Sometimes, you perceive of yourself as someone who would not know creativity even if it knocked you on the head with a sledgehammer. And sometimes, you just come to the realization that you and creativity just would not mix. It is like oil and water for you and creativity, or so you think.

You must not give up. If you imagine feeling the wrath of Zeus every time you need to be creative, do not put a lid on it. All you need is a technique, a creativity technique.

Creativity techniques make your world a better place to live in. But just like everyone’s common world, these techniques also have bad points. Think of them as a giant tool box, with all you might ever need to build your own house. It has lots and lots of tools but you just have to pick the right one.

The first technique would be the basic model. With this model, you have to think of what it is that really hinders you on your path to creativity, and jot it down in non-technical formal. Show what you wrote to people who have never experienced that kind of problem and ask them for ideas and for their opinions. You can also recommend to them thinking on it overnight or for a few days.

Once they speak up, take down any thoughts and ideas they air out regarding the “real” problem and any solutions that are of high potential. It is very essential that what they expect of your ability to utilize their ideas are put in a realistic perspective. You can develop or re-interpret the ideas they gave you to make them more workable for you. You should not dismiss the notion that the idea might be technically na

Everyone has a capability to be creative. However, oftentimes, it is hidden within your personality and you have to pry open certain body organs to get your creativity out in the open.

Your brain contains that creativity but you have to exercise your brain cells first before you can get your brain on the go. This is where the games for creativity step in.

The goal of these games and exercises is to show how crazy or how impossible problems may be talked about and solved, with the use of evaluations and different analyses that are not usually thought of in a traditional problem-solving situation.

They are not present to rate the most intelligent or the brightest person, but they are there to give you suggestions about ways in recognizing the things that make you inefficient or limit you to your conventional thinking.

The first game is, in some ways, a game that was developed by Andersen Consulting, otherwise called as Accenture. Accenture will be much of help to you in understanding your style of thinking a lot better. The questions involved in this game quiz are not at all difficult, but you still have to think for a while before you blurt out your answer.

“How do you put a giraffe in the fridge?” Well, the answer is very easy you do not have to call a friend for this one. It is simple. You open the fridge first, put the giraffe inside, and then close the fridge. This question tries to determine if you have a tendency to complicate simple things.

The next question strictly follows the first one. “How do you put an elephant in the fridge?” You would probably open the fridge, put the elephant inside then shut the fridge close. On the contrary, that is not how this question is to be answered. Yes, opening the fridge does come first, but you have to remove the giraffe first, replace it with the elephant, and that is when you close the fridge. Your ability to consider implications was put under the spotlight.

These games make you creative because you tend to dig deeper in your brain to come out with the best, and most logical, answer. Brace yourself, for more questions are to come.

The king of the jungle assembled a moot for the animals. Every animal from the jungle was there, except for one. Now which one was that? It was the elephant. Why so? Have you forgotten that you left the elephant in the fridge? This question will check your memory, or how effective it can be.

Now imagine yourself having to cross a river. You, again, face another dilemma, for the river is infested with crocodiles, and these crocodiles are far from being vegetarians. What are you going to do now? Actually, you can swim across the river for as long as you like, well at least, before the moot is over because all the crocodiles are busy enjoying at the moot. This question tries to see if you learn quickly form the mistakes you have committed.

These game quizzes checked if there are certain areas in your brain that are not productive, thus, will hinder you from being creative. Their main goal is to make you think, given the estimation of how absolutely weird or absurd some problems can get. Solve these games for creativity correctly and you are bound to be one heck of a creative person.

There are many approaches to the understanding of creativity and one of such interpretations is the book by Kurdish doctor and writer Showan Khurshid, titled Knowledge Processing, Creativity and Politics. His explanation of the concept of creativity deviates somewhat from the traditional and revolutionary school of thought to something that is quite ‘evolutionary’ and philosophical, banking mostly on idea of human morality.

According to Dr Khurshid, societal changes are actively linked with people’s perceptions of morality, as opposed to the usual Marx-inspired thinking of relating such advances and changes to class stuggle and differences in economic status and background.

