Did You Know You Are A Creative Genius?

Most people don’t credit themselves with a lot of “brains” or intelligence. Certainly very few people think of themselves as being creative geniuses. If you’re one of these people, perk up and heads up please, because two self-made millionaires think you are!

I’m talking about Richard Dobbins and Barrie O. Pettman. In their gloriously titled book, “What Self-Made Millionaires Really Think, Know & Do” these two guys wrote:

“Make a decision to believe that you are a creative genius. Visualize, emotionalize, and affirm. Visualize yourself as a creative person. Imagine how well you would feel if you were a creative person. Finally, make a habit of the affirmation: ‘I am a very creative person.’ If you believe you are creative, then you will behave in a manner consistent with being creative.”

On the surface of it, this is what this statement means (when you begin to believe and to affirm that you’re a creative genius): that you have the creativity to find solutions to your problems and to surmount whatever obstacles you face – and so you have no excuse to not beat the odds stacked up against you, whatever your goals are.

It is a very empowering affirmation, especially when you take into account what these two self-made millionaires observed:

“So you have this vague idea: ‘I would like to be more, have more, do more.’ You want to achieve certain results ... in a world of constant change. Change is inevitable. Change is opportunity. If you stay as you are, you stay where you are. The world belongs to those who are in love with the new. In such a world there is a strong relationship between the quality and quantity of new ideas and your success in achieving results.”

The emphasis is mine… the world belongs to those who are in love with the new.

Here are two definitions of creativity: “Creativity is the act of seeing things that everyone around us sees while making connections that no one else has made.” “Creativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.”

The world is changing very fast. Where before you could afford to just be “good enough”, today you've got to continue to grow and change in order to compete. You have to be creative in whatever you do. If you haven’t noticed, these days you are expected to be excellent, superior, outstanding, trailblazing, and visionary. And this is because to make it in this so-called global village, and the meshed world economy, you don't have to just compete with the guy down the street, you have to compete with someone over the Internet, the guy two states away, or the guys and gals in China.

With that said, one of the best things that comes with believing that you’re a creative genius, and affirming it in your daily life is that you’ll find you can solve most of the problems you meet in your workday, and in your life.

When this happens you begin to enjoy your work. And your work becomes play… Here’s Thomas Edison:

“I never did a day’s work in my life: it was all fun,” he said about his brilliant career at the end of his life.

An example may make this clearer for you…

I was never a fan of complex crossword puzzles, but I love doing the simple crossword ones. When you first begin solving the puzzle it’s very easy to get discouraged and give up, but magic begins to happen when you bag a few of the words – you find you are more motivated to continue… and the more you bag, the more motivated you become to end it and get closure.

With the complex puzzles my motivation stays at zero for too long and I find myself thinking too much and getting nowhere – similar to being in a job you hate and engaging in too much grunt work, for little pay!

Back to Thomas Edison… Did you know that Thomas Edison, before he died, had recorded 1,093 patents in his lifetime, ranging from the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the microphone, to the movies?

This guy was prolific, or to use lazy, street talk, he was “productive.”

How did he do it? Well, honestly, I don’t know, but here’s what he said about putting your brains to work to find solutions:

"It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.” ~ Thomas A. Edison

Could it be because most people do not think they are creative? What do our two self-mad millionaires have to say about this?

“We all came into the world being creative, innovative, and inventive. Approximately 97% of children are highly creative at the age of five, 36% are highly creative at the age of ten, with only 12% scoring highly creative at age fifteen… For most of us our creativity has lain dormant since childhood. We must all now learn to tap into our own creativity. We can all learn to tap into the creativity of others.”

It would seem that creativity is a trait most of us lose in our early teens! But there is hope. The two self-made millionaires recommend that you…

 “Make a habit of using your creativity. Make a habit of trying to improve situations by 10%...”

Now, that’s imminently achievable, wouldn’t you say, Mr. or Ms. Creative Genius? Yes, you!

If these two millionaire “blokes” sound like good company, I have reviewed their book here: What Self-Made Millionaires Really Think, Know & Do – A Book Review