We're All Creative 3: Three Year Olds Are the Masters

Creative Curiosity

ItÃ¢â¬â¢s true. ItÃ¢â¬â¢s hard to get highly creative folks thinking inside the proverbial box. Curiosity gets us looking at the box inside, outside, and from every direction. Creativity motivates us. Curiosity nurtures and energizes us. Ã¢â¬ÅWhat ifsÃ¢â¬Â drive our vocabulary. Put those qualities together and you have Jean Luc Picards going forth where no one has gone before and enjoying every minute immensely.

It had to be a caveperson’s creativity that got us fire. The wheel is surely an example of human creative thinking. Yet, the best example of creativity is any three-year old.

The Creative Instinct Called Learning

Want to be more creative? Hang out with a three year old. Their whole existence is filled with the creative instinct called learning and free from the inhibitions of self-consciousness. Imagine if you took on some of these three year old strategies for learning creatively.

Three year olds test drive everything to get information. They pick things up. Turn them in every direction to look at them. They try out most things with all of their senses. Okay, so skip the part about sticking them in your mouth.

Three years olds ask “Why?” and don’t stop until the answer satisfies them.

Three year olds are most effective at creative problem solving. They’re determined at achieving their goals. Three year olds creatively work out who to go to for what they want and which buttons to push. They literally run circles around an adult. The end run through a shoppping mall is also a three-year-old specialty. Three year olds know and use many more options than most adults do.

They’ll try anything once, because they don’t know the rules. A tantrum at work isn’t advisable, but you’ll note that they can be quite creative and charming at managing grownups.

Three year olds don’t care if you think it’s not art. They have unabashed confidence in their ideas and their work. It’s easier to be creative when you don’t fear failing.

By now you see where I’m going with this. Three year olds don’t put roadblocks in the way of their creativity the way we do as grownups.

You can’t convince me that everyone wasn’t creative once. I’ve spent too much time with too many three year olds.

There isnÃ¢â¬â¢t a problem, a relationship, a meal, or a passtime that doesn’t get better when we add just a touch of ourselves to it. That little tweak is the creative spark, the detail that other folks notice first. It’s the unique difference that makes a brand stand out to customers.

What would happen if you looked at your work with the curiosity of a three year old?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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