matter how hard it takes, have a chance to succeed. (Of course, even they have no guarantee of success.) Creative people are willing to show the necessary persistence. It is this persistence that Thomas Edison meant when he said, “Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration”; and George Bernard Shaw when he explained: “When I was young I noticed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. But I didn’t want to be a failure, so I worked ten times harder.”

Part of the diligence of creative people comes from their ability to immerse themselves in a problem and give it their full attention. But it also comes from their competitiveness, which, unlike most people's competitiveness, is directed not at other people, but at ideas. They take the ideological challenge personally. Lester Pfister was such a man. He came up with the idea of ​​crossing the ears of corn to eliminate the weaker varieties. He started with 50 thousand ears of corn and processed them by hand for several seasons. After five years, he had only four ears of grain left, and he was completely impoverished. But he received an improved variety17. Where others would have given in to feelings of frustration and despair, he persevered because he was unwilling to admit defeat.

Creative people are independent
Each new idea, which we are thinking about, alienates us from other people, and expressing this idea increases this rejection. This is frightening, especially for those who derive their strength from connections with others and rely on other people to define their identity. It is unlikely that such people will feel comfortable supporting, much less expressing, new ideas. They are too afraid of being rejected.

Creative people are different. This does not mean that they do not enjoy the approval and support of other people or that they are not worried about the possibility of losing friends. This means that no matter how much they desire approval, support and friendship, they do not need it the way others need it. Instead of looking to others for recognition of their ideas, they look within themselves18. For this reason, they are less afraid of appearing eccentric or strange, are more self-confident, and are more able to speak and act independently.

Knowing these five characteristics can help you develop your creativity if you're willing to make the effort to acquire them—or, if you already have them, to strengthen them. This is not an easy task; old habits resist innovation. But even moderate progress will change the quality of your thinking.

On Lifehacker. If you want to learn how to awaken your creative impulses and what you need to do to help your inner creator grow and develop, be sure to take the time to read this article. You will not regret!

"I don't creative person, I can’t do this,” many of us say, looking with admiration at the caricatures of street artists or listening to a long-haired hippie singing a Radiohead song in the transition. But there is good news: latest Scientific research They say that all people are the same and that a creator lives in each of us. Therefore the phrase “I’m not a creative person” is just a convenient excuse for laziness.

The myth of a creative streak was cultivated and carefully guarded among bohemians for a long time. Artists, musicians, actors, designers and even average copywriters like to look like they belong to a different breed, and while working they are moved by at least the hand of God. The standard of a creative personality is a cross between Lady Gaga and Aguzarova, who yesterday was going to fly to the moon, today she is crushing the charts with a new song, and tomorrow she is giving an interview about the benefits of meditation in a funny kokoshnik. And to start creating, we need to go through the nine circles of hell at least three times, undergo drug rehabilitation and go to meditate in the Tibetan mountains.

Scientific research rejects any division between the creative and corporate working classes

What can we say if in the modern corporate environment there is an artificial division into “creative” and “corporate” types who relate to each other like Gryffindor and Slytherin students. However, almost all studies of creativity that have been conducted over the past 50 years reject this division: the creative muscle has nothing to do with genetics, intelligence, or personality traits.

For example, during an experiment at the Institute for Diagnostics and Personality Research (IPAR), scientists invited several dozen successful representatives of different creative professions. Over the course of several days, they went through a lot of questions, which did not really clarify where to look for creative inclinations. The only ones common features studied looked like this: balance personal characteristics, above average intelligence, openness to new experiences and a tendency to choose complex options. As you can see, nothing special.

There is no such thing as a creative personality type

Then stubborn guys in white coats began to look for creative inclinations in personal qualities person: a huge amount of information was collected about the outstanding creators of the 20th century, after which everyone passed the virtual test “five-factor model of personality.” Scientists expected that creative people would have a bias in one of five personality characteristics (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism), but again the finger in the sky - among the subjects there were neurasthenics, and extroverts, and friendly drunkards, and many more Who. Conclusion: there is no creative personality type.

Having abandoned psychology, they began to look for the creative muscle in the human brain. The researchers did not give a damn about the request for cremation and immediately after the death of the genius they began to study his skull. And again disappointment: the brain of the famous physicist was no different from the brain of a professional baseball player or a homeless person who had been hit by a car. The third round of slingshot shooting at airplanes is completed, the scientists are “on fire” with a score of 3:0.

There is no correlation between the gene code and creativity

When psychologists, physiologists, and simply everyone who cared were left with nothing, genetics, which had previously unsuccessfully tried to find the old age gene and the gene, began to solve the problem. To rule out differences in genes and the influence of upbringing, the scientists studied only families with twin children. Researching the Connecticut Twin Registry since 1897, Marvin Reznikoff's group assembled a team of 117 twins and divided them into two groups (identical and fraternal). The results of two dozen tests showed that correlations between the gene code and creative abilities No. 4:0, and it's almost Argentina versus Jamaica.

