Creativity is a verb sandwiched between nouns.

What is creativity? Is it nurtured and cared for throughout your formative years, or is it a genetic trait passed down from artistic parents to their offspring?

Creativity is sometimes made into a yes or no question, a black-and-white observance — you either got it or you don’t. Have you heard these sentences come out of your mouth or one of your friends, classmates, or siblings?

“I’m not creative.”

“I wasn’t born with that ability.”

“Creativity is not something I’m good at.”

These are the unhelpful tropes: excuses used to absolve ourselves from the responsibility creative work demands. Creativity is a human trait. It separates us from all other mammals — the ability to look at an obstacle, conceptualize, and deliver various solutions depending on the context. As humans, we actively seek out problems to solve and, in the process, create culture, industry, and societies out of the ideas in our heads.

Creativity is not for a class of people; it is for everyone.

Creativity is a skill, and we need to think about it as we do any other competence; it is an ability requiring practice, failure, time, and progression. The artist was once an amateur, the musician was once a pupil, and the builder was once an apprentice…