Creativity is defined as the use of imagination or original ideas to create something.
That definition seems pretty straight forward. Unfortunately though, I think many people get so caught up in the "imagination" and "original idea" parts that they forget all about the "to create something" part. Creativity, to put it bluntly, is your creative ability: i.e. your ability to create things. If you create a lot of things you are very creative, if you create a few things, you are a little bit creative.
Now, the “quality” or “originality” of the things you create (depending on what you are aspiring towards) is entirely subjective. The amount of creativity you have is not determined by people’s opinion of what you have created, and creativity is not exclusively a trait of artists (sure, artists are obviously creative, but so is anyone who creates things).
If you like to think of yourself as creative, but you never create anything, you are not creative. That’s a bit like people who call themselves writers, but never write anything: you’re just fantasising about being something, but your reality is in contrast with your desires.
Study your craft, do exercise, get your meditation on, whatever, none of these things influences creativity as much as this: if you want to be creative… create things.
That said, I am taking my own advice: I've started painting again very recently after many many years. I wasn't feeling very creative, so I just went to the art shop, got some canvasses and started creating some paintings.
I like to think of myself as creative, but I was fantasising more than I was creating. In the next post I plan to cover some of my experiences with painting again after such a long time and, hopefully, you will find some inspiration there.
Love long and proper my creative friends. See you next month.
You can see some of the stuff I'm working on here: https://www.instagram.com/waltviviers/