Over the past 50 years, there have been a wagon and a small cart of such experiments. In his book “The Muse Won’t Come,” David Brooks provides a dozen more references to unsuccessful attempts to find the nature of the creative muscle and concludes that, like any other skill, it can be improved through training.

Training to improve creative thinking

Morning Pages

Old as time, but effective method. As soon as we wake up, we grab a notepad and pen and start writing. It doesn't matter whether it's a story about Godzilla walking through Tokyo, an essay about a warm blanket, or a sleepy analysis of the geopolitics of Mongolia. The main thing is to just write and not think about anything. The norm for morning writing is three notebook pages or 750 words. You can use the 750 words resource and drum on the keys, but experienced scribblers advise doing it the old fashioned way - with pen on paper.

What if

This is not even a method, but a simple question that Stanislavsky forced any aspiring actor to ask. “What if” can be applied to any familiar object, part or action. For example, what if the story in a book was told with pictures? This is how the comic came about. Or what if, instead of world news, we told what excites ordinary people? This is how the yellow press appeared.

This method perfectly develops imagination and is actually the trigger for any creative process. And it’s a lot of fun to ask strange questions. What if all people drank blood? What if a funny man with the habits of a dictator from a banana republic became the president of the country?

Word crushing

In the adult brain there is a rigid system of symbols that, at the first opportunity, likes to evaluate and label everything around. As a result of such automation, but this is also main reason narrow and stereotyped thinking. By coming up with new words, we force our brain to turn off rational thinking and turn on imagination. The technique comes from childhood and is extremely simple: we take any two words, combine them into one and then try to imagine what it would look like in life. Bath + toilet = bathtub, Kim + Kanye = Kimye.

Torrens method

The method is based on doodles - scribbles of the same type that need to be turned into a drawing. On a piece of paper we draw identical symbols in a row (a circle, two circles, a nail, a cross, a square, etc.). Then we turn on our imagination and start drawing.

Example. The circle could be Captain America's shield, a cat's eye, or a nickel, and the square could be a haunted house or a piece of art. It develops not only imagination, but also persistence in searching for ideas, since each new doodle is a competition with oneself.

Focal object method

The method is to find connections between the main idea and random objects. For example, we open a book on a random page, grab 3-5 words that first caught our eye, and try to connect them with the subject we are thinking about. A book can be replaced by a TV, a video game, a newspaper, or something else. Works great when the thought process moves by inertia.

Gordon's analogies

This is not the easiest to learn, but a very effective method. William Gordon believed that the treasure creative ideas consists of searching for analogies, which he divided into four groups.

• Direct analogy: we are looking for an analogy to an object in the surrounding world. On a scale from your room to the country.
• Symbolic: We are looking for an analogy that will describe the essence of the object in a nutshell.
• Fantastic analogy: we come up with an analogy, taking the limitations of objective reality out of the equation.
• Personal analogy: we try to take the place of the object and look at the situation through the eyes of the object. For example, how does the chair on which we sit live?

Indirect Strategies

This one is very strange and interesting way, which was invented by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to bring tired brains out of creative block along secret paths. The essence of the method: we have 115 cards with advice written on them. Moreover, the advice is quite strange: “Remove ambiguities and turn them into details”, “Massage your neck” or “Use old idea" The trick is that there are no direct instructions for action, and in each piece of advice two people can see two different solutions Problems. You can make the cards yourself and pour them, for example, into a vase or use online tips. For example, .

Stick to a daily routine

In his last job“What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami debunks the myth of the creative lazy person, talking about how a strict daily routine (getting up at 5 a.m., bedtime at 10 p.m.) has become the main catalyst for its performance. The mind is inclined to be capricious and find excuses for its own laziness, and following the regime takes it out of it and teaches it to turn on half a turn.

Don't neglect other creative activities

Study or. Any creative activity keeps the brain in good shape, and alternating them switches attention and allows you to find answers in rather unexpected places.

According to research, more than a third of laureates Nobel Prize in literature they were engaged in another type of art - painting, theater or dance. Einstein called music his second passion and, if he had not become a physicist, most likely would have become a violinist.

Don't give up

When things don't get off the ground, persevere. For example, the writer Rody Doyle says that during a stupor he begins to pour out on paper the nonsense that comes to mind. After a while, the brain stops pushing and protesting and simply turns off, releasing streams of thoughts. And Hemingway, when he sat down to write a novel, could write dozens of versions of the first sentence until he found the one he believed. Then he developed the action from it.

Don't get hung up

If persistence does not help, we go from the opposite. Take a walk, do something distracted, communicate with other people. There is a theory according to which everything has long been invented, and the creative process consists only of a combination of these ideas. And if the answers are hidden within us, we just need to tune in to the right wave and hear them. You can sit in the sun in the lotus position, concentrate on washing dishes, walk through the forest listening to ambient music, or go jumping at a rock concert. The main thing is to do what allows us to turn off the internal dialogue and concentrate on the moment.

