The  creative man

As reflected in reality, we see the creative individual as possessing a unique self-image, comprising creative skills and unique world-views, as well as possessing a motivation and a desire to act, utilizing these skills, to attain goals that actualize his world-view.

Due to man’s imperfection, we find people with creative talents, at different levels and domains; domains that may be wide or narrow, and at times, even very narrow. A creative person may belong to one of two main groups:

• A person whose creative activity does not realize his purpose. We shall call him a person possessing creative skills and qualities.
• A person whose creative activity does realize his purpose. We shall refer to him as the positive creative individual

Since the  positive creative person's product naturally expresses true Good, he must possess suitable qualities and capabilities. 
 

The primary creative and motivating forces, which realize man’s purpose

Basic motivating forces
Love and its sub-values: high self worth; spiritual maturity; social forces
Tactical motivating forces
Need; cause; dissatisfaction.

Basic creative forces
Creation and its sub-values; understanding, imagination and α and β consciousness; spiritual channels; intuitive and associative forces.
Tactical creative forces
Creative thinking; creative realization

Note: Since basic creative and motivating forces have already been elucidated in this website, we shall furnish further detail only on the tactical motivating and creative forces.

Tactical motivating forces

Every action has a cause, which by its very nature, is based on the urge to express Good, whether it is false or genuine. Our awareness that a particular thing or condition is, in reality, not an expression of genuine Good, triggers the appearance of the cause. The abilities which encourage this are: scrutinizing reality with a critical eye, as well as a degree of sensitivity, enabling one to detect that reality which is not an expression of Good.

Another thing that may cause us to act is an emerging feeling of dissatisfaction, leading the creative individual to reject something, while on the other hand, expressing a need and a wish to instigate original improvements, bringing into existence an improved product, or which constructs the basis for an improved reality. We shall refer to this as creative dissatisfaction. This feeling brings the creative individual to seek out answers and to activate his highly developed creative abilities to furnish ideas and solutions for attaining the sought-after improvement. 

Tactical creative forces

 Creative thinking
  Curiosity
In order to be creative, you must first be curious. A creative person is usually active in the domains, which awaken his curiosity. Curiosity combines an investigative mind with a clear, developed imagination. A creative individual usually possesses an unquenchable curiosity on the one hand, and initiative and a drive to solve the topic of his curiosity on the other. When you are curious and release your creative imagination, you find yourself searching most of the time (without being aware of it) for things that require improvement and take actual steps to improve them.
If you are interested in cultivating your creativity, simply grow curious: ask unique questions, based on the word “why”. Facts demonstrate that children are extremely curious, and therefore are also creative. The tremendous quantity of information a child picks up in his first five years, can be put down to his curiosity.  

 Originality

This is another of a creative person’s traits. Originality promotes creativity and inventiveness. Routine life and following the masses dampen both creativity and inventiveness.

 An original individual possesses an independent way of thinking. He rejects conventional solutions that are inadequate in his eyes, and is therefore occupied, most of the time, in seeking out original and improved answers.

 An original individual investigates the unknown, apparently in order to complete what has not yet been completed. In doing so, he discovers new domains, enabling him to realize the urge to invent, and provides the world with something new and original. Such a person frequently expresses his dissatisfaction with the current state of things, which in turn increases his motivation to explore the unknown, in order to bring about an improvement in the current situation.

 It can certainly be said that when an individual is satisfied, he does not arrive at discoveries, except by accident.

 Nobody can be original in every domain; it is therefore preferable for each person to choose those topics, which particularly interest him, in which to express his creativity and originality.

An original individual’s creative qualities
Frank Baron, from California’s Berkley Institute notes that the qualities, which characterize an original, creative individual are: intelligence, creative imagination, initiative, unquenchable curiosity, wide ranging knowledge, being occupied with essential problems, social activity, a dominant personality and eloquence.

 Morphological thinking

Einstein once said, as regards the dangers man and the world face: A new type of thinking is necessary to rescue humanity. He called this “morphological thinking”, which is an approach of looking at the whole. It looks at things from an international perspective, rather than from a national one, as characterized the world until then. If we want to be saved, both as human beings and as a nation, we must take into account everything relating to these two factors. It is frequently good, even crucial, to examine an emerging problem in accordance with this view.

 Openness

This is a creative person’s quality, or unique capacity, which elevates his creativity. Specifically, we are discussing a quality or ability, thanks to which a person can accept any idea or message as being of value and store them with no emotional or intellectual resistance (such as: criticism, bias or rejection) until they have been sufficiently scrutinized. It can also be said that his lack of resistance and his positive approach towards the idea, promote the acceptance of additional ideas.
 Freedom from prejudices.

A prejudiced opinion is one of the primary factors, bearing a negative influence on an individual’s creativity. A prejudiced opinion may form a considerable barrier, obstructing those ideas that may lead to an improved outlook.

                            Further details on attaining suitable ideas

 In order to receive suitable ideas for solving a problem, we must first define the goal we wish to achieve as well as the interference that prevents its attainment. We usually resist new ideas. This resistance will significantly diminish if we become aware of these two elements.

 Think of an ideal solution to your problem; this way, you will reach ideas that guide you towards a solution, which isn’t far off from this ideal one.

 Write down every idea that crops up, otherwise you will forget it.

