We think of creativity as something rare.
It isn’t. Creativity is the default setting for every five-year-old. Just listen to them tell a joke. Five-year-olds learn the form of a joke and then immediately get creative in variations – some funny, some not. They are not self-critical as they play with the form and words in various combinations.
Creativity is the default.
The young adults I know often find it hard to tap into their creativity, for one simple reason. They have been trained to follow rules and work to meet spec, rather than to be creative in their work. They have systematically turned off their default creativity so that they can meet external expectations.
Adults learn to be creative again, regardless of career path, in slow stages. You are creative in your cooking, electricians are creative in their wiring designs (though not in meeting code), plumbers are creative in their solutions for plumbing problems.
Ironically, teachers are creative every day in their teaching, finding innovative ways to reach each student. I say “ironically” because the system teachers are working in is the one that undermines default creativity.
Stop thinking of creativity as rare; think of it as the default.