The following articles were written in 2019 in my language. Now I translate to English and add some points about creativity.

Creativity is a life attitude. A kind of true competitiveness too!

What is creativity? It looks like something has to be added on it, however it’s a kind of subtraction or elimination: excluding the limitation of reality, conformity, standard answers and stable comfort zones. Creativity occurs when eliminating all kinds of life attitude and lifestyle which discourages creativity.

Creativity, for most people, usually refers to artworks like drawings and graphic design. In fact, creativity is not a kind of professional, and not relevant to in-born talent. It’s a kind of mindset and life attitude which is not limited to art.

So what is creativity? Creativity seems like addition, but when we deep dive into it, it is a kind of subtraction and elimination. Eliminating the obstacles from the reality. Getting rid of conformity of human organisations especially with its cultural and institutional elements. No standard answers. Saying no to comfort zones. Creativity occurs when eliminating all kinds of life attitude and lifestyle which discourages creativity.

Being creative is a mindset which lets us seek more possibilities in our life. Rituals and rules contribute a lot to our lives. We can choose to simply follow them, but we can opt to question like why things must be like that or why we can’t do this or that. Through curiosity you will begin your new life without so many previous experiences for reference, or with a lot of examples of failures…

Being creative doesn’t mean we have to start something from scratch. Questioning is always the time to unleash one’s creativity. Many people develop a lot of methods or techniques to make others easier to learn to write and draw, but they may not suitable for you. You may need to find your own ways, or edit some methods to establish your own. If you still can’t fully acquire the skills, your imperfections will become your own styles and you won’t feel miserable.

Society (from my home country Hong Kong to elsewhere) tends to look for the silver bullet: the only ultimate receipt that we can easily follow to become successful and comfortable. The Hong Kong’s society even discourages doing something that looks like impossible. YouTubers and social media influencers tell you the only way that you should do. Under such circumstances, you will miss various opportunities in life and unconsciously conform to some thoughts from others.

Those who try to be creative will, in the long run, become active in life. They will be accountable and never hand their lives to others.

Their focus is something like “how to fix problems”, “how to accomplish my goals or dreams”, “why we can’t do this”. They won’t “conclude” whether they do something right or wrong, or whether they are successful or not. They don’t focus on the so-called cruel reality that can make one to just conform to. Creative people regard crisis as opportunities so that they can learn and evaluate to figure out more ways (especially that others never think of) to try. They also make use of imagination to foresee what they would like to see, but not judging themselves as failure. So they are competitive because they try every means to keep them in the game and open up new opportunities. As a result they are more resilient so that they can adapt themselves to various environments and keep learning.

Those who are not willing to become creative and believe they have no choice but to conform, they hand over their life to others. They only follow the path which is very crowded so that it is safe to find someone to depend on. However, the rules in society can change someday. What they are dependent on to live will disappear as a result.

Creative mindset can be learnt from life, and you can choose to extend the skills you already have (e.g. drawing) into other parts of life and work. You can create your better life by opening up other opportunities and thus become less vulnerable in life.

How being creative can make one less vulnerable in life?

Creativity is not limited to artists but everyone. It should be embedded into different parts of life.

As I said before that creativity is the way to get rid of the standard answer, and even bypass so-called requirements like social networks, resources and qualifications so that you can create other ways to try.

People who are creative don’t worry much about the loss of what he owns (e.g. money, power, status and his artworks). He fear less of authority. It’s because he has the skills or mindset that no one can take away. When he loses something, he still believes he is able to create something. He will never have nothing.

Thus creative people focus on “creation” not loss. He also knows he still has little water so that he is able to make use to make something interesting. Keep going is the key, and he will never judge what he did (which can prevent him from creation) or calculate how he should do (no one can predict). He just makes observations.

Conclusion: Being creative with your own pace

Being creative is an ongoing learning process and it will never come to an end. In order to keep going, you need to be patient and needn’t work too hard. Sometimes you can have so many ideas in your life, and sometimes you may not have any. But that’s fine because you have to acknowledge you are human beings not machines who never have stable outstanding performance.

Productivity and speed are always the killers to creativity. When you have to catch up something, your vision will be tunnelled and thus you can’t see any other options or alternatives in your life. Your own pace does matter.

To conclude, the beliefs related to creativity can be as follows:

• Effortless creative. Relaxation can bring you more ideas although it’s not always guaranteed. It will never come every second and it’s fine.

• Don’t urge to be productive. No need to be asap! Rest, sleep and play first. Being relaxed does matter more than hardworking. Remember: human beings are not human doings

Don’t worry about missing something because when you miss something you will always get something (that people miss them).

• No need to follow the rules/(popular) ways of doing.

• Your own experience and observation matters much more than information and any people’s advices.

• The world is bigger than you think.