Creativity and original thinking have driven humanity to extraordinary heights of discovery and achievements. Leaders in every field, be it Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Walt Disney or Rosalind Franklin, who contributed to make the world better, have exhibited this. They all had one thing in common-their ability to think outside the box and consider possibilities.

Characteristics of original thinkers

According to Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, original thinkers are distinguished by three main aspects. Firstly, they tend to start their tasks somewhat late. In fact, procrastinating can turn out to be a virtue when it comes to creativity. The task stays at the back of one’s mind, allowing new ideas to start springing up slowly over time, leading to a creativity boost. Margaret Atwood, a celebrated writer, used to procrastinate her writing till late afternoon, only to start working on her manuscripts in a frenzy, that subsequently turned award winning. Secondly, original thinkers doubt their ideas and fear the outcome, that eventually leads them to improve their plans.  The third characteristic is that original thinkers have the ability to suddenly take a fresh look at something they have seen many times earlier. This is called Vuja De.   One starts to see things he has not seen before that ends up making the presentation more innovative.

 

Creative minds- what sets them apart

People who think out of the box are brave enough to try out new things, though there lies a risk of failure. They are willing to try and put in the work to make every idea succeed, and they do not give up even if unsuccessful. They are constantly, tirelessly generating new ideas and working on them. Great thinkers are not born with a more powerful memory or intellect: they just possess the gift of tirelessly working toward their goal with a stubbornly hopeful attitude. Failure does not affect them. Originals thinkers have failed the most because they have tried the most.

 

How can one become an original thinker

To make our minds like that of an original thinker, we need to change the way we perceive failure. We have to take all our failures and defeats in our stride and look at future possibilities with a bright mind and an undefeatable spirit. We need to start doubting and reconsidering our ideas and the steps taken, rather than doubt ourselves and lose all motivation.
Do not target to finish your work before the deadline; rather take it slowly, drawing inspiration from ideas of other creative individuals. Cumulative thoughts, nurtured over time, will gradually result in a gush of your own creative ideas.
We can easily identify an original thinker as they stand up and speak up and have the courage to change the world. So if we put all things together, what we see is that originals are not that different from the rest of us. We should always know that being quick to start and slow to finish can boost our creativity, that we can motivate ourselves by doubting our ideas and eliminating the fear of failure. There would always be multiple ideas not worth implementing in the process of finding the good ones; but that should not prevent us from trying.

 

 

About the authors

The article has been contributed by the following students from St. Joseph’s High School, Matigara, Darjeeling: Archeesha Prasad, Megha Roy and Sanbartika Shaw.