32 Traits of Creative People
By Robert Alan Black, Ph.D.
BROKEN CRAYONS and the act of BREAKING CRAYONS represent creativeness, creative
thinking and the efforts of creative people to me.
How often do you BREAK CRAYONS? Lets take a look. The following is a short
exercise that will help you discover how easily you BREAK CRAYONS.
Are You a Crayon BREAKER?
Read over the following 32 human traits and check or mark the ones you believe
are you at work or school, if you are not working full-time. You may choose
as many or as few as you want. Some definitions are provided for words that
are often mis-understood or may be unfamiliar to you.
Once you have completed reading and marking your choices, total up how many
you chose and write that number down. Then continue reading.
Some Definitions
can synthesize
you see patterns or the big picture quickly.
divergent thinker
look at things in many different ways at the same time.
flexible
willing to try things in many different ways.
fluent
produce lots of ideas or possibilities when working on a challenge or simply
choosing a restaurant to go to.
open-ended
don't fix on a single idea, keep looking for many different ideas or ways
to do things.
self-actualizing
focus on developing yourself to the best you can be and to discover your
specific unique talents.
sense of destiny
believe that you have a special mission or purpose in life you plan or
hope to fulfill.
tolerant of ambiguity
accept multiple answers or causes to a single problem or challenge.
32 Traits of Creative People Checklist
 sensitive
not
motivated by money
sense
of destiny
adaptable
tolerant
of ambiguity
observant
perceive
world differently
see
possibilities
question
asker
can
synthesize correctly often intuitively
able
to fantasize
flexible
fluent
imaginative
intuitive
original |
ingenious
energetic
sense
of humor
self-actualizing
self-disciplined
self-knowledgeable
specific
interests
divergent
thinker
curious
open-ended
independent
severely
critical
non-conforming
confident
risk
taker
persistent |
How many did you mark? 5, 10, 15, 20, all of them? Occasionally people will
mark all of them if they don't feel intimated by others in the group or by
me.
Each of these traits, if emphasized mildly to strongly, will help you be
more creative. Any of these, if emphasized extremely, could yield disastrous
results. Number 28 (severely critical) is often one that people do not mark
because of the feeling of the word severely. But think about it. Aren't highly
creative people extremely critical? When they are, what are they most critical
of?
Themselves or their work. Often they are their own worst critics (or enemies).
Continue
to Page 2 of Article »
© 1990 Robert Alan Black, Ph.D. • RAB, Inc. — Cre8ng People, Places & Possibilities • P. O. Box 5805 Athens, Georgia 30604-5805 • alan@cre8ng.com • www.cre8ng.com • 1-706-353-3387 • More by Robert Alan Black »
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