His book, Knowledge Processing, Creativity and Politics places a question mark on the rather conventional way we treat and deal with differences in ideologies, philosophies and religions. Dr Khurshid adopts the thinking the morality approach can be applied to all aspects and strains of human life. The main question he seeks to answer is: how is it possible to have political order and peace?

Knowledge Processing, Creativity and Politics stresses that man’s most important and vital characteristic to survive in this world is his creative faculties. That is, the ability to obtain, pass on and apply the knowledge he has learned, based on his physical makeup or biology, his mental abilities or psychology and experiences.

Creativity, to him, is a prerequisite for morality. Thus, the best form of morality is what would help our creativity grow best. People should agree on their perceptions and definitions of morality in order to resolve conflicts, obtain peace, give rise to political power and, eventually, achieve peace and order.

However, we may ask how this ‘agreement’ is possible in a world with varying interests, orientations and tastes. When we really think about it, a lot of liberal ideologies and democracies have fallen to conflict because of moral disagreements; and, oftentimes, how societies, groups and concepts evolve are also based on such disagreements.

This is not to say, however, that because the presence of these disagreements is common to all societies, that they all ended up in the same vein. Because of the variations in history and background, they have transformed into different societies with different, sometimes even opposing political thrusts and histories.

Knowledge Processing, Creativity and Politics tackles the above issue at greater length, and it will take more than just this article to summarize all the ideas Dr Khurshid has suggested. One thing is clear, however, is that creativity is a powerful force in all of life’s movements and shifts. Creativity is among the factors that influence and effect change. Thus, it is something that we should care for and constantly seek to improve and cultivate.

Not every student is expected to agree to tests that require them to use their creative faculties, mostly because some find it rather tedious and time-consuming. However, testing has been found to be an effective way to measure a person’s thinking style and creativity, though it does not guarantee accuracy.

True, because creativity is a concept that is all too general, whose definition may vary depending on culture, background and political or economic orientation, it is something that is hard to calculate.

Testing, however, gives us, at least, an idea of where a particular person’s creativity lies. Instead of groping in the dark, testing allows us to make intelligent inferences an individual’s style and preferences. If we execute them fairly and explain the merits of learning to think creatively, people will have valid reasons to do so.

Here are some examples of creativity tests that have been employed through the years.

- Draw the opposite

Students are asked to draw a one-inch figure next to a test concept or word that is represented by the opposite of the highlighted word. This test pushes creativity as it makes use of our imagination and knowledge.

- Essay test

Essays can help examiners study creative thinking or they may hole in directly on knowledge and memory. Questions are asked to allow the test-taker to use his problem solving skills and imagination.

- Flexibility tests

Higher points are given to answers that are most unusual, least expected, but may still be considered correct. Inform students beforehand how they are going to be graded.

- Write the opposites

Like the draw the opposites tests, students are asked to write down the opposite of a particular word next to it. Researchers have shown that people who are very creative have the ability to come up with answers more quickly than the average creative thinkers.

- Word and image matching

Place a small group of figures in the test and ask the students to match words with the image that are a best fit with them.

- Multiple choice tests

Multiple choice tests are rather tedious to make because you have to come up with a number of items for just one question. However, it can serve as a good measure of a person’s creativity if you ask him to, instead, select the wrong item from the choices and see how fast he or she responds to it.

- Short answer and definition

This test does not really measure creativity because students are merely asked to write down short descriptions of a certain term. It, however, becomes a creativity gauge if they are asked to jot down the opposite meaning of the given term.

- Fluency test

Ask students to answer a question that has more than one right answer and grade them according to the uniqueness of their responses and how many alternative answers they can come up with. Test-takers may also be asked to rank their answers according to degree of correctness, in their perceptions.

Much has been said about Professor Emeritus E. Paul Torrance’s theory about creativity. Throughout his entire 60-year career, most of his time and efforts have been focused on developing and creating a new view into the what creativity is, deviating from the usual and standard methods of basing one’s intelligence and thinking capacity on intelligence quotients, or IQs, alone.

Creativity is a fragment on intellect, Torrance says. However, there remain a multitude of other abilities that are linked with a personal intellectual abilities. He adds that for kids and adults to be able to fully develop their creative faculties, their best talents and capacities should be recognized and encouraged, even if they deviate from the norm.

