According to Oxford, creative is relating the application of imagination to create something. It can also mean a person whose work related to creative work. What does creativity mean? Creativity is a mental and social process involving the discovery of new ideas or concept. I believe creative is the unique trait that can be nurture from environment for a better solution or idea. Creative is beyond than stunning drawings and expressed words written on the paper.

I try to find another initiative to make sure my work done when in crucial state. I believe creative thinking is an ability that can be learned and it is acceptable to be expressed. I am really inspired by Bill Gates sayings.

“When you are falling, you are forced to be creative, to dig deep and think, night and day.” “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” -Bill Gates

Bill Gates once said, he prefers lazy person but creative to be in his company to ensure the work is done no matter how obstacle that the person need to face. It means it train employees to think outside of the box, creatively. It is the ability to think of new and different ideas, spontaneously make between ideas, or groups of things connections that one’s often go unnoticed or undiscovered by others.

What about critical thinking? Critical thinking is not the same as creative thinking. Both of these aspects varied. Critical thinking is a metacognitive process which means thinking about thinking. This process consists of a number of sub-skills that increase the chances of producing a logical solution to a problem to an argument with purposely and reflective judgment (Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M.J. & Stewart, I., 2014). But there is relationship between both of these thinking. After we conceptualize creative thinking as synthesizing information for the purpose of deducing a logical conclusion, then critical thinking is crucially needed.

What is the difference between creative thinking and critical thinking? In general, creative thinking is related with right brain meanwhile critical thinking related with left brain. The main characteristics of creative thinking are the ability to generate large number of ideas. And then critical thinking plays an important role to analyse whether the idea make sense or not. Creative thinking also known as the possibilities but critical thinking is the probability of the chances of idea to bring to reality. From this point of view, we can say critical thinking use high range of judgement but creative thinking suspends the judgement and being open to the possible and unique chance.

Do I have creative personality? Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). Back then, when I heard of the word creative, I always imagine of the artistic aspect such as the ability to draw, to take of good photos, to create and play music harmonically. I write short poems on my own when I am sad or inspired. I love to take pictures of scenery and others. I would listen to different types of genre and language music. During my free time, I would draw sketch to be calm from hectic life. I played ‘caklempong’ and ‘gamelan’, as to train my right brain. I once played one of the ‘caklempong’ instrument which is ‘gereteh’. I would call ‘gereteh’ as the traditional piano. I played it well in order to be a creative person.

 So, I learn it through my adolescence years to be a creative person. But, when my Graduate Success Attribute lecturer, Pn Mastura gave a lecture about creative thinking, I started to realise creative is more than that. I only emphasize on my self potential for my own benefit. The truth is creativity is like the gift from you to others, in other words, contributing your part to them uniquely. I learned that creative person is able to give different perspective from the situation. This type of person able to give unusual ad novel answer with full of confidence. Creative person is able to handle ambiguity with open mind and actually have intellectual abilities.

There are few strategies to be creative in and out that I need to master of. The first strategy is fluency which means an individual are able to generate as many ideas as possible with proper expression. In my opinion, the ideas that will be voice out will influence the association to gain respond from them. To obtain positive feedback, the new ideas must be channelled clearly in order to let them figure out what it is meant. One of the ways need to be taken to be fluent in conveying my message is learn new knowledge. I can learn the new techniques of approaching by visual, listening, and speech. From this stage, I will able to convey the originality of the idea which is the other strategy that can be taken to be a creative person too. From this stage of life, I start to being cooperative with my groupmates by give out original ideas from myself. In the same time, I will be favourable to let others let out their ideas. By combining our ideas, unusual and unique outcome will be produced to form something new.

The next strategy to be creative is curiosity. From my perspective, curiosity is needed to gain knowledge. Generated ideas come from the discovery of basic knowledge. Therefore, being curious in one of the main strategies to achieve the stage of being creative. It means learn new things! I shall diverge myself in new things with full of curiosity. Learn new things and techniques. For example, I learn how to write not on the right hand as my right hand is my dominant hand, which is my left hand! This activity can be trained and it is never too late. Due to my curiosity, I acknowledge that this particular activity is one of the ways to train my right brain especially the neurons to gain new impulses. Based on what I read in a health magazine, one study has been conducted which is if a person learns new thing, they have a step back from potential of having memory and motor deficiency because their neurons will be triggered.

Being imaginative and dare to risk taking are also strategies to be a part of creativity zone. Once I achieve to know what is my ideas, it is about time to convey it. But I need to be a risk taker. Why? Because no all the time people will accept my ideas and it is okay. It is never a failure and will not unmotivated me from being creative. To be positive, I would say to myself that maybe it is the not the right time, not the right people and not the right place. But the not acceptance will not stop my rights to have courage in sharing ideas somewhere later on and be ready to criticism. Plus, I am grateful people who critics the idea given, because they are using their critical thinking to make things happen. Albert Einstein once quoted “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions”. I feel so related with these quotes as imagination makes me able to deliver my messages by poem, drawings, animations and songs.

As conclusion, self-reflection somehow able to enhance creativity thinking because it allows us to deliver our message and understanding in our ways. There is no scheme of right or wrong but words from heart and deep thought of a person is being highlighted. It shows that no everyone think the same and it means everybody is creative as they are unique. No one can completely be like me and I can completely be like others.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996, July 1). Psychology Today. Retrieved from The Creative Personality: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/articles/199607/the-creative-personality?collection=60244

Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M.J. & Stewart, I. (2012). An evaluation of argument mapping as a method of enhancing critical thinking performance in e-learning environments. Metacognition and Learning, 219-244.