Creativity Is All About Little Things

We often have this mistaken idea that a creative idea is a big idea. For example, the invention of manned flight, the cure for polio, the creation of the World Wide Web, and the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. True, those are enormous creative concepts, but true creativity is founded on a principle of little discoveries…the small treasures we find when we envision creativity as “looking for the small, not just the big.”

Discovering a synonym for “said” in the novel we’re writing. Mixing three colors together for the sunset in a landscape painting we’re working on. Purchasing a new tie, not because it’s fashionable, but because it’s “cool.” Discovering that a paper clip can be used to repair a broken toy. Looking for little acts of creativity is just as significant (if not more so) than the big creative projects. Lots of little creative acts get us in the habit of making creativity a normal and natural part of our daily lives rather than just an event that happens on rare occasions.

Stephen Guise, in his book Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results, makes a case for the power of small habits rather than our overreliance on large, wieldy, and often weighty big habits. He makes a valid point when he says, “Big intentions are worthless if they don’t bring results.” For example, we may make a resolution to lose 50 pounds this year, but we often find ourselves giving up (sooner rather than later) because the perceived goal was much too large. Guise emphatically states that most people “have big ambitions but overestimate their ability to make themselves do what it takes to change.”

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Creativity as a Daily Activity

Early in the book, Guise makes two clear and penetrating points: “1) Doing a little bit is infinitely bigger and better than doing nothing, and 2) doing a little bit every day has a greater impact than doing a lot on one day.” Now, let’s put that in terms of our personal creativity: 1) Looking for one little piece of creativity is better than doing nothing at all, and 2) looking for a little (creative) thing every day is much more effective and practical than trying to generate a very large idea every so often. The point is clear—a determination to make creativity a regular and normal part of our daily activities prepares our minds to be ready for those times when we need a really large idea in our work or our everyday lives.

The same holds true for our children. When we offer them opportunities to make creativity a regular part of their development and education, we send a powerful signal that creativity doesn’t just happen every so often but can be a normal (even daily) part of our intellectual functioning.

It’s important to note that the “little things” philosophy of creativity is a passionate embrace of the growth mindset—a way we have of breaking through the educational, cultural, and personal forces that frequently squelch our creative impulses. By contrast, those with a fixed mindset often miss all the small ideas. Frustrated by their inability to locate large ideas (often few and far between), they retreat into the “I’m just not creative” zone and, consequently, languish in a permanent state of staid practices and beliefs. Yet, researchers have found that the transition from an “I’m just not creative” (fixed) mindset to an “I’m working on being more creative” (growth) mindset involves a continuous commitment to improvement. No matter the amount or intensity of the lifelong factors that have depressed our natural creative spirit, they can always be overcome.

With tiny steps.

This commitment—an ongoing series of small changes—may well be one of the most defining features of a creative life. Discovering a new way home from work that bypasses the usual 5:00 p.m. traffic jam, augmenting your favorite Sloppy Joe recipe with the addition of a teaspoon of chili powder, helping your child discover an interesting way of multiplying two-digit numbers, adding hosta plants to the perimeter of your garden to give it more green, and putting on a new pair of silver earrings to compliment an equally dazzling new outfit are all innovative. True, they won’t win any Nobel prizes or get your face on the cover of TIME magazine, but they are no less creative.