Creativity

I feel as if the older I get, the less creative I become.  In elementary through high school I was always in a class that encouraged free thinking and had teachers that frequently utilized various methods to support different styles of learning.  As a child I was labeled “creative”.  Now, I wonder how that was ever me.  Because I have been so focused on a “non-creative” field for so long (accounting), I find it challenging to promote creative thinking and become frustrating when forced into those situations.  It comes most naturally to me when I’m doing something I enjoy but if a professor tells me to brainstorm, I tend to clam up. I’m not sure if it’s because I know it’s not a real world scenario and thus don’t take it seriously or if I have just been out of creative situations for too long that I have gotten of the practice.  It has gotten to the point where creativity feels like work and that’s never fun. I think I need something to inspire me. In past experience, environment does play a big role in it.  Being outdoors, or having stimulating things around me, increases my creativity.  However, I have also found that even if in an uninspiring environment, having people around me who I respect and who have great ideas of their own, can encourage me to think outside the box and increases me desire to contribute an idea of equal, or higher, caliber. 

From my brief experience as an audit intern for one of the Big Four public accounting firms, I’m not sure that public accounting has the opportunity to be particularly creative.  The main creative focus would be during the fraud brainstorming phase, which I did not partake in. However, based off of practice sessions in my fraud class, I will say it is difficult to think like a white collar criminal. Because accounting is such a rules based process, there is little room for creativity.  There can only be one way to present each part of the financial statements based on the company’s situation and there can be no wiggle room without it leading to a misrepresentation.  The environment itself does have the potential to spur creativity if that was needed, as I worked in teams at a large conference table.  It was easy to ask questions and throw ideas around with coworkers.  We were even encouraged to discuss what we were working on and it was very open. 

I definitely believe I’m capable of being creative- I think everyone is, sometimes it’s just more difficult than other times. That extends to groups within an organization.  Groups are often more helpful to me as they give you ideas that you can bounce off of. Instead of starting form complete scratch, you can develop off of ideas already put out there.  Often, it’s incredibly tough for me to come up with something out of thin air, but I’m frequently able expand off of other’s ideas to develop an even better answer or solution.  Hopefully, as I improve on my creativity, I’ll be able to start producing the ideas that spark other people.

I thought the “How to Be Creative” article was fantastic.  It gives hope to those of us who feel like there is no hope of creativity in our beings.  I liked that he discussed various ways to promote creative thinking, even the kind that can come in flashes.  The “moments of insight” come much more easily to me than being in a situation where I need to come up with ideas right then and there.  The kind of creativity that requires consistent work, consisting mostly of “sweat and failure” as Lehrer mentions, is absolutely not fun.  At all. When forced, I am certainly capable but tend to dislike it.  I have friends, particularly those in majors within the communication school, that get a thrill out of brainstorming creative ideas and designing various scenarios for solutions to a problem.  I, on the other hand, do not think that way. It stresses me out, in work and school settings, when there is not a specific answer to a problem.  That is probably why I chose to major in accounting and am about to start my career in an area that is based solely off of generally accepted accounting principles and how well financial statements apply those.  Right now, I would honestly prefer to be studying for the CPA exam over even writing about creative thought.  It doesn’t come naturally to me most of the time so it is exciting to read about ways to improve my thought process. 

The point Jobs made about creativity revolving around connecting things was very insightful.  Maybe I should be reading more magazines than just Real Simple. Maybe I need to expand my interests and investigate more into what my friends’ jobs are like.  I have realized that the more I know about something, the more interesting it tends to become because I have a better understanding of it.  Who knew the oil and gas industry could be so fascinating?  Perhaps opening my mind to new interests is the key to improving my creative thinking.  While the firm I was with is a great company and I very much enjoyed my time there, starting out we are pretty much solely exposed to our line of business.  The accountants in the audit field at the staff level, in my experience, did not even speak with other accountants in different fields, let alone employees in other parts of the company. 

Based off what I read, my mind should naturally direct me to what kind of creativity I need at the time.  I think I just need to trust how I am feeling. Am I close to finding a solution and should continue to push myself, or is it time to take to take a break and let my mind wander? I am pretty in tune with myself and when I am feeling each way, should just be aware of how I am leaning and go with that.  Hopefully it will lead to less stress in the creative process and to some great ideas.