Creativity is often given a bad rap in terms of useful skills. Part of this is due to societal bias – few paintings have ever been called ‘useful’ – but part appears to be down to a lack of understanding of the trait.
When you view creativity as something that has use outside of art and musicals, it becomes infinitely more functional in day to day life. From looking at things from a different perspective to gaining new understandings of topics, creativity never really stops being helpful. For some handy helpful examples, we have three useful skills that are best utilised through maximising your creativity.
Problem Solving
A lot of problems require creative solutions to best solve them. Generally, a problem is considered difficult because it can’t be easily solved through normal methods – so it makes sense that the more creative you get, the less difficult most problems get, because you can think of more potential solutions. It’s essentially like having the superpower to solve anything – except you don’t have to wear a costume.
Interpersonal Skills
Creative skills are also useful in a different kind of problem solving – namely, with other humans. Learning how to fix awkward situations and generally thrive in difficult interactions is literally never not useful, but especially so in the workplace.
While creativity wouldn’t be the initial solution most would think of, it’s perhaps the most versatile solution to bettering interpersonal skills. Having the creativity to think outside the box in terms of conversation content and flow is paramount to being an interpersonal specialist. Moreover, making sure to not always tread the same tired small talk into conversation will make your conversations appear more genuine – and, by association, you as well.
Creativity Helps with Mental Health
The more you get creative in your workspace, the less work is a chore – so, in a sense, creativity can be seen as a useful tool to make sure everyone’s head is in the right place to get work done. Work fatigue is a topic often carefully ignored, but it’s more than possible to start to affect you. Importantly, life can too – and so it’s more than helpful to make your work as emotionally beneficial as you can.
