There’s a well-worn trope that creativity leaves us as we age.

This is a ridiculous and utterly unhelpful conceit. If anything, creativity should play a bigger and more important role as we get older.

The capacity to play and create something out of nothing is an essential element of our human condition. Perhaps the most essential.

Whether it’s inventing a new widget, a new song, or a new you, creativity offers fresh potentials and possibilities. Creativity begets optimism.

When we were younger, creativity may have seemed more natural. Given that creativity is the capacity to interweave and interconnect unrelated experiences and ideas into something original, we should be more creative as we age because we have more to draw on.

Rekindle creativity

Looking to rekindle creativity? Respark that creative spirit? Here’s some quick advice.

1. Creativity is not the province of the lucky few. We’re all creative.

2. To be more creative, produce more ideas. Quantity trumps quality.

3. Perfection is enemy number one.

Creative people spit out ideas and spit out ideas and spit out ideas. They’re not precious. They’re grist for the mill.

Most ideas don’t land or don’t make sense. But that’s not the point.

Ideas beget other ideas. It’s the multitudes we’re after.

That’s how the right one comes to life.

Reference

“How to cultivate creativity as an adult, according to an expert” Salon (2022)