Torrance’s theory on creativity banks on the concept that increased awareness of a person’s creativity in all its possible forms is what will help people cultivate their selves. This realization is what has given birth to the building of programs for the gifted all over the world.

At first, many people thought Torrance’s proposed testing methods for creativity were impossible to execute, because a lot were arguing that creativity is something that is impossible to gauge or measure. Another argument against it was that it would be difficult to create a test that all people, regardless of age, race or background would respond to. Surprisingly, Torrance’s tests on creativity has been found to be so effective that it has already been translated to nearly 50 languages.

Torrance’s tests basically have two thrusts: figural and verbal. The verbal thrust involves students or test takers making use of their intellectual capacities to invent new uses for the most common or mundane of things, like an earphone or a piece of paper.

The proctor or test-giver will first ask the students how a particular object can be used alternatively, then their answers were scored against a given grid who values are based on flexibility or the number of categories for the response, originality or the uniqueness of the idea as opposed to the previous answers, fluency or the number of possible alternatives given, and the explanation or elaboration for each of the concepts they come up with.

More objective is the figural part of the Torrance test, which begins with the student being introduced to a simple shape or figure and then asked to relate this figure with something a little more complicated. The responses are recorded against the same criteria as the verbal thrust.

People who have been exposed to Torrance’s theory on creativity have said that the test was not intrusive and, thus, comfortable to deal with. Unlike intelligence tests, Torrance tests do not deal with questions that directly exclude other people. Its components are so carefully crafted that anybody from any kind of background will be able to relate to it without difficulty.

Dr Torrance’s theory has shed a new light into tapping people’s creative side. Parents are now able to determine how to best cultivate their kids’ capacities and talents, educators are better informed of probable strategies to enhance their students’ learning and information absorbing skills, and counselors are discovering novel methods to boost learning opportunities for their clients.

The visual world of infants is a “booming and buzzing confusion”, as 19th century psychologist and philosopher William James said. Indeed, as soon as babies are born, their vision undergoes many rapid developments during the first year. Images that appear gray, hazy, and out of focus in the first few weeks become more defined and and colorful in the next months. When these blurs start to become clearer to the child, that’s when the journey toward creativity and visual development begins.

Vision also plays a vital role in brain growth during the first year. A child’s visual faculties is one of the most important factors in developing his or her creativity. By creativity, it is meant that the infant is able to distinguish and identify what he or she sees and attribute them to particular objects.

To an infant, this is what creativity is about. Ninety percent of information entering the average human brain is visual. Providing the proper visual stimulation, therefore, is vital since healthy vision leads to baby’s future overall mental and physical well-being.

What infants see

Infants may have uncoordrinated eye movement and appear cross-eyed over the first few months. However, they are born with the ability to focus at close range – about 9 to 12 inches, or the distance between a mother’s face and the baby in her arms.

Experts say that babies are able to follow or track an object in the first few weeks. By 6 months of age, the visual and creative system is nearly adult-like in function. As a matter of fact, infants can see about 20/400 after birth, then 20/40 by age one. Focus improves over the first 2 to 3 years, and eventually approaches normal 20/20 vision. But the most dramatic change occurs during the first 8 months.

Newborn babies can distinguish light from dark but cannot see all colors. Distinguishing between colors won’t be fine-tuned until around 3 months. This is why many baby books and infant stimulation toys have distinct black and white patterns. Large black and white patterns present the highest possible contrast (100%) to the eye and, thus, are the most visible and attractive to babies.

High contrast encourages visual and creative development and physical movement like wiggling, kicking, and arm waving. However, recent studies have proven that babies can also distinguish shades of gray. By about 2 months of age, the baby becomes capable of perceiving almost all of the subtle shadings that make our visual world so rich, textured and interesting.

And since there is a part of the human brain that is dedicated solely to facial recognitions, newborns are naturally drawn to human faces. This specific recognition mechanism is one of the first indicators of creativity building in a child. It helps form a bond between the mother and child, particularly during breastfeeding. By 2 months, infants can recognize facial features, such as the eyes and mouth. By 4 to 5 months, they can distinguish their mother’s face from others’.