Note: These ideas also constitute a basis for the appearance of new ones, which may solve other problems.

 Summary: A creative individual possesses a highly developed associative capability. This faculty, along with the qualities and abilities detailed above, including his keen resourcefulness, lead him to arrive at many more correct conclusions and decisions than an average person does, and at a faster rate. Therefore he is the most suitable for dealing with creative activity, which realizes the true Good.

Creative realization and its forces
How should you create?

Having detailed the capacities and capabilities essential to creative thinking, we are now ready to stride towards the attainment of our end-product.

 In order to perform these steps, we require first and foremost, initiative, sensitivity to our surrounding conditions and flexibility. We must possess the ability to execute correct decisions, and in order to do so, we must erect alternatives from which to choose. And finally: we must resist the pressure to satisfy ourselves with either “thinking small”, based on lacking knowledge or on a false world-view.

 Initiative

Initiative marks the commencement of every creative actualization. It is a sort of potential energy, which may exist within any of us. When a link is formed between our initiative and the problem to be solved, this potential energy should be released.

 The first step towards releasing your initiative, depends on the interest you have in the problem and on your need to solve it. The true release will occur once the person decides to take some form of useful step towards solving the problem. If you are one of those who find it hard to initiate, seek out a problem of interest to you and attempt to solve it.

A creative person of initiative’s characteristics
Courage   
Enthusiasm: Plays a sizable role in the appearance of an initiative and in its release. A basic enthusiasm is crucial in order to solve the problem which confronts you.

 Adventurousness: Usually stems from the urge and actual investigation of the unknown, as well as the desire to obtain unconventional solutions.
Sensitivity is the ability to identify problems that need to be solved. Creative people see not only that which does exist, but also what could exist. A sensitive person asks more questions than an average one. The more you ask, the more your creative sensibility will develop. Every question uncovers a previously unclear attribute.

 Summary: Sensitivity enables one to deal better with the conditions in which creative activity occurs.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the capacity to adapt to unfamiliar situations. Prejudices diminish your flexibility. Increasing your flexibility will lead to reducing the tendency to be confined by your prejudices.

Exploiting opportunities
 A person has to be sensitive enough to identify an opportunity  its right timing, and to be brave enough to take a calculated risk and act. There are those who claim that being proficient at exploiting opportunities is more important than being an expert problem solver. In order to efficiently seize an opportunity, you also have to know what you want, and a brief glance from time to time furnishes you with enough information to make the most of the opportunities, which come your way.

                                                                 A correct decision
 A decision is a delicate and vital step in the creative process.
 Making a decision activates many of man’s spiritual forces. This is a process, which takes place subconsciously. What reaches our awareness is its end result. Highly complicated activity happens in our brains in order to reach this result. “The quality of a decision can only be as good as the information it relies on” is a familiar saying, related to this topic.
Additional factors that bear an influence over a decision’s quality are, among others: our experience, our personality and the Universal Mind’s degree of involvement. Its’ involvement is obstructed, among other factors, by our desire to reject the types of thoughts that stem from this source.

Rashness is one of the forces that lead to faulty decisions. Since a decision is a spiritual process, it requires time to mature.
 A correct decision is one, which takes into account all of a particular situation’s factors as well as their relationship to each other.

 Use morphological thinking to attain your ideas and opinions, as raw material from which to form your decision. One of the principles for choosing your ideas correctly is to ensure that they do indeed relate to the same problem. You also have to examine whether you can carry out your ideas efficiently and safely. An additional and important factor to be considered is the cost involved.

Execute your decision while you are calm.
 A person may feel well after making a right decision, and unwell after making a bad one.

Every decision, which works in opposition to the fulfillment of man’s basic needs is always a faulty decision according to Prof. Maslow (whose theories of self-actualization and the hierarchy of human needs are the cornerstone of modern humanistic psychology). These needs include the following areas:
Physiological needs;           
The need for safety and security;
The need to belong;
The need for love and respect.

Further considerations in making the right decision are: Whether the decision is indeed necessitated; Does it achieve its essential purpose in the best possible way; Does it rely on faulty information – facts that were correct yesterday may be wrong today; Is the decision sufficiently balanced. Namely, does it not entail considerable risks and problems; Can you justify it by logical analysis.

 In order to ensure that you have indeed taken into account all of the factors involved, do not rely only on your own ideas; be as open as you can to others’ opinion. Enlist the other to the decision process by requesting for his ideas, and your problem will become his problem too.

 In the book “How to make the right decisions” by John .D. Arnold and Bert Tompkins (Ballantine Books, New York), you will find, among other things, a systematic detailing of seven steps for reaching a correct decision.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
Albert Einstein

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
Albert Einstein

All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord.
Earl Nightingale

All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.
Albert Einstein

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Albert Einstein

 I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious
Albert Einstein

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.
Albert EinsteiN

Everything begins with an idea.
Earl Nightingale

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.
Napoleon Hill

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.
Napoleon Hill

Every really new idea looks crazy at first.
Abraham H. Maslow

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known   that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.
  Baruch Spinoza

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
Albert Einstein

Knowing is not enough; we must apply!
Goethe

It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to
Walter Linn

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.
Benjamin Disraeli

The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
Maimonides

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.
 Wolfgang von Goethe