Ten Paradoxical Traits of Creative People

2008 September 30

Psychology Today Says

When we’re creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. The excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab comes dose to the ideal fulfillment we all hope to get from life, and so rarely do. Perhaps only sex, sports, music, and religious ecstasy–even when these experiences remain fleeting and leave no trace–provide a profound sense of being part of an entity greater than ourselves. But creativity also leaves an outcome that adds to the richness and complexity of the future.

  1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest.
  2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.
  3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
  4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.
  5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.
  6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time.
  7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.
  8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.
  9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
  10. Creative people’s openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.

[Source: Psychology Today]

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4 Responses leave one →
  1. 2008 September 30
    SMC permalink

    i can completely understand what u mean…u know why coz my creative instincts allow me to do so…lol

    cx: Hmmm…. Thanks :)

  2. 2008 September 30

    Very interesting! Trying to see if it applies to all the well known creative people we know…
    Creative people ‘escape rigid gender role stereotyping’ . Agree.

    cx: Yes Mam

  3. 2008 October 1

    It’s because creative people stretch the limits. At some point ‘intelligence’ meant ‘being able to hold two opposite and opposing ideas as truth simultaneously,’ or something along those lines.

    Hey Lucien, if you think so you’ll love this piece of ad from Apple.

    Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
    The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.
    They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
    You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
    disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
    Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal.
    They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
    Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
    Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

  4. 2008 October 1

    I must be semi-creative…

    cx: Don, LOL :)

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