Our love and hate relationship with creativity

Think of the first time you heard or used a service like Uber or Airbnb. Just maybe, you recognized and admired the creativity of doing something in a new way and creative way. Startups have influenced and inspired so many of us that we can now say that we live in the era of the startup and Entrepreneur.  I think one of the reasons we are drawn to them, is because we long for the creativity we have lost while growing up, to come to life again. 

Yet, there is an inherent desire for control in all of us. We like to control because we think it helps us to create and manage expectations and disappointments and provides us with certainties. 

However, creativity and our desire to control are quite often working against each other. Creativity allows you to go where you have not gone before or do something in a way that has not been done before and that means you are less likely to expect and manage expectations and there may be less certainties in the approach or outcome. 

To manage our own fear of not being in control or outside our comfort zone, we limit ourselves to known structures, methods and ideas. We pick people who think like we do, and we choose to do things that others or ourselves have done before. Always the tried and tested way. 

But what if the times or circumstances that we live in demands from us to do something different? To do things in a new way. How do we become the heroes that do what is required despite being uncomfortable?

Article written by Claudia Sauter and Clarette du Plooy