When you hear the words \u201ccreativity\u201d and \u201cinnovation,\u201d what do you think of?<\/p>\n
Do you think of artists painting a mural? Maybe you think of engineers working together to solve a problem? Perhaps your brain takes you back to a time when you were most creative, whether that was\u00a0writing a short-story, creating an entire dance routine, or playing make-believe games on the playground.<\/p>\n
For me, creativity and innovation are one in the same; they go hand in hand. When I think of creativity, I think of imaginative innovation. Likewise, when I think of how I would define innovation, courageous creativity is what first comes to mind.<\/p>\n
Dictionary.com defines creativity as, \u201cthe ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations.\u201d Similarly, Dictionary.com defines innovation as the, \u201cintroduction of new things or methods.\u201d<\/p>\n
As you can see, expressing creativity can be done in a variety of ways. However, I most often associate creativity with the ability to be original and unique; the ability to dig deep into your imagination and bring forth new ideas and visuals. Innovation is almost exactly the same thing in that it is the ability to creativity come up with new ways of doing things.<\/p>\n
Both creativity and innovation take a great deal of courage, in my opinion. As human beings, we were created to be creative. We were designed to be purposeful thinkers. We were meant to be imaginative. We were not intended to bottle up our ideas and keep them to ourselves out of fear of being too \u2018out there,\u2019 or being called \u2018crazy,\u2019 or \u2018weird.\u2019 Instead, we are supposed to courageously embrace our creativity and innovativeness and use it for a purpose greater than ourselves.<\/p>\n