Creativity begins with visual stimulation. Thus, it is the duty of every caregiver or parent to expose their kids to all sorts of colors and images early on, in order for the child to be equipped with the proper skills once the stage of actual creation comes, which is usually at age 2 to 3 years old. For infants, what creativity is is the acknowledge that a lot of images and colors exist, which is then followed, as he or she grows older, by the improved ability to build.

Taking out all the frills and going for the short version, the Creativity Portal is a Web site often frequented by writers, artists, creativity enthusiasts and artists for resources on creativity, project and inspirational prompts, life coaching insights, and the like. It is a haven for a plethora of materials and resources to help just about any creative person awaken his or her inner muse, if it is dormant, or enhance it further, if it is already working.

The Creativity Portal provides hundreds of articles and subjects that aid in a person’s personal creativity expression and exploration, while, at the same time, caring and promoting his or her unique and individual traits. There is something for anybody and everybody in this Web site.

The Creativity Portal was launched in 2000 and has served as an inspirational tool for many people since then. It has been featured both online and in print, in the like s of Writer’s Digest and Imagine, because of its commitment to the building of close relationships with people who are passionate about all kinds of writing, art and creativity channels.

Web users may log into the site for free and avail of its free newsletter to get updated on the latest happenings and offerings every month.

Since the Internet is fast turning into the resource and communication medium of choice for many people, the Creativity Portal represents the best of the best in terms of thrust and content. While there are many other Web sites that also offer the same thing, that is, helping people boost their creativity and hone their senses, Creativity Portal presents us a little something extra by being a one-stop shop for all inspirational needs.

This is why it has become popular not just to artists and writers in the five years it has been in existence. Not many Web sites have achieved such a huge following. In fact, it has become so reliable a resource that a 2006 Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall published textbook titled Web-based Learning: Design, Implementation and Evaluation by Karen Rasmussan and Gayle Davidson-Shivers has featured it.

And because of its continuing commitment to helping people awaken their creative spirits and boost their inner voices, it won’t be surprise that the Creativity Portal will continue to thrive and survive for many years more.

Quotations are considered one of the most powerful literary creations, because they are able to address certain issues and influence people and ideas with just a few words. These soundbites from famous people, or even the infamous and unfamous, are packed with so much meaning that they have lasted through centuries of scrutiny and criticism.

In fact, it’s difficult to criticize quotations, because their meanings and messages are often so clear and hard-hitting that trying to analyze them and split them into sub-meanings is an exercise in futility.

Below are some of the more popular quotations on creativity. Read on and enjoy.

Duke Ellington: “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”

Leonardo da Vinci: “Go some distance away because the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or proportion is rapidly seen.”

Ortega Y Gassett: “The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man.”

Albert Einstein: “Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created.”

Jonathan Miller: “Since finding out what something is is largely a matter of discovering what it is like, the most impressive contribution to the growth of intelligibility has been made by the application of suggestive metaphors.”

Haridas Chaudhuri: “The greater the emphasis on perfection the further it recedes.”

Kierkegaard Soren: “Backwards understood be only can but, forwards lived be must life.”

Arie de Geus: “The ability to learn faster than the competition is often the only sustainable competitive advantage a company can have.”

Lauren Bacall: “Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.”

Charles Darwin: “In the long history of humankind (and animalhood, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Theodore Levitt: “Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress.”

Alfred North Whitehead: “The ‘silly’ question is the first intimation of some totally new development.”

Albert Einstein: “If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.”

Michael Porter, Harvard Business School: “Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.”

Peter F Drucker: “Whenever you see a successful business someone once made a courageous decision.”

Buckminster Fuller: “There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.”

Esa Saarinen: “The opposite of creativity is cynicism.”

Marian Anderson: “As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.”

George Bernard Shaw: “You see things and say ‘Why’. But I dream things that never are and say ‘Why not?’”

Hugh Prather: “Some people will like me and some won’t. So I might as well be myself, and then at leaswt I know that the people who like me, like me.”

J.S. Brown: “Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s heads, we need to help them grind a new set of glasses so that we can see the world in a new way.”

Christopher Logue: “Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to edge. It’s too high! Come to edge! And they came, and he pushed… and they flew.”

