Everybody Wants to Be Creative.

The Truth Is, You Already Are.

Creativity isn’t something you learn. It’s something you were born with. Every one of you.

Before you could walk, talk, or tie your shoes, you relied on creativity to navigate the world. You experimented constantly — crying to get attention, mimicking sounds to connect, stacking blocks just to see how tall they’d go before toppling. You weren’t doing any of this to make art. You were learning how to survive, how to belong, how to become yourself.

Creativity isn’t just performance. It’s instinct first and foremost. It’s how we figure out what works and what doesn’t. It’s how we adapt. And it’s something you’ve used all your life, whether or not you’ve called it that.

And yet, most adults will tell you they aren’t creative.

Yes, it can feel hard. But that’s not because you’re not creative. It’s because you’ve been trained to second-guess your own nature.

What Happened?

By the time we reach adulthood, many of us have learned to treat creativity like a rare talent — something you either have or you don’t, something reserved for artists or designers or the “creative team” at work.

Creativity isn’t a job title. It’s a way of thinking. And it used to be your native language.

Back in the 1960s, researcher George Land conducted a landmark study for NASA to identify creative potential. He tested 1,600 children at age five, and astonishingly, 98% of them scored in the “creative genius” range.

But as these children grew, that number plummeted: by age ten, only 30% remained in that range; by age fifteen, just 12%.

When Land gave the same test to adults, only 2% scored as creative geniuses.

What changed?

According to Land, “non-creative behavior is learned.” In other words, we don’t lose our creativity — we’re taught to suppress it.

How We Unlearn Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson, a leading thinker on education and creativity, argued that our schools are designed to produce conformity and compliance, not innovation. In his famous TED Talk, he said, “We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.”

Traditional education rewards right answers over bold thinking. It prioritizes efficiency over exploration. Mistakes are marked in red, and risk-taking is discouraged. Over time, we learn to avoid the unknown, to stick to the script, to play it safe.

Our natural curiosity and willingness to experiment, the very essence of creativity, get pushed aside.

Psychologists call this the shift from “divergent thinking” (generating many possible solutions) to “convergent thinking” (finding the one right answer).

School and society often emphasize the latter, and in doing so, we gradually lose confidence in our creative instincts.

Think about it, when did you first start doubting your creative choices? Was it a bad grade? A parent’s offhand remark? A manager who dismissed your idea? Or just a blank page that made you freeze?

There is nothing like criticism to kill emerging creativity in any of us … keep that in mind the next time you offer critique.

You’re Already Doing It

If you’ve ever turned a pointless meeting into something meaningful, tackled a task that stretched your comfort zone, or had to figure it out on the fly…you’ve been creative.

Creativity isn’t limited to painting or poetry. It’s there when you solve problems, design your day, come up with metaphors to explain a complex idea, or reframe a tough situation. These are creative acts and proof that your creative mind is still alive and well.

We need to stop treating creativity like a luxury or a personality trait. It’s not decorative. It’s foundational. Some people may have spent more time nurturing it, but to say you’re not creative is like saying you don’t respond to the world around you.

Creativity is how we adapt, connect, and make meaning, whether we realize we’re doing it or not.

How to Reclaim Your Creativity

If you want to reconnect with your creative self, you don’t need a blank canvas or a new job title. You just need to give yourself permission to explore again.

In George Land’s TEDx talk, he concludes by challenging his audience: “Tomorrow do an exercise, pick up a table fork, turn your 5-year-old on, and come up with 25 or 30 ideas on how to improve that table fork.”

Here are a few other ways to start:

Make Space for Play Set aside a few minutes each day to do something just for fun. Sketch, doodle, write, build, or tinker. No goals, no judgments.

Embrace Mistakes Try something new and let yourself get it wrong. See mistakes as experiments, not failures.

Switch Up Your Routine Break out of your habits. Take a different route to work, cook a new recipe, or try exploring your neighborhood as if you’re a tourist. Novelty sparks new connections in your brain.

Ask “What If?” Challenge yourself to imagine alternatives. What if you rearranged your workspace? What if you solved a problem in a completely new way?

Collaborate and Share Creativity thrives in community. Share your ideas, brainstorm with others, and build on what emerges.

None of this needs to be precious or perfect. In fact, the more playful and low-stakes it is, the more powerful it becomes.

Creativity Isn’t a Side Project. It’s a Way of Moving Through the World.

You are the result of a creative act. You grew by being curious, by trying things, by responding to what worked and what didn’t. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed is how much you trust yourself to do it.

So try something. Try anything. You don’t need permission. You just need a little space to explore again.

You’re already creative. You always have been.