Treat creativity like a game

Creativity is first and foremost fun. Don't take it too seriously. Now I will explain why. In 2001, an experiment was conducted at Maryland College in which students had to guide a mouse through a maze drawn as in childhood. The students of the first group walked forward towards the piece of cheese (positive attitude), while the second group ran away from the owl (negative attitude). Both groups completed it in the same amount of time, but the students of the second group started avoidance mechanisms, and the second group took, on average, 50% longer to solve the problems that followed the maze than the students of the first group.

Just start

Many of us in childhood dreamed of becoming musicians, artists or actors, but over time, a pragmatic approach to life pushed these dreams further into the mezzanine. Betsy Edwards has a theory that most modern people With age, the left half of the brain becomes dominant. She is responsible for analytical thinking, the symbol system and the mode of action, and every time we try to learn to play the guitar or draw, we hear her voice, which advises us to put this bullshit aside and do something useful.

At first it will be difficult to step over, but if you have the courage and desire, then over time his voice will become quieter, and criticism in the style of “you draw like an asshole” will be replaced by something more constructive. Getting started is the hardest thing.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, Every person can think creatively, the only question is training. This can be compared to a lack of flexibility: immediately trying to do the splits, we will grunt, moan and cry, but if the muscles are properly warmed up and stretched, then in a couple of years it will be possible to send a resume for the position of a circus gymnast. The main thing is to remember that it's never too late to start something new: artists, musicians, poets and writers already live within us. Feel free to wake them up.

According to Michael Gelb, everyone can be creative and, without reinventing the wheel, create something new and interesting.

Today we will talk about the character of creative people. This question is being studied by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This is one of the most authoritative experts in the field of business psychology, known primarily for the theory of flow. Csikszentmihalyi is the author of several best-selling books, including Creativity: Life and Work 91 famous person"(Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, 1996). In it, he describes 10 paradoxical traits inherent in creative individuals, which he was able to identify over 30 years of his work.

Do you want to know what distinguishes a creator from an ordinary person? Then welcome to cat.

1. Strong, but not trained

A creative person has quite a lot of physical energy, but, unfortunately, it is not spent much. After all, the work of a creator is, first of all, the work of his brain. Concentrating exclusively on intellectual work makes a healthy body look weak. This is why it is important to maintain a balance between mind and body.

2. Smart but naive

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi recognizes that creative people are smart, they are distinguished by flexibility and originality of thinking, and the ability to hear different points of view. But almost everyone naively believes that creativity can be measured creative tests, and develop it at specialized seminars.

3. Playful but selfless

Creative people love to relax. As they say, nothing hedonistic is alien to them. But when it comes to the “birth” of a new project, they are able to work like obsessed people. For example, the Italian artist Paolo Uccello, when developing his famous “theory of perspective,” did not sleep the whole night and walked from corner to corner.

Csikszentmihalyi notes that most creators work late into the night and nothing can stop them.

4. Dreamers, but realists

This is the mystery of creative people. They are great inventors, they can come up with anything, but most of them look at life quite realistically. Apparently, William Ward was right when he said that a pessimist complains about the wind, an optimist hopes for a change in the weather, and a realist sets sail.

5. Extroverted but reserved

We are used to dividing people into extroverts and introverts. It is believed that the former are sociable, easily get along with people, have charisma, etc. And the latter, on the contrary, live in their own inner world, where only the “chosen ones” are allowed.

But, according to Csikszentmihalyi's observations, truly creative people combine both of these traits. In public they are the life of the party, but among loved ones they are quiet and taciturn.

6. Modest but proud

Creative people are usually very modest. They do not expect praise - the process of creating something new is important to them. However, at the same time, they will not let anyone down and will not allow their own dignity to be humiliated.

7. Masculine but feminine

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that creative people often do not conform to their gender roles. Thus, female creators are often distinguished by their tough character, while men, on the contrary, are sensuality and sentimentality.

8. Rebels but conservatives

What is creativity? That's right - creating something new. In this regard, creative people are often known as rebels, since their ideas go beyond the norm. But at the same time, many of them find it difficult to part with their ossified habits, change roles, etc.

9. Passionate but objective

All creative people are passionate about their work. It would seem that passion should blind, but truly creative people always look at what they do objectively.

Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes that a creative person must adequately perceive criticism, and also separate his “I” from his work.

10. Open but happy

One of Leonardo da Vinci's creative secrets was “sensual acuity.” Creators are always open to new experiences, even if they cause them pain. At the same time, they are internally harmonious happy people, because they know how to enjoy the creative process itself.

As you can see, creative people are truly full of contradictions. But as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says, it is these paradoxes that help them adapt to almost any situation, adapting everything around them to achieve their goals.

What paradoxical traits of creative people do you know?