You can be truly creative if you let go of your assumptions | Aeon Essays

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While creativity is commonly defined as both novel and task appropriate, mini-c adjusts that slightly to add ‘to you’. Mini-c should be new to you and should meet your needs, even if that is simply to distract yourself for a moment. ⤴️

A person may have dozens or more moments of mini-c a day. Some folks make up lyrics to popular melodies to describe their current actions (as in, ‘I’m leaving… in my Kia. Don’t think I’ll try to use the heat’ to the tune of ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’). Others think of spontaneous puns that they note to an empty room, or figure out how to complete a recipe when they’re out of butter, or doodle elaborate cartoon renditions of their co-workers while on a Zoom call, or hum jazzy variations on a melody, or devise a makeshift way of keeping a wobbly chair from collapsing. ⤴️

Unfortunately, many people undervalue mini-c – and may not even recognise it as being creative in the first place. Why does this matter? Well, if you see these everyday behaviours as creative, and you therefore believe that you can be creative and identify as a creative person, it will make you more likely to practise creativity. You can’t succeed if you don’t try. Everything starts with mini-c. ⤴️

identifying with being creative, ref Atomic Habits.