by Damilola Afolabi

Created on: July 02, 2010   Last Updated: January 25, 2011

Nothing is really too hard to achieve, too big to handle and too far to approach if only we seek to know and understand what such things are and how such things could be approached.

Creativity somehow sound complex and unachievable to a lot of people but it is not as hard as we take it to be. What then is creativity?

Creativity cannot be well explained without putting some words into consideration. It will be very difficult to define creativity without explaining the things that are associated to it.

First, Imagination. Imagination is the pristine power of the mind and it is very foundation for every creative invention. There cannot be creation of anything without imagination.

Second, Originality. Any invention that is void of originality is never considered as a creative invention. Originality is approaching a thing in a unique and special way. In other words, it means to challenge the given paradigm .

Having briefly explained these two terms, it is more easier to now explain what creativity is.

Robert W. Weinberg in his book titled " Beyond the myth of genius" explains what the word creativity means:
..."creative" refers to novel products of value, as in "The airplane was a creative invention." "Creative" also refers to the person who produces the work, as in, ?Picasso was creative." "Creativity," then refers both to the capacity to produce such works, as in "How can we foster our employees' creativity?" and to the activity of generating such products, as in "Creativity requires hard work."
All who study creativity agree that for something to be creative, it is not enough for it to be novel: it must have value, or be appropriate to the cognitive demands of the situation."

In addition to what creativity is, Robert E. Franken defines creativity thus: "Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others"

At this point it is expedient for me so use a simpler word to explain this term in other to avoid ambiguity and confusion.

Creativity is simply defined as the ability to create something new out of the old existing one. in other words, creativity is " common sense made uncommon" It is discovering something new from the old existing one. It is adding beauty to something; it is challenging the given paradigm. Creativity is childhood revisited; and above all, creativity is the ability to create order where there is chaos.

Learn more about this author, Damilola Afolabi.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.