Raymond Kurzweil: “Launching a breakthrough idea is like shooting skeet. People need change, so you must aim well ahead of the target to hit it.”

Julius Hare: “Half of the failures in life arise from pulling on one’s horse as it is leaping.”

Albert Szent Gyorgi: “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.”

Walt Disney: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Creativity is one of the most coveted traits among humans. While certain experts and philosophers agree that creative faculties are something that all of us are naturally born with, cultivating and making these characteristics grow and flourish into something that would give us the greatest benefits and value possible requires some amount of learning, effort and skill.

It is, therefore, for this reason that many people read up constantly on literature about how to boost their creativity, or awaken their ‘sleeping’ creative traits, or why others choose to enrol themselves in creativity molding classes and other courses that aim to boost inspiration. Creativity precedes the success of many goals achieved that people are not afraid to chase after it, even if they face some difficulty.

Here are some creativity quotes that have worked for many of us. People have attested to feeling better motivated and fired up after reading or hearing what others had to say about the subject.

J.S. Brown: “Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s heads, we need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so that we can see the world in a new way.”

Arthur C Clarke: “Someone once said that for every problem, there is a solution that is simple, attractive… and wrong.”

Albert Einstein: “Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created.”

Leonardo da Vinci: “Go some distance away because the work appears similar and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony of proportion is rapidly seen.”

Anonymous: “Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you and just before you realise what’s wrong with it.”

Mae West: “When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.”

George Bernard Shaw: “You see things: you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never are: and say ‘Why not?’”

Chinese proverb: “When a finger points to the moon the imbecile looks at the finger.”

Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu: “As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.”

Carl Jung: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

Doris Lessing: “Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.”

Henri-Frederic Amiel: “Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour, springs and germinates no more.”

Niels Bohr: “There are some things that are so serious you have to laugh at them.”

Franklin P Jones: “Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”

Japanese proverb: “None of us are as smart as all of us.”

T.S. Eliot “Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow.”

Mark Twain: “Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.”

E.M. Forster: “Think before your speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think, creation’s”

Albert Einstein: “Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

Walt Disney: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Henry David Thoreau: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Most of the people think that creativity is all about being creative and thinking what is nice and creative, of course. Yes, that is one of the points of creativity but that is not all that you should take notice of. Once you have accomplished being creative, you also have to take care of your creativity.

By taking care of it, it is not cultivation, like bacteria, nor is it caressing until it goes to sleep. You should, at least, be careful of whatever creative ideas you have. You have to be a little discreet at first. For if you do not, then you are risking its safety and it will probably be stolen and claimed by somebody else.

If you are much more of a technological person, with the use of computers and the like, you must, at least, put a password on your computer so that anyone else who tries to pry open you programs to get that very precious information an uninitiated artist would need, will weep in desperation for having not accomplished the theft.

Another risk is the risk of having your creative destroyed. Creativity cannot remain as an idea forever. You have to make tangible your creative idea, therefore, when you do draw you idea, or mold, or compose, or whatever artistic genre your creative idea belongs to, take care of your product. If you have made a drawing, make sure it does not get wet and other kinds of avoiding tactics. If you cannot take care of your own work then you are not cut out to be a creative artist.

Do not risk having your work destroyed just because you were careless or because you forgot about something that you really should not have forgotten.

You should also be aware of what kinds of artwork other artists have produced. You might believe that your work was original and was, indeed, very creative, yet you just do not know it but someone else has done the exact same thing. You really would not want to be branded a copycat. Your originality is probably the best bank artists have, do not lose it or have your reputation as an artist be degraded, for without your good name, no one will admire your works of art, no matter how good they can be.

Another important risk is that, you risk having your work not admired. It is not eventual that just because you like your work and you think it is nice, it means other people who look at it will like it too. That is not the case all the time. Oftentimes, the work you do is loathed by other people because of individual factors. You have their ethnicity, traditions and cultures and genders.

If you made something that was a little insensitive towards a certain tribe, then, of course, your artwork will not desired by those who belong to that certain tribe, or if you made something about rape or moldings of women’s private body parts. It is not all the time that women will immediately understand your purpose or what you meant with your work. You have to be more sensitive because what you think and feel as an artist are not felt